The Taboo Break of 1933

In 1933, the Preußische Akademie der Künste (Prussian Academy of Arts) allows itself to be co-opted by the National Socialists without putting up any real resistance. On 15 February – 16 days after the Nazi seizure of power – the new Prussian Minister of Science, Education and National Culture, Reich Commissioner Bernhard Rust, uses a pretext to make an example of Heinrich Mann, director of the Section for Poetry, and sculptor Käthe Kollwitz, forcing them out of the Academy. Along with other intellectuals, they had signed the “Urgent Call for Unity” of the Internationaler Sozialistischer Kampfbund (International Socialist Militant League), which aimed to unite the SPD and KPD parties in an effort to thwart the rise of fascism through further gains in the impending Reichstag election. Rust uses the placard they signed as a pretext to demand their exclusion from the Academy, threatening to dissolve the institution unless this happens. He receives the enthusiastic support of President Max von Schillings. In order to spare the artists’ society this fate, Käthe Kollwitz and Heinrich Mann accept the consequences and resign from the Academy.

The reactions of the members reflect the political divisions that pervaded society as a whole at the time. Despite the statement of regret communicated by the Academy in the form of a press release, open declarations of solidarity are not forthcoming. The moderate members toe the line, while only a few dare to voice open opposition. At the hastily convened plenary meeting on 15 February, Berlin’s Chief City Planner Martin Wagner protests the exclusions: “The reality is that the Academy was given an ultimatum. […] An injustice has been inflicted on two members. […] The President’s response to the Reich Commissioner should have been: The Academy’s plenum must decide! He should not have offered up the heads of two members.” After receiving no support from the other members, he leaves the Academy. Just days later, writer Ricarda Huch writes to von Schillings: “What the present regime prescribes as national sentiment is not my German-ness”; she too leaves the Academy. The erosion of the political balance of power is illustrated by the situation of honorary president Max Liebermann. Only nine months after his appointment, he resigns from office. “It is my conviction that art has neither to do with politics nor with ancestry; I can therefore no longer belong to the Preußische Akademie der Künste, as this standpoint of mine no longer has relevance.”

Conservative artists quickly adopt the new regime’s stance and contribute to the re-alignment of the institution. Poet Gottfried Benn plays a central role in introducing an oath of loyalty in March of 1933, which all members of the Section for Poetry have to swear toward the National Socialist state. Without legal justification, additional members are forced to leave the Academy. Shortly thereafter, the exhibition commission decides to remove “distinctly Jewish artists” from the list of participants. On 3 November 1933, the artists’ society declares “its loyal devotion and allegiance” to Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler.
Between 1933 and 1938, 41 members are excluded or forced to resign for political reasons or because of their Jewish descent. In the spirit of pre-emptive obedience, the heads of the Academy and some of its members willingly kowtow to the country’s new leadership. The institution loses its moral integrity and sinks into political irrelevance. The impact of this taboo break is still felt today.

Werner Heegewaldt