Culture War - Hitler's Speeches on Art

Between 1933 and 1939 - on the occasion of exhibition openings at the Haus der Deutschen Kunst in Munich and at cultural meetings at the Nuremberg party conferences - Adolf Hitler made a series of programmatic speeches on art and cultural politics. An abridged collection of these speeches on culture [1] was published by Verlag Revolver - Archiv für aktuelle Kunst in October 2004, as part of the series »Kunst Propaganda Dokumente«. In his introductory essay, »Das Kunstwerk Rasse« (Race as Artwork), Boris Groys shows that the real work of art of the Third Reich was to be art-consumers themselves. Race theory is thus absolutely central to Hitler's discourse on art, which is defined by a paradoxical dual approach: the instrumentalisation of art for political ends (art as propaganda) and more especially, though little remarked upon until now, the intrumentalisation of politics for artistic ends (art as the telos of politics). This one-day symposium will present the central concepts of Hitler’s »art theory,« including a discussion on how the powerful historical impact of these speeches may be explained.

During the event, the ZKM will present for the first time the surviving film and sound recordings of the speeches, and also H. Feierabend’s colour film on the Day of German Art in Munich in 1939. This audio and video material will be available to participants and visitors outside the Media Theatre from 3pm onwards.

[1] Adolf Hitler: »Reden zur Kunst- und Kulturpolitik 1933 - 1939« [Speeches on Art and Cultural Policy 1933-1939]. Edited and commented by Robert Eikmeyer with an introduction by Boris Groys; published in the »Kunst Propaganda Dokumente« [Art Propaganda Documents] series by Revolver - Archiv für aktuelle Kunst, Frankfurt am Main. ISBN 3-86588-000-2, E 19