This object is an oil painting on canvas depicting a young girl, attributed to the painter Fritz E. Horn of Dresden. Set in its original silvered wooden frame, it bears the artist’s signature “F.E. Horn” at the lower right. The reverse carries an original inventory label with an inventory number, an artist’s stamp reading “Fritz E. Horn, Dresden” on the stretcher, and affixed to the left side, original double-sided inventory seal plaques inscribed “Ausgestellt im Haus der Deutschen Kunst” (Exhibited at the House of German Art) depicting Pallas Athene and the Hoheitsadler (Nazi eagle). Accompanying the painting is an original purchase agreement from the Haus der Deutschen Kunst, Munich, dated December 15, 1942, documenting a purchase price of RM 600. The contract identifies the work by the title “Erika,” the name of the young woman portrayed. Also included is the official exhibition catalog of the Große Deutsche Kunstausstellung 1943 (Great German Art Exhibition 1943).
The Great German Art Exhibition: A Tool of National Socialist Cultural Policy
The Große Deutsche Kunstausstellung (Great German Art Exhibition) was one of the central cultural-political events of the National Socialist regime. Held a total of eight times between 1937 and 1944, it took place in the purpose-built Haus der Deutschen Kunst (House of German Art) in Munich. This monumental neo-classical building was constructed between 1933 and 1937 to a design by architect Paul Troost, commissioned at the behest of Adolf Hitler. The founding stone was laid by Hitler himself in October 1933, making it the first major architectural project commissioned by the Nazi regime.
The exhibitions displayed approximately 900 works of art per edition: nudes and genre paintings, still lifes, idealized landscapes, mythological scenes, images of workers and heroes, and portraits of people conforming to “pure” and “Aryan” ideals. At the opening of the inaugural exhibition in 1937, Hitler delivered a programmatic speech making perfectly clear that the Nazi regime would accept only art suitable for propaganda purposes.
The selection process was tightly controlled. In June 1937, Adolf Hitler appointed his personal photographer Heinrich Hoffmann, the director Karl Kolb, and Gerdy Troost as those responsible for choosing the submitted works. Hitler’s own opinion remained decisive throughout. A prerequisite for participation was membership in the Reichskammer der bildenden Künste (Reich Chamber of Fine Arts), which had been mandatory for the practice of the artistic profession since November 1933.
Over the course of all eight exhibitions, more than 9,000 painters, sculptors, and graphic artists submitted works. In total, 12,550 exhibits were displayed, and the exhibitions were visited by approximately 600,000 people. Between 1937 and 1943, the annual attendance averaged around 600,000 visitors. The eighth and final exhibition in 1944 still attracted 80,000 people.
A Sales Exhibition
The Great German Art Exhibition was explicitly conceived as a sales exhibition. Artists could be represented with several works, usually up to ten pieces. During each exhibition, a “special show” gave a selected artist the opportunity to present himself more comprehensively. In total, art worth 13 million Reichsmarks was sold across the eight exhibitions. Adolf Hitler alone purchased works valued at 6.8 million Reichsmarks.
The 1943 Exhibition
The Große Deutsche Kunstausstellung 1943, in which the present painting was displayed, was the seventh edition of the series. It opened on June 26, 1943, and presented 1,141 works by 660 artists. The opening was conducted by Joseph Goebbels.
The Counterpoint: “Degenerate Art”
As a deliberate contrast to the first Great German Art Exhibition in 1937, the infamous “Entartete Kunst” (Degenerate Art) exhibition opened in Munich’s Hofgarten just one day later. It served as a cautionary display of the modern and avant-garde art ostracized by the National Socialist regime, starkly illustrating the ideological framework within which the Great German Art Exhibition functioned as the approved countermodel.
Postwar History and Reappraisal
After 1945, numerous works from the Great German Art Exhibitions were no longer shown and were no longer reproduced. The Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte München (Central Institute for Art History, Munich), in cooperation with the Haus der Kunst and the Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin, has been making them accessible online since October 2011 to facilitate social and art-historical debate. In parallel with the online project, a complete directory of the participating artists was published by Neuhaus Verlag in Berlin.
The Haus der Kunst itself became a symbol for the return of Modernism to the very place where Hitler’s cleansing crusade against the avant-garde had begun. Among the most important postwar exhibitions held there were “The Blue Rider” (1949), Max Beckmann (1951), Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee (1954), and the landmark Picasso retrospective in 1955.
The present painting, accompanied by its complete documentation – including the original purchase agreement, inventory labels, seal plaques, and exhibition catalog – represents a rare ensemble that offers tangible insight into the mechanisms of National Socialist art policy and constitutes a historical document of considerable significance for collectors and researchers alike.
