The political elite of Nazi Germany perceived itself as a cultural elite as well. This work explores the elite's cultural aspirations by examining both the formulation of a national aesthetic policy and the content of the private art collections held by high-ranking Nazis. The author demonstrates that these leaders manipulated public policy and their own collecting patterns to articulate fundamental tenets of Nazi ideology. The work begins by tracing the evolution of aesthetic policy from the purges of museum staff and academics labelled as ""undesirable"" in 1933 to the confiscation of Jewish-owned artworks in the late 1930s and the organized plundering of art from occupied areas during the war. The author then reconstructs the collections of prominent Nazi officials - including Hitler, Goring, Goebbels, Himmler, Speer, and Ribbentrop - and argues that their private holdings defined their relationships to one another within the Nazi hierachy in addition to reflecting their racist and nationalist beliefs. According to the author, art collecting offered the political elite a way to achieve legitimacy and social standing, thereby providing a common cultural language for the leaders of the Third Reich.
Jonathan Petropoulos is associate professor of history at Loyola College in Baltimore, Maryland.
A masterpiece of "real historiography based on extensive research in primary sources concerning National Socialist Art policy throughout the globe."Contemporary Austrian Studies" A masterpiece of _real_ historiography based on extensive research in primary sources concerning National Socialist Art policy throughout the globe."Contemporary Austrian Studies" A masterpiece of areala[ historiography based on extensive research in primary sources concerning National Socialist Art policy throughout the globe."Contemporary Austrian Studies" A masterpiece of real historiography based on extensive research in primary sources concerning National Socialist Art policy throughout the globe."Contemporary Austrian Studies" A must in the library of anyone who writes, thinks, wonders and puzzles about the years between 1933 and 1945."Trans-Atlantic Dialogue: Newsletter of the American Council on Germany" "A must in the library of anyone who writes, thinks, wonders and puzzles about the years between 1933 and 1945."Trans-Atlantic Dialogue: Newsletter of the American Council on Germany"" A masterpiece of TrealU historiography based on extensive research in primary sources concerning National Socialist Art policy throughout the globe."Contemporary Austrian Studies" An excellent source of information about art theft and destruction by the self-styled cultural elite of Nazi Germany."American Historical Review" This is a thoroughly researched and extremely useful work."Contemporary Sociology" This work is a commendable embodiment of years of diligent research."German Studies Review"
