“Fascist Art and the Nazi Regime: The Use of Art to Enflame War” A thesis submitted to the Art History Faculty of the College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning University of Cincinnati In candidacy for the degree of Master of Arts in Art History Stephanie Petcavage April 2016 Thesis Chair: Dr. Todd Herzog Abstract For centuries, political leaders have used propaganda to promote ideology and acts of military aggression. In his studies of this concept, Walter Benjamin, in his aestheticization theory of historical experience and sense perception focused on Nazi Germany’s use of aesthetics politics and propaganda to redefine the political as the autonomous realm of absolute power over ethical norms. The Third Reich manipulated Nazi culture and aesthetics to create a backdrop for political ideology and the coordination of all cultural expressions during the Nazi period. Under Hitler and the realm of the Third Reich, fascist politics infiltrated the arts and film industry tapping its access to the masses. Two events most indicative of the exploitation of art for propaganda use were the Great German Art Exhibition and the syndication of Leni Riefenstahl’s film Triumph of the Will. Discussed in this paper is Hitler’s use of art as a tool to influence the populace and recruit support for his cause. Using a qualitative method and a sociological case study research design supported by a critical literature review and the conceptual framework of Benjamin’s theory of Aestheticization of Politics under German Fascism, I examine how Nazi propaganda, using the arts of the time selectively apportions acceptance of its social members. Acknowledgements Ever since my undergraduate studies at Kent State University, I have been enamored with the history and radical movement of the Nazi Regime and their use of art in propaganda. This thesis is an expanded research study on examining the exploitations of the visual arts for authoritarian administrative power. Philosopher Walter Benjamin theorizes on this subject of linking visual aesthetics and politics rendering to sense perception with specific focus on Nazi Germany. The Nazis recasts the political realm as the “aestheticization of politics.” Writers, such as Lutz Koepnick, Aristotle Kallis, and Martin Jay contribute support and extend Benjamin’s analysis of Nazi fascism. Each of their publications has been useful in the completion of my own research on the work of fascist aesthetics in Nazi Germany. I would like to extend my gratitude to The Mary Ann Meanwell Art History Research Support Fund, through the School of Art in the College of Design, Art, Architecture, and Planning at the University of Cincinnati. The funding provided by Mary Ann Meanwell helped defray academic costs in purchasing primary source materials about Leni Riefenstahl’s film legacy and propaganda in Nazi Germany. It also provided research-related travel expense to several libraries and archives for other related research. I am indebted to my thesis committee members. First, I want to thank Dr. Harold Herzog for giving me advice and encouragement. As my thesis chair and Director of Graduate Studies in the German Studies Department and Director of European Studies, he has helped me to understand the dense writings of Walter Benjamin and found time to look over my chapters and sit down for numerous meetings. I am grateful for Dr. Morgan Thomas for her time, dedication, and willingness to listen and offered her assistance throughout my thesis development. Dr. Kimberly Paice’s interest and enthusiasm for my subject area is also greatly appreciated. Table of Contents Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………..1 Literature Review………………………………………………………………………………….3 Chapter 1: Nazism and the Aestheticization of Politics………………………………………….10 Chapter 2: The Use of Film in Nazi Propaganda……………………………………………...…17 Chapter 3: The Use of Art in Nazi Propaganda………………………………………………….34 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………….……43 List of Illustrations…………………………………………………………………………….…47 Bibliography………………………………………………………………………………….….48 Illustrations………………………………………………………………………………………52 Introduction Literature expounds on examples of political propaganda used to promote ideology and acts of military aggression. Philosophers have theorized a strong link between aesthetics and politics. The politicization of aesthetics implies the redefining of the state as the authenticity of its proletariat culture; art is ultimately subordinate to political life. Walter Benjamin, a German Jewish philosopher and cultural critic, theorizes on this subject with specific focus on Nazi Germany. Benjamin sees the aim of aesthetics politics to be the redefining of the political as the autonomous realm of absolute power over ethical norms.1 Benjamin’s aestheticization theory of historical experience and sense perception with its Nazi Germany focus is a historical phenomenon. Lutz Koepnick, author of Walter Benjamin and the Aesthetics of Power, argued that neither pre- nor post-fascist societies evolved similar structures as those that facilitated fascist aestheticization to effect the ultimately catastrophic role achieved in Nazi Germany.2 In his essay, “The Work of Art in The Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” Benjamin lamented the loss of the aura of originality to fascist aesthetic politics that mobilized the lives of the masses. The power of autonomous agency and self-assertion was stripped from the masses and transferred to a charismatic political leader.3 The Third Reich manipulated Nazi culture and aesthetics as if creating the backdrop for political ideology and the coordination of all cultural expressions during the Nazi period. This manipulation as highly choreographed; military parades and mass rallies were lavish. Elongated swastika banners hung in the massive halls of the Third Reich. Filmmakers such as Leni Riefenstahl used idiosyncratic techniques such as close-up shots of crowd scenes surging forth 1 Lutz Koepnick, Walter Benjamin and the Aesthetics of Power (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1999), 3. 2 Ibid., 13. 3 Ibid., 118. 1 after Nazi speeches. Exploiting the power of the visual, the operatic extravaganzas of Nazi culture and aesthetics remain today in the postmodern imaginations.4 World War I changed the German artistic landscape forever. Politics had infiltrated the arts and film industry tapping its access to the masses. By the end of the war, the government was developing films to use as propaganda tools.5 World War I set the stage for uprisings, economic collapse, and the rise of Hitler and the Nazis. Adolf Hitler took advantage of the troubled economic times of the Weimar Republic to indoctrinate public opinion using the arts. In his aestheticization thesis, Benjamin saw this as a Nazi attempt to recast the political realm as picturesque in order to compensate for disenchantment. Two events in which this was most evident were in the Great German Art Exhibition and the syndication of Leni Riefenstahl’s film Triumph of the Will. Both were used to familiarize the population with the acceptable beliefs and idealisms of the time. Discussed in this paper is Hitler’s use of art as a tool to influence the populace and recruit support for his cause. Using a qualitative method and a sociological case study research design supported by a critical literature review and the conceptual framework of Benjamin’s theory of Aestheticization of Politics Under German Fascism, I examined how Nazi propaganda selectively apportioned acceptance of its social members. Fascist Nazi propaganda was designed with such skill as to explicitly identify what was acceptable to the Aryan society, while implicitly through exclusion, identifying the interloper. 4 Lutz Koepnick, Walter Benjamin and the Aesthetics of Power, 1. 5 Thomas G. Plummer, Film and Politics in the Weimar Republic (Minneapolis: Holmes & Meier Publication, 1982), 25. 2 Review of Literature Propaganda and War In its most impartial sense, propaganda is used to disseminate or promote an idea. In “Semantics and Ethics of Propaganda”, Jay Black examined the social psychology and semantics of propaganda, noting the influence propaganda has on individual ethics, belief systems and values. Over time the word has taken on an undesirable overtone, as it is generally associated with military aggression and “the deliberate, systematic attempt to shape perceptions, manipulate cognitions, and direct behavior to achieve a response that furthers the desired intent of the propagandist.”6 Human history abounds with instances of propaganda tracing back to ancient Greece for philosophical and theoretical beginnings. Propaganda & Persuasion, written by Garth S. Jowett and Victoria O’Donnell, followed the use of propaganda through the myriad of world conflicts from Alexander the Great to current global issues. By the 20th century, the evolution of mass media increased the complexity and efficiency of propaganda’s use for molding public opinion. In Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes Jacques Ellul noted that the emergence of mass media provided a platform for propaganda techniques on a societal scale. According to Aristotle Kallis in Nazi Propaganda and the Second World War, propaganda could provide a response to fundamental societal needs, such as integration, guidance, motivation, continuity, and relaxation. However, Kallis goes on to state that active complicity or passive consensus cannot be taken for granted, even in a totalitarian system. Replacement of traditional values with 6 Garth Jowett and