MHMUS 455 — The Arts in the Third Reich

3 credits
Fall
Anne-Marie Reynolds

Prerequisite: MHMUS 311 . This course addresses the crucial role the arts played in the Nazis’ rise to power, in the persecution of their victims, in acts of resistance, and, all too rarely, in their victims’ salvation. We will begin by considering how the arts—especially music—have long defined Germany’s identity generally, and then turn to the role they played in the Nazis’ grand scheme specifically, focusing on the various ways that the arts were used as propaganda, and how the same works functioned as statements of protest for their victims. To personalize what we learn, we will study select artists (including musicians, painters, actors, and film directors), whose lives, careers, and creative efforts were destroyed by the Nazis. Through reading, listening, viewing, and writing, we will come to understand the contradictory extent to which the Nazis both revered and feared the power of the arts. Finally, we will reflect on how the arts still serve as instruments of persuasion and resistance today, and how what we’ve learned might inform the choices we make in our own lives.