The National Socialists developed their own understanding of art and interpreted the modern art of expressionism as »art of decline« and »alien«, which is characterised by pessimism. The destructive attack on modernity affected all branches of culture, not least artists and architects of different orientations. Ernst Barlach, Max Beckmann, Käthe Kollwitz and Oskar Kokoscha were among the countless artists and architects who were ostracized. Some paid for their dedication with brutal death, like city architect Kuno Kamphausen, milliner Elvira Sanders-Platz and painter Paul Wilhelm Kempa, who are presented in the lecture.

The speaker, Prelate Prof. Dr. Helmut Moll (Cologne), is the representative of the German Bishops' Conference for Martyrology of the 20th Century. His publications are waiting on a book table to be consulted. The basis of his lecture is his two-volume principal work »Zeugen für Christus. Das deutsche Martyrologium des 20. Jahrhunderts« [Witnesses for Christ. German Martyrology of the 20th Century].