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5.0
The saying “fascism is the aestheticization of politics” is often attributed to Walter Benjamin, and this book documents how this philosophy shaped Germany when it came to power. Michaud starts by quoting the exhortation to artists to “Be free!”, by the 19th century politician and critic, Jules-Antoine Castagnary. Michaud says this imperative was the ‘implacable double bind on which that liberalist and individualist order was founded. […] Nazism would sort out this paradox in its own way by installing an artist-führer, who alone would assume this problematic liberty, thereby delivering the artistic community of the people from what Hitler himself called “the burden of liberty.”’ As Goring said “I have no conscience! My conscience is called Adolf Hitler.”
The first Nazi government of Germany was “composed of members half of whom are men who originally intended to devote themselves to some kind of creative work”. So Hitler was not the odd man out as an artist. Nazism was a myth of national salvation, based on faith, not reason. To instil this faith, it drew on different sources including Christianity. In 1933 Dietrich Bonhoeffer was already denouncing the portrayal of Hitler a messiah. As Nazism gained strength, it took over Christian rituals, for example replacing baptism by naming ceremonies with Nazi paraphernalia. Other sources obviously included Wagner, who had demanded that art should become a religion. Not all types of art had a single Nazi style. For example, although government and ceremonial buildings were neoclassical, modernism was favoured for factories.
Nazism was totalitarian in the sense of seeking to dominate all aspects of life, and this book, including its impressive photographs, conveys how it did so.
The first Nazi government of Germany was “composed of members half of whom are men who originally intended to devote themselves to some kind of creative work”. So Hitler was not the odd man out as an artist. Nazism was a myth of national salvation, based on faith, not reason. To instil this faith, it drew on different sources including Christianity. In 1933 Dietrich Bonhoeffer was already denouncing the portrayal of Hitler a messiah. As Nazism gained strength, it took over Christian rituals, for example replacing baptism by naming ceremonies with Nazi paraphernalia. Other sources obviously included Wagner, who had demanded that art should become a religion. Not all types of art had a single Nazi style. For example, although government and ceremonial buildings were neoclassical, modernism was favoured for factories.
Nazism was totalitarian in the sense of seeking to dominate all aspects of life, and this book, including its impressive photographs, conveys how it did so.
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