Artists Under Hitler：Collaboration and Survival in Nazi Germany

“Whatarewetomakeofthoseculturalfigures,manywithsignificantinternationalreputations,whotriedtofindaccommodationwiththeNaziregime?”JonathanPetropoulosasksinthisexplorationofsomeofthemostacutemoralquestionsoftheThirdReich.InhisnuancedanalysisofprominentGermanartists,architects,composers,filmdirectors,painters,andwriterswhorejectedexile,choosinginsteadtostayduringGermany’sdarkestperiod,Petropoulosshowshowindividualsvariouslydealtwiththeregime’spublicoppositiontomodernart.Hisfindingsexplodethemyththatallmodernartistswereanti-NaziandallNazisanti-modernist.ArtistsUnderHitlercloselyexaminescasesofartistswhofailedintheirattemptstofindaccommodationwiththeNaziregime(WalterGropius,PaulHindemith,GottfriedBenn,ErnstBarlach,EmilNolde)aswellasotherswhosedesireforofficialacceptancewasrealized(RichardStrauss,GustafGründgens,LeniRiefenstahl,ArnoBreker,AlbertSpeer).CollectivelythesetenfiguresilluminatethecomplexculturalhistoryofNaziGermany,whileindividuallytheyprovidehauntingportraitsofpeoplefacingexcruciatingchoicesandgravemoralquestions.