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ART IN THE THIRD REICH

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ART IN THE THIRD REICH
"ART IN THE THIRD REICH"
Group of 28 issues of "Die Kunst im Dritten Reich" ("Art in the Third Reich"), (Munich: Zentralverlag der NSDAP, Franz Eher Nachf), the official art magazine of the NSDAP. This publication was founded in January 1937 by ADOLF WAGNER , a close friend of Hitler's and Gauleiter of Munich and Upper Bavaria. From July 1937, the publication received national distribution by the NSDAP's central publishing office, and was produced under the direction of FRITZ TODT, ALBERT SPEER, Professor Richard Klein, and architect Leonhard Gall. The publication was intended to promote the National Socialist ideal of art, which emphasized pastoralism, heroism, neoclassicism, realism, idealized Aryan figures, monumental architecture, and, above all, national unity. By contrast, modernism, abstraction, surrealism, and expressionism in art were all suppressed, sometimes violently. The issues featured here date from the November 1938 edition through to the October 1941 issue. The group contains the full run of the magazine between the above dates, with the exception of the issues for March and April of 1939; and May, August, and September of 1940. Of the 28 issues presented here, nine are "Ausgabe" B, with the architectural supplement. Two copies of the January 1939 issue are present. Each issue measures 11"x 14", and contains very high quality color and monochrome photographs, mostly full-page, of NSDAP-approved artworks by artists such as the neoclassical sculptor ARNO BREKER, architect HERMANN GIESLER, and painter ADOLF ZIEGLER. With the outbreak and progression of World War II, more and more military-themed works are featured, emphasizing Germany's war gains and the heroism of her soldiers. Some issues have rubbed or split spines, minor foxing, tears to the covers, or other defects, but all are intact, and the images contained within remain vibrant. Altogether, the group provides an excellent primer on the National Socialist aesthetic, and a window into an alternative artistic culture in which innovation and experimentation were frowned upon and suppressed.