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About the Research History

In 1949 the first book on “degenerate art” actions was published: Paul Ortwin Rave’s Kunstdiktatur im Dritten Reich (Art Dictatorship in the Third Reich). Rave served as acting director of the National Galerie. As a well-oriented witness of the period, he knew many of the players personally and was informed regarding numerous events in the first or second hand. Therefore, his objectively anxious account will always be essential reading. He hung lists of artist’s names and the concerned museums, each with the number of confiscated works. He likely used the complete present seizure inventory without any further reflection. His numbers were the official numbers for decades since they take into account the lots just as little as the works, which were forgotten in the inventory. Additionally, artists with the same last names were not differentiated, and need to be revised today. 

One year earlier Gerhard Strauß published an essay about the various details of “degenerate art” in the Festschrift for Karl Hofer. He relied on the records at hand in East Berlin’s Ministry of Propaganda, which were later passed on to the Ministry of Culture of the GDR and the Central State Archive of the GDR in Potsdam. 

In 1962 the Haus der Kunst in Munich organized an exhibition Entartete Kunst". Bildersturm vor 25 Jahren (Degenerate Art. Iconoclasm 25 Years Ago), which focused on the confiscated works and ostracized artists. In the catalog Jürgen Claus compiled several important documents. The exhibition was also inspired by Franz Roh, who in the same year published his book Entartete Kunst. Kunstbarbarei im Dritten Reich” (Degenerate Art – Art Barbarism in the Third Reich). Despite his highly subjective style shaped by his own experience, it contains many informative links, both in terms of the theoretical basis as well as organizational concerns. In the appendix lists of confiscated works were published as they had been delivered by a number of museums. Appearing in the journal Das Schönste in 1962 are several articles from Wilhelm F Arntz about the defamation and seizures, the fate of the paintings and of the artists. Arntz collected original documents and copies, allowing him a solid overview, which also clarifies where gaps remain.

Hildegard Brenner first evaluated the records of the Ministry of Propaganda in the Central State Archive of the GDR. Her 1963 book Die Kunstpolitik des Nationalsozialismus (The Art Politics of National Socialism), which has remained through the present a key work, does not, however, ask about the individual works of art. Diether Schmidt saw these records while they were still in the Ministry of Culture, and published his Künstlerschriften des 20. Jahrhunderts (Artists’ Writings of the 20th Century) as an appendix to his second volume. It was first printed in 1964 and included the minutes of the "exploitation commission" and Anita Lehmbruck’s battle for the return of her husband’s sculptures, which had been seized as a loan in Duisburg and Munich. Joseph Wulf’s documentary Die bildenden Künste im Dritten Reich (The Arts in the Third Reich) from 1966 should also be mentioned. The film touches on many things and gives evidence, which could encourage further research. In 1970 Alfred Hentzen’s essay Das Ende der Neuen Abteilung der National-Galerie im ehemaligen Kronprinzenpalais (The End of the New Department of the National Galerie in the former Crown Prince’s Palace) featureda witness from the period. 

With the exhibition Verboten, verfolgt. Kunstdiktatur im 3. Reich (Forbidden, pursued. Art Dictatorship in the Third Reich) at the Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum in Duisburg and Verfolgt und verführt. Kunst unterm Hakenkreuz in Hamburg” (Pursued and seduced. Art under the Swastika in Hamburg) at the Hamburger Kunsthalle, 1983 brought about a new research phase, in which events were conceptualized for individual museums. After Im Kampf um die Kunst. Das Schicksal einer Sammlung in der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts (In Battle for Art. The Fate of a Collection in the First Half of the 20th Century,1985) in the National Galerie Moritzburg Halle, and Das Schicksal einer Sammlung. Die Neue Abteilung der Nationalgalerie im ehemaligen Kronprinzen-Palais (The Fate of a Collection. The New Department of the National Gallery in the Former Crown Prince’s Palace, 1986) in the former National Galerie in Berlin, many museums followed suit in 1987.

In Halle after the 1987 exhibition, Andreas Hüneke released the detailed publication Die faschistische Aktion 'Entartete Kunst’ 1937 in Halle (The Fascist Action ‘Degenerate Art’ in 1937 in Halle). Since 1973 he has thoroughly worked through the records of the Ministry of Propaganda and followed up with an investigation of individual works. From there the information flowed to numerous artist’s monographs, catalogs of works and historical museum publications, in which he coined the term EK Number. This new generation of researchers in the Central State Archive of the GDR only had access to the first volume of confiscated works including the museums from Aachen to Greifswald. The second volume, undertaken in 1987 by Mario-Andreas von Lüttichau in cooperation with Hüneke for the exhibition “Die ‚Kunststadt’ München 1937. Nationalsozialismus und 'Entartete Kunst'” (The ‘Art City’ Munich, 1937. National Socialism and ‘Degenerate Art’) was lost, so that the data, and also the data pertaining to the reconstruction of the Munich exhibition “Degenerate Art,” was forced to remain incomplete. Surprisingly, it worked out perfectly, because it turned out the exhibitions had been inventoried in the order of their hanging. The exhibition included – apart from the works that were prematurely removed from it – the EK Nrs. 15933 to 16486. The reconstruction was revised for the catalog “‘Degenerate Art.’ The Fate of the Avant-garde in Nazi Germany” from the Los Angles County Museum of Art in 1991. Shortly after, Hüneke depicted details related to the work of art dealers in the “liquidation” in the catalog Alfred Flechtheim. Sammler, Kunsthändler, Verleger (Alfred Flechtheim. Collector, Art Dealer, Publisher) from the Kunstmuseums Düsseldorf in 1987, he added these to the catalog from Los Angeles. For this reason Christoph Zuschlag first wrote about the precursor exhibitions and the travelling exhibition “Degenerate Art,” a topic that he extensively explored in 1995 and outlined in his book ‘Entartete Kunst’. Ausstellungsstrategien im Nazi-Deutschland (‘Degenerate Art.’ Exhibition Strategies in Nazi Germany). 

At that time the Cultural Foundation of the German States commissioned Hüneke to gather the information collected by himself, Lüttichau and Zuschalg about the whereabouts of the confiscated artworks. All concrete data was entered into an Excel spreadsheet. When this task was completed, Hüneke received a communication from the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, which had been given a part of the estate of art dealer Harry Fischer including a two-volume typescript labeled “Entartete Kunst.” This is, in fact, a complete copy of the confiscated inventory, which was created after the end of the “liquidation” in 1941/42, and provided information on sales and trades, etc. Hüneke could now complete the Excel spreadsheet and together with Lüttichau could also complete a reconstruction of the Munich Exhibition for the 5th edition of the Munich catalog from 1987. 

Because the possibilities of the Excel spreadsheet soon reached their limits, Wolfgang Wittrock from the Ferdinand Möller Foundation took the initiative to establish the research unit “Degenerate Art,” which since 2002 has found its home in the Institute of Art History at the Freie Universität Berlin. By the end of 2016 the research unit had generated 44 Master’s Degrees and a PhD. Dissertation, which have significantly advanced the topic. The research unit was initially led by Uwe Fleckner. After his appointment in Hamburg, where he set up an additional branch of the research unit, Klaus Krüger took over leadership in Berlin.
Andreas Hüneke’s Excel spreadsheet was transferred to the MuseumPlus database and has been continuously updated. Andreas Hüneke was first supported by Christoph Zuschlag, after his appointment in Landau, Hüneke was joined by Meike Hoffman. With the help of a project staff and student assistants the data has been steadily updated. In the future an expansion of the data about the artists, the reprisals against them, about the art market and the individuals involved is planned, so that the database features a comprehensive and differentiated information source on the confiscation of “degenerate art” for researchers and the general public.