Main content

Purging the Degenerate

Neil MacGregor focuses on how the Nazis attacked art they viewed as degenerate, including a vase created by Grete Marks, which was condemned by Goebbels.

Neil MacGregor examines how the Nazis attacked art they viewed as 'entartet' - degenerate.

He charts how Goebbels, Hitler's propaganda minister, led a process designed to purify all German culture, including books, music, paintings and pottery.

The programme focuses on a vase created by Grete Marks, with an evident debt to Chinese ceramics, and a loose brush-splashed glaze suggestive of modernist painting. Goebbels condemned this vase in his newspaper Der Angriff - The Attack. Grete Marks, who was Jewish and had trained at the Bauhaus, left Germany for England.

Producer Paul Kobrak.

Available now

15 minutes

Last on

Fri 31 Oct 2014 00:30
麻豆社 Radio 4

More episodes

Previous

Money in Crisis

Next

At the Buchenwald Gate

See all episodes from Germany: Memories of a Nation

  • Barlach's Angel

    Neil MacGregor focuses on Ernst Barlach's sculpture Hovering Angel, a unique war memorial.

Clip

Vase 漏 Estate of Margarete Marks. All Rights Reserved, DACS 2014

Broadcasts

  • Thu 30 Oct 2014 09:45
    麻豆社 Radio 4 FM
  • Thu 30 Oct 2014 19:45
    麻豆社 Radio 4
  • Fri 31 Oct 2014 00:30
    麻豆社 Radio 4

Featured in...

Made in Germany: the stories of 10 fascinating objects

See photos and videos of this diverse collection of products and sculptures.

10 reasons we know Germans love beer and sausages

Beer riots and sausage snacks demonstrate a devotion to the national diet.

10 things you may not know about Germany

Degenerate art and other facts from this fascinating nation.

Podcast