HITLER’S LAMENT

Evening Star, Issue 23377, 21 September 1939, Page 13

HITLER’S LAMENT

THE LACK OF NAZI ART The Third Greater German Art Exposition was opened to the public in the House of Gorman Art by. Herr Hitler. His speech was confined to art, without a single reference to polities, says a Munich message to the New York ‘ Times.’ Although “ the new grounding of the Reich in 1870-1871 ” was accomplished through events of tremendous historical imoortancc for the Gorman people, Herr Hitler said its cultural achievements compared unfavourably with its historical ones. . The reason for this deficiency, he declared, was that a groat many “ his-tory-making men ” were not interested in art. “ This went so far,” he continued, “ that the most successful statesmen and the greatest soldiers generally did not know personally the immortal artists of this otherwise so groat an epoch in our history. A real but humiliating and shocking fact!” True art, Herr Hitler added, is produced only in periods dominated by a specific system of thought. in epochs in which a victorious political world or religious philosophy evolves slowly, he continued, art places itself more’ and more in the service of ruling ideals. . , , ~ “In times of rapid revolutionary development,” ho went on, “ such an adaptation can occur only through guiding and regulation from the top. Only thus can a further separation of art from the people as well as its increasing isolation be prevented. A CHANCE TO WORK. “ To help art it is necessary above all to assure artists the necessary working possibilities. That means to give them commissions to serve the times.” . . , • . So many paintings of almost equal merit were submitted to the committee that selected the exhibited works, Herr Hitler said, that it was decided, as last year, to remove from the hall the paintings sold at the exhibition and replace them with other works ot equal merit. The Chancellor lamented that no artist had recorded any of the groat events in National Socialist Geimanj with the skill, talent, and force necessary to make them comparable with the artistic records of other great epochs. „ , ~ “ I should like to express the hope, he said, “ that perhaps the individual artist’s true ability will turn inwardly to the experiences, happenings, anil philosophical bases of the times which in the first place provide the subjects for artists’ work.” A tremendous pageant, entitled * '’wo Thousand Years of German Culture,’ was held in torrential rain. Festivities for the artists brought to a close the three-day Congress of German Art.