[Literature & Art] [Entartete Kunst] Kaiser, Fritz. . Fuhrer durch die Austellung Entartete Kunst . . . zusammengestellt von der Reichspropagandaleitung, Amtsleitung Kulture. . Berlin: Verlag fur Kultur und Wirtschaftswerbung. [1937]. 8vo, 32 pp., original stapled pictorial wrappers, creasing, some soiling, spine separating at top and bottom. Contained in a deluxe custom red cloth and black leather box, very fine.



The original catalogue for the famous exhibition of "degenerate art" mounted by the German Reich. In 1937, Germany's Nazi government staged an exhibition in Munich entitled "Entartete Kunst"-the official designation given to all "modern art" which was not classicist or realist in nature. The exhibition was not merely designed to illustrate what the Nazis deemed "bad art," but had a political purpose. "Modern art" was deemed to be part of the overall assault on "German art" and culture by a Bolshevist-and largely Jewish-movement of "artists" who were working in tandem with the Communist movement to destroy German, and Western, civilization. Germany's art museums were scoured for such works, and were declared forfeit to the state. When the exhibition finally closed, this guide book, written by Fritz Kaiser, an official in the Reich Propaganda Ministry, was issued as a souvenir.