FIRE AND FURY: THE BURNING OF 'DEGENERATE ART' IN BERLIN-KREUZBERG
Today in Berlin: 20 March, 1939
On March 20, 1939 in Berlin some 5,000 artworks stamped off by the Nazis as Entartete Kunst - "degenerate art" - are said to have been set on fire and burnt1 in the courtyard of Berlin’s Main Fire Station in Lindenstraße 40/41 in Berlin-Kreuzberg.
The caution is necessary as - unlike with the book burning of May 1933 - hardly any physical evidence exists today proving the fate of the artworks. Could some of them have been appropriated by high-rank Nazi officials? Quite possibly. Could all of them have been thrown into flames? This, too, is a strong option so both are uncertain.
What is certain, however, is the will of the Third Reich to annihilate everything that did not fall into the party line. Including the artists themselves…