The Nazi Philosophy of Beauty: The Architecture of Doom

[Music] hey it was said that in a little german village during the 30s people had their own idea of what national socialism was nazism they thought had something to do with purity indeed they even believed its most important feature to be sexual denial And when the old women talked of this stringent demand they would shake their troubled heads and say this national socialism is a tough one it's only the teacher who might manage it or maybe the barber even though the villagers had their own idea about nazism they nevertheless touched on something important nazism's dream

of creating through Purity and sacrifice a more beautiful world the nazi gospel warns of a world about to collapse an eternal twilight that threatens to engulf the earth the nazis claim to have discovered the source of this threat and took it upon themselves to eradicate it purified and preserved from decay a new germany would arise Mightier and more beautiful than ever before germany celebrates german arts day in munich 1939 it is the third reich's last major art exhibit within six weeks the second world war would commence [Music] [Applause] yes this government half of which consists

of men Who once aspired to serve the arts is conscious of the artist's role as an intermediary declares hans frederick monk author and president of the rice chamber of literature he continues this government born out of the opposition to rationalism knows the people's inner longings their boundless dreams to which only the artist can give form [Music] Though this claim may be hyperbole it is not entirely groundless failed artists were characteristic of the leadership of the third reich several of the men nearest hitler had made serious artistic endeavors goebbels for one who had written a novel

as well as poetry and plays or rosenberg the party ideologist who had dabbled in painting And entertained literary ambitions or fon shirak hitler's youth leader who was considered one of the reich's foremost poets [Music] and hitler himself a failed painter who dreamt of being an architect [Music] he never abandoned the dream his artistic efforts extended into the 1920s pedantically drawn watercolors in the style of postcards Oh how i'd love to stay here working with art he declares from his retreat shortly before war breaks out he's an artist not a politician and as soon as the

war is over he will retire and devote himself to art at 18 hitler had unsuccessfully applied to the academy of art in vienna refusal was a hard blow but he hid his disappointment instead of returning to his home in Lintz he remained in vienna he drifts around vienna goes to the opera paints a little occasionally he devotes himself to some far-fetched artistic project [Music] he and his childhood friend august kubick make an amateurish effort based on an idea that richard wagner abandoned To write an opera together three years earlier he and kubocheck have had a

decisive opera experience and at the theater in lynch they have seen wagner's opera re-embassy the opera is set in medieval rome riensey the people's spokesman rises against the aristocracy he wants to turn the clock back 15 centuries and re-establish the roman republic of antiquity In that spirit he lets himself be made tribune of the people but reancie falls victim to a conspiracy he fights his last battle in the capital as it crashes burning around it [Music] hitler is deeply moved by rienzi overwhelmed he outlines for kubichuk his plans for his own future and that of

his people later he would say it was in that hour it all began This experience cemented three fixations in hitler that would never lose their grip on him his fixations on lintz his home city on antiquity and on wagner whoever would understand nazism must first know wagner said hitler and indeed wagner occupied a special place in hitler's imagination wagner's political tracks were early Favorites of hitler's already in lintz he had fantasized over his own operas so extravagant as to eclipse wagner's works it was opera's scenic possibilities that fascinated hitler the fantastic illusion the flight from

reality in wagner he saw his idol creative artist and politician in one person Hitler borrowed wagner's props anti-semitism the cult of a nordic legacy the myth of pure blood all gave counter to hitler's world view from wagner ii came the notions of art as the basis of a new civilization and the artist prince risen from the people who will unite life and art to herald the advent of the new state hitler found use for his artistic bent In political work he created nazi props everything from uniforms to flags and standards with his own sketches and

instructions he gave the nazi movement its form hitler's 1923 sketch of the party standard the goldsmith gar prepares from hitler's sketches the first standard of the nsdap propaganda provided the outlet for hitler's artistic ambitions The nazi mass rallies were quasi art of gigantic proportions with hitler as set designer director and leading actor [Music] mass rallies also embodied a central nazi ideal the myth of the body of the german folk this myth the people the masses seen as one body with its own circulatory system would become a basic element in the nazi Vision of racial purification

[Music] 30th of january 1933 the nazis celebrate hitler's seizure of [Applause] power feverish activity is begun to quickly gain control over every level of german society everywhere nazi activists force their way in [Applause] [Music] a proclamation is made in march what german artists expect of the new government the paper's source is a coalition of nazi cultural groups their program demands that bolshevik on art and unculture be destroyed and they offer at the same time to stand like seasoned soldiers in the vanguard of the struggle they also demand that all purged works Be shown publicly and

then burnt as a warning to all in 1933 a wave of exhibitions of so-called degenerate art washes over germany mannheim nuremberg dessau stuttgart dresden already in the early 20s art was of first rank importance to the nazis cultural degeneration was seen by many as a genuine threat Decay was a modest word among the german petty bourgeoisie behind the calamities that had plagued germany cultural bolshevism in particular the jew was felt to be the instigator the ringleader with its skewed perspectives of on guard art was to the nazi an augury of impending doom To them the

chaos they perceived in it was visible evidence of spiritual and intellectual depravity in 1928 under the leadership of rosenberg the first nazi cultural organization was founded the national socialist society for german culture one of the six founders is ss leader heinrich himmler later the society renames itself the Defense guild for german culture the offensive against modern art soon took on a hygienic character modern artists works were said to show signs of mental illness their creators were right for the madhouse one of the defense guild's most influential members art theorist paul schultz nomberg begins a nationwide

speaking tour in january 1931. in the world of german art a struggle to The death rages not unlike the struggle in politics and it must be fought with the same gravity and singleness of mind he says showing lantern slides to illustrate the lectures he projects his vision of art hygiene by choosing pictures of deformed cases from medical journals and comparing them with modern art he claims to show a link between physical degeneration and Artistic perversion the pictures and diagnoses are supplied to him by dr wagon of hamburg university psychiatric clinic in schultz nounberg's view art

is not only a mirror of racial health here he refers to antiquity and the renaissance but has as its duty even as the grecian marbles did To be a representative expression of the people's longing for racial fulfillment on seeing these pictures no one can identify them with anything but the misshapen riches and clinics and madhouses where the blighted and degenerate of our species are gathered concludes schultz nomberg no spiritually healthy person needs to be convinced That an outlook is revealed here which must be forever banished from the new germany on july 14 1933 a new

law is enacted it permits mandatory sterilization of the insane the asocial and the hereditarily tainted but this law is only the first step in an ongoing process in march 1935 an exhibition opens in berlin The miracle of life here the physician emerges as the spearhead of nazi racial policy in the quest for pure blood the enemies are the jew race mixing and degeneration in a special section schultz nomberg's comparisons turn up another section is devoted to the mentally ill and asocial A grisly vision is conjured up of idiots and retards gradually outnumbering normal people still

other sections deal with race preservation and refinement our first principle of beauty is health hitler declares the methods of medical science will ensure that end with the physician as esthetician aesthetic problems became medical ones this exhibition already defines the Presumptions underlying mass murder no longer does the physician minister to the individual now he is the healer of the corpus of the race a biological warrior fighting diseased and inferior elements that threaten the body of the german folk now the physician in uniform comes to the fore of society The nazification of physicians began in the first

months of nazi rule as jewish doctors were stripped of their positions this mass expulsion created undreamt of career possibilities physicians with the right ideology quickly soared to the top special schools offered courses in nazi medicine no other profession could boast so many party members Forty five percent of german physicians belong to the party mein kampf clearly states the goal of nazism's biomedical pioneers a state which preserves in a time of pollution its finest racial elements must one day be lord of the earth our followers must never forget this when they compare the sacrifices to the

envisioned results gerhard wagner the third reich's chief doctor promises that In the future too we shall fulfill our mission according to the fears will to create the new german man at the national party rally in 1935 hitler tells wagner his intention to have the incurably ill liquidated fat foreign during this rally new laws are made public which gerhard wagner lauds in his speech As the law that will protect german blood the nuremberg laws marriage between germans and jews is outlawed in 1936 wagner discusses with other high-ranking party men and doctors the possibility of making a

film at the film's premiere in berlin 1937 dr wagner gives the welcoming speech the film will be shown in every Cinema in germany [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] of the world was one of the tenets of nazi ideology once long ago the world was beautiful but race mixing and degeneration had polluted it Only a return to earlier ideals could make mankind flourish again [Music] in the early 30s hitler began putting together an art collection this private gallery gives an inkling of his world view and the ideals he sought to re-establish [Music] the collection is dominated

by art from the bismarck era Works by hans markart [Music] franz de frager rudolph epp franz von stook [Music] perhaps the collection was meant for the museum hitler dreamt of founding in lintz a museum for which he would choose the object jar [Music] And where he alone would decide what great art was the collection reveals how limited hitler's intellectual world was among the 74 works included are a few portraits all of them painted from photographs one of hitler's mother one of his father two of his niece kelly robel the only woman hitler was ever close

to a suicide in 1931 One of his deceased chauffeur julius shrek and one of richard wagner as museum founder hitler would create the rice first great art event pl troost architect and hitler's confidante had been commissioned in 1933 to build a new museum in munich in october hitler lays the foundation stone [Music] is even before the museum is completed the first exhibit is in preparation a jury made up of experts whom hitler trusts are to make selections from the fifteen thousand words submitted six weeks before the museum's opening hitler inspects the results disappointed Exasperated he

takes over the job himself heinrich hoffman his photographer and well versed in hitler's taste is assigned to model the exhibit after hitler's intentions on july 18 1937 the house of german art and the great german art exhibit are unveiled it is a showing of the new genuine german art sculptor is given great precedence Sculptors such as brecker and thorac launched the style that is to be typical of the nazi era but hitler's inauguration speech is not about art alone this exhibit represents the end of lunacy in art and the denial of the german people's culture

henceforth we shall wage a relentless purgative war against the rear guard of our culture's Disintegration a flyer comes with a catalog to put the renaissance of german art into proper perspective the exhibition degenerate art is open the next day with goebbels help hitler had already made sure of the exhibition's success the degenerate art show would put an end to jewish art bolshevism the works of some 730 banned artists Were shown oscar kokochika emile nolde franz mark max beckmann jankel adler ernst ludwig castner german art had now undergone its purifying bath but nazism's ambition to beautify

included every area of life [Music] it even found administrative expression in the bureau Of beauty of labor enhance them by tremendous cleanliness was the gospel of beauty of labor clean workers and tidy workshops was its slogan [Music] beauty of labor meant liberation of the workers through cleanliness chief physician gerhard wagner expressed it simply if class struggles to die out work and With it creativity must first be freed from the stigma of dirt thus if one shows the worker how to wash properly thereby raising him to a bourgeois level he will soon realize that he has

nothing to fight for the workers aesthetic awakening would not only free him from his class but free society from the abrasive conflicts caused by class struggle [Music] The society would be the embodiment of an ideal cleanse from all ugliness untouched by chaos and filth its people handsome and healthy striving for a common goal [Music] to characterize this new epic new buildings must be erected already on the evening when he seized power hitler talked about his architectural Plans hitler called the chancelley a piddling cigar box and architect albert speer's first major task was to create a

new chancellory building worthy of the new state hitler has made the first sketches himself the project is kept secret until war breaks out hitler devotes much of his time To the architecture of the new germany he heaps new sketches over spear and between their meetings he painstakingly works on new ideas the volume of this architectural vision is gargantuan more than 40 cities are in line for monumental building projects to know about his houses on june 14 1938 hitler proclaims a Sweeping new design for berlin however the actual scope of his outsized plans for the capital

city is kept secret on the new chancery's completion in january 1939 a myth is minted according to the myth hitler has commissioned spear only one year earlier to design and build the massive structure [Music] in fact the actual work had begun four years before [Music] at about the same time he sketched plans for the new chancellory hitler decided to rebuild his chalet in burch's garden to have it befit his new status to this end he not only produced sketches but completely took over the replanting Of bergoth his retreat the original house was to be part

of the new structure the result was amateurish obvious weaknesses flawed the design an alpine chalet aspiring to be a chateau hitler's pride was a retractable window the world's biggest with an area of 32 square meters at berghoff the monumental is paired With the petty bourgeois in a bizarre way the world's biggest retractable window is still a chalet window after all a bourgeois dream absurdly inflated the window on the landscape like the glass over a painting embodied hitler's aesthetic ideal mountain landscapes were among his favorite motifs at the great german art exhibit in 1938 hitler buys

not only xpiks massive by Franz bernhardt but nine other paintings of alpine scenes [Music] for the yearly exhibitions in the house of german arts hitler's photographer heinrich hoffman is now the one-man jury on the day of the 1938 opening hitler rewards hoffman with a professorship hitler himself buys 372 works One-third of the entire exhibition in his inaugural speech hitter notes something of special importance to it the acquisition of the classical greek statue of the discus thrower by marone the best discus is [Music] let us perceive how splendid man's physical beauty once was and how we

may only speak Of progress when we have not only achieved such success but even surpassed it may we find here a measure of the tasks which confront us in our time may we strive as one for beauty and elevation so that both our race and our art will withstand the judgment of the millennial [Music] it was just this correlation between man and art That elevated sculpture in the third reich to state art of the highest rank sculptors like arnold brecker and joseph barack were not only artists they were creators of a new type of man

it was their task to convey an image of the goal envisioned to attain it the nazis would soon resort to more concrete measures and it is hitler himself who sets the Process in motion in 1938 he becomes active in a case that attracts his attention the case of a child born blind who lacks one leg and part of an arm hitler orders his personal physician carl bronte to intervene the child whose name is snower is said to be an idiot brunt in hitler's name will tell the child's doctor to perform euthanasia That is to kill

the child brent was also to inform them that any judicial measures taken against them would be through hitler's fiat null and void later bronte was told to implement euthanasia in all similar cases euthanasia means helping someone who is suffering to die in the context of nazi racial policy the term would find a new meaning great german art exhibit of 1939 [Music] hitler buys for himself 264 works after annexing austria hitler updates the plans for his home city linz these dreams had occupied him since his youth as early as 1925 he had sketched plans for a

german national art gallery [Music] in it artists would be allotted space for their works depending on hitler's evaluation of Their talent [Music] these dreams now take on enormous proportions hitler's state visit to italy in 1938 during which he inspects italy's art treasures fuels his plans even more he envisions lintz as the world's new center of culture gigantic building plans are drawn up hitler makes one sketch after another [Music] dr hans poser chief of the dresden gallery is recruited for a secret mission amassing the lintz art collection his first act is to confiscate the art collections

of jews in vienna [Music] on september 1st 1939 germany attacks poland the second world war has begun nine days before Germany signed a non-aggression pact with the ussr two weeks after war's outbreak hitler inspects a virtually vanquished poland [Music] a few weeks later hitler orders the start of the euthanasia program germany is to be cleansed of its failed human specimens hitler's friend and personal physician carl brandt and his chief of staff philip buller Are empowered to choose physicians for the program the order is written out on hitler's personal stationary and backdated to the day when

war broke out the tactic indicates doubts on hitler's part even in the knower case he had ordered that his role be kept secret now he hoped that the program would be more acceptable If it could be linked with the war's outbreak murder of the inferiors would thus appear to be a mobilization measure in germany psychiatry's ambition to preserve the body of the folk murder would soon be the most important form of therapy the future laboratory for this form of therapy the test field for extermination was already in german hands Poland which had been crushed in

less than a month after extensive tests at brandenburg prison hitler on the advice of ss dr werner haid recommends the lethal use of carbon monoxide an office is opened in berlin for the program it's addressed tiergarten strassa 4 provides the organization's code name t4 a system using questionnaires And doctors reports takes form the forms are distributed to hospitals and asylums for each patient details regarding pathology work capacity race religion and criminal record must be filled in a space is reserved for the physician's decision a blue minus sign means life a red plus sign death from

the beginning jews have a special status for them The diagnosis that they are jews is enough later the screened out patients are fetched ss personnel and white coats attend to their transport the bus windows are painted over to prevent people from seeing in after a temporary layover the patients are transported to the death facility during this time their families receive Three letters the first one states that the patient has been moved on account of the war then a second letter confirms that the patient has arrived safely a doctor has signed it with a fake signature

the last letter prepared by a special department is a letter of condolence stating a fictitious cause of death The signature on it is fate at the death facility the patients are gassed in small groups the corpses are burnt in the facility's crematorium in the t4 program the nazis medical vision had found its vehicle a practice that the t4 doctors falsified signatures and behave like criminals does not mean that they doubted their own convictions No they worried that the german people might not be ready to understand their actions the killings could have been done by any

butcher but if medical legitimacy was to be maintained a doctor would have to open the gas taps as great as the energy expended now in rooting out unworthy lives is the energy devoted to the preservation of Valuable aryan blood german medical care was among the finest in the world with ultra-modern methods of treatment in many areas this double roll the physician healing with one hand and killing with the other gradually began to sow misgivings among the german people with the assaults on holland and belgium the western offensive begins [Applause] In mid-june of 1940 hitler is

at his military zenith france is vanquished in the great dawn of june 23rd a plane lands at le bourget outside paris hitler fancies an art tour and arrives with a group of artists to inspect the fallen paris it's six in the morning for the first time in his life hitler visits the french capital At his side the fira has sculptor arno becker and architect albert speer and herman giesler their first goal is the paris opera as an expert on opera houses hitler takes the lead in all of europe there is hardly a theater of renown

whose plans he has not studied and he has carefully poured over the blueprints of the lopra in paris so well does he know the building that He finds an anti-chamber missing in fact the room had been eliminated during a renovation their program proceeds at a breakneck pace the tour winds through a paris that is not yet awake so so so it has been my life's dream to see paris hitler says as he returns to the airport After three hours is in paris beautiful he asks spear and adds i have often deliberated whether i should have

to destroy paris but when we're ready with berlin paris will be but a shadow so why destroy it now it was up to spear to outdo paris the blueprints for the future capital of the world empire were now completed in a gallery adjacent to the chancellery Hitler has the gigantic model erected here is hitler's own triumphal arch twice as big as the one in paris speer has drawn it from a sketch hitler made in 1925. here the fears palace a monstrous complex which will be hitler's new residence here too is the great hall the crown

of the new berlin it is also based on one of hitler's 1925 Sketches now spear would bring the dream to life this dome was to be the largest assembly hall in the world with seats for a hundred and eighty thousand people its dimensions were incomparable seventeen times as big as saint peter's in rome for the entrance hall hitler suggests a colossal statue of himself an opening in the roof will allow Heaven's light to enter in 1950 at the latest with the war won the new capital will be ready the great german art exhibit of 1940.

[Music] plastic hitler buys 202 canvases and sculptures [Music] in the cultural metropolis of the future lids construction is underway the half completed nebulongan bridge Augers the city's new image now and then hitler pays an unexpected visit to his home city [Music] the war has opened new possibilities for the linz project german occupation has unlocked the doors to europe's treasures hitler's men scour occupied europe lugging home purchased and confiscated works to germany leonardo da vinci Rembrandt jacob jordan from prepared catalogs hitler chooses works of art for transport to germany [Music] on april 6 1941 germany attacked

yugoslavia and greece on april 27th the german army marches into the grecian capital [Music] to hitler this conquest is not just one Among many as the german troops near athens he forbids bombing of the city he lays bare his feelings to gobbles his heart belongs to antiquity rome and athens are his mecca [Music] hitler's mind is fixated on antiquity of all history's epochs antiquity alone elicited his unreserved admiration he saw it as a model for the society he hoped to build If we are asked about our forefathers we must refer to the greeks he stated

he describes sparta as the most racially pure state in history ancient rome he said was the most mighty republic that ever existed [Music] athens sparta rome hitler said if we can create a synthesis of the three our state will never perish [Music] on june 22nd hitler attacks the soviet [Music] union but failing to crush england he thrusts germany into a two-front war a few weeks later hitler can inspect occupied russian territories [Music] he discovered a microbe and broke new ground for medicine i have exposed the jew as the microbe that subverts society [Music] The great

german art exhibit july 1941 for the first time hitler has no time to attend the opening he has made his choices beforehand buying 121 works the attack on the ussr inspires hitler to a new art initiative an organization for war art artists will depict the eastern offensive first hand from the front adam painter and leader of the project Intended not only to paint the dreadful side of war but the homely and poetic moments that should be made accessible to the german people while german troops advance across russia's vastness germany's largest sculptor's studio is alive with

frenetic activity joseph thorac is working on a sculpture and monumental format Destined for the party's rally grounds in nuremberg [Music] on an area of 16.5 square kilometers an ideological landscape consisting of oak woods travertine and granite was to take shape for the yearly party rallies arenas were built to hold millions of people in conjunction with their planning of a zeppelin field in 1934 speer and hitler developed the so-called Ruins principle according to which important buildings would be constructed so that in the distant future they would collapse into picturesque ruins construction methods and building materials were

discussed and spear made sketches depicting the buildings in ruins overgrown with ivy [Music] the 360 meter long tribune on the Zeppelin field was inspired by the altar at pergamon the congress hall was inspired by the coliseum in rome on the march field with room for 500 000 spectators the armed forces would demonstrate war games joseph thorax huge statue would stand above the tribune's reviewing days along a 90 meter wide granite street Columns of 60 men across would parade on the march field [Music] on the site of the german stadium excavation was in full swing this

sports arena was to contain 400 000 people and be the grandest construction of its type in history even before he seized power hitler claimed this area as historic ground on a visit here in 1930 he declared Ceremoniously if here in the distant future archaeologists should delve the earth and strike granite beneath let them stand bareheaded before the glorious revelation of an idea that shook the world hitler calculated that the soviet union would be beaten in four months and that the majority of russians would side with the germans thus hastening the russian collapse But he also

had other objectives which were incompatible with this idea and seriously jeopardized his plans his plans for enslavement and genocide influenced the war at an early stage the projected eastern offensive bore all the earmarks of colonial warfare as if the war was to be fought against some technologically benighted exotics but one wonders if hitler's fixation on antiquity didn't influence his strategy And his war objectives his plans to enslave neighbors no less civilized or technologically advanced or to wipe them out to displace vast hordes of people and reduce whole cities to ashes transposed the war's objectives back

several thousand years in time the ghosts of ancient wars seem to haunt hitler's modern war machine an ultra-modern war with ancient war Objectives [Music] this pattern calls to mind antiquities wars of annihilation the punic wars the destruction of carthage victory was not enough the goal was to invalidate the enemy's raison decked through annihilation of his cities and people here we must revert to ancient principles The city must be leveled with the earth said hitler of leningrad [Applause] he had similar plans for moscow so that the russian capital might be erased from memory a gigantic dam

would be erected on its former site [Music] enslaving the enemy was a classical method of acquiring manpower [Music] The nazis applied this method systematically to a degree unparalleled in modern times for the projected construction work on berlin alone sphere requested 30 000 russian war prisoners the more they understood the annihilatory character of the war the more fiercely the russians resisted the russian winter arrives in november there will not be a winter campaign Hitler had assured his generals the german troops are not equipped for winter the artists who were sent to depict the russian offensive carry

out their assignment their pictures bear the stamp of defeat by early december 1941 the german offensive is halted outside moscow defeat soon becomes catastrophe shortly afterward the united states is Drawn into the war as 1941 fades to a close hitler senses that the war has reached its turning point the proposed objectives lack material support hitler's vision of world dominance begins to waver all that remains now is the third reich's death throws an agony in slow motion a secondary war objective begins to take Shape the annihilation of the jews at a conference in vanci on january

20th 1942 the fate of european jewry is sealed plans for the final solution to the jewish question are drawn up oh is [Applause] [Music] oh The german jews had long clung to their belief in german culture their hope dwelt in the germany of gert in schiller here they believed was a bulwark against [Music] barbarism in 1933 the jews made up less than one percent of the german population [Music] 500 000 people by 1941 more than half of these had fled the Country [Music] the 11 million european jews never quite sensed the coming disaster [Music] the

unthinkable was incomprehensible the other germany had fled into silence or exile for a good while now the third reich had been killing people to make way for the new culture [Music] By autumn of 1941 within the t4 program over 70 000 mental patients had been gassed but soon difficulties arose several of the euthanasia facilities were located near good-sized towns the smoke from the crematoria could be plainly seen locks of hair wafted upward through the chimneys only to land on the streets drunken t4 personnel blabbered in nearby Taverns rumors circulated about which illnesses the program dealt

with word was that brain-damaged soldiers would share the fate of the insane protests from the german clergy fueled the apprehension the fact that rumors were being spread in wartime about the liquidation of wounded soldiers was unacceptable In august 1941 hitler stops the more conspicuous aspects of the program after that the secrecy around extermination policy was tightened following the troops advancing eastward special ss units the so-called izat skrupan had the task of systematically shooting jews gypsies and political commissars this action was only meant as a stop gap 11 million jews could hardly be disposed Of in

this way the organization which hitler trusted to carry out extermination the ss were the avant-garde of nazism it was the cream of society lawyers physicians and other educated men that ss leader himmler recruited to its hierarchy an ideal example of this election is reinhard heydrich a skillful fencer and avid violinist And one of the pioneers of the extermination policy on july 31 1941 heydrich receives written orders from guring to carry out all measures necessary to the final solution of the jewish question in autumn 1941 himmler and hadrick name ss captain herbert lange to carry out

the next phase of the extermination in the east langa had experience of execution by gas For the euthanasia program he had tested a new method in east prussia gas vans using three of these vehicles in kumhofe not far from roach longa will set up the first extermination camp in history the vans serve as both gas chambers and transport trucks the motor's exhaust is pumped into the boot the victims are driven a short way then Dumped and pitched directly into mass graves the ss2 is obliged to care for the body of the folk on two fronts

the ss doctors and x-ray buses tour ethnic german areas in poland [Music] while at the same time in kumhold the gas vans shuttled to and fro ss personnel with white coats and stethoscopes Take in patience for treatment the discovery of the jewish microbe hitler says is one of the greatest revolutions the world is known the struggles of pasture and coke must be carried on by us today countless diseases have but one microbe as their cause the jew we shall be healthy when we have eliminated the jews this statement was made in february 1942 at about

the same time christian firth Who installed gas chambers for the t4 euthanasia program is ordered to put his knowledge at the ss disposal verth considered langa with his gas fans to be an amateur verth now begins building the first stationary gas chambers in the east on march 17th the staff at beltzek death camp received the first victims the gas chambers are copies of the t4 Facilities with greater capacity in quick succession the death camps of sobibar and treblinka are built in the meantime a new method was emerging one that would eclipse the other two completely

at auschwitz tests were being made with an insecticide based on cyanide immediately after the german invasion of poland a film Team commissioned by goebbels to make a propaganda film arrived in the occupied territories the film was shot in the squalor of the jewish ghettos on november 28 1940 the film opens at one of berlin's largest cinemas [Music] the audience consists of representatives of the party the army the arts and the sciences here the campaign against the jews Reaches its zenith this is the end of the propaganda war the beginning of mass extermination [Music] [Music] mansion

[Music] [Music] [Music] in 1938 another film had been made its theme was pest control The film demonstrated a new effective method using gas to kill pests [Music] [Music] [Music] carbon monoxide will begin to be used on mental patients and three years will pass before this gas is first used at auschwitz [Music] [Music] Material in april 1943 himmler gives a private speech before some ss officers anti-semitism is like being de-loused getting rid of lice is hardly a philosophical issue it's a matter of cleanliness similarly anti-semitism is a hygienic measure that we have been forced to endure

we shall soon be de-loused there are only twenty thousand Lights left they will soon be extinct in all of [Music] germany it was not by pure chance that an insecticide would be the nazi's most effective weapon in the fight against the jews for years now propaganda had hammered out the metaphor the jews as bacteria insects vermin [Music] therefore to auschwitz commandant rudolph huss and his personnel it cannot have been far-fetched that the stuff used to kill the camp's pests could also be used on people [Music] for horse it was also a matter of delicacy i

was always appalled at the idea of shootings he tells therefore i was Relieved to think that we might be spared all these bloodbaths and that even the victims would be spared suffering until the end [Music] [Music] the nazi cult of beauty functioned as a mental cosmetic the picture of the ideal was the screen behind which the murderers could pursue their craft when auschwitz commandant huss describes The ideal he created for his wife and children in the death camps shadow it is a clear expression of this function after mass killings began i was no longer happy

at auschwitz he laments my wife could not fathom my gloomy moods she ascribed it all to my job after it became clear to her what i did we seldom felt the desire for sexual intercourse [Music] from 1942 on the gas chamber was the foremost tool of extermination the mass shootings had ceased murder took on the guise of a hygienic measure [Music] at auschwitz the medical aura was kept intact physicians played a major role in the killing process It was they who selected the victims and saw to it that the poison gas cycling b was used

as prescribed afterward it was they who checked to see if the victims were really dead [Music] a system which forced the victims to operate the killing facilities would spare the killers the unpleasantness of their horrible trade [Music] Mass murder was the ultimate consequence of hitler's ambition to create the new man the cosmetic of the nazi beauty coat finally found its way into the gas chamber the killing was a biological mission a holy tribute to pure blood the death factories were anthropological sanitation facilities instruments to beautify the world [Music] So i have ordered every officer to

carry besides his sword carl my's books on how to fight indians that is how they must fight the russians they must hide behind trees and britches then leap forth for the kill this statement by hitler from 1942 betrays his bizarre relation to reality carl mai was hitler's favorite author this german author wrote some seventy boys books that hitler had read as a child Carl my wrote books about indians and romantic adventure tales set in exotic surroundings richness of style and detail and the realism that evokes travel books are characteristic of his work descriptions of the

indians firemaking techniques details on weapons clothing and provisions carl mai had never visited the places he wrote about nor had he ever come in contact with Foreign peoples or influences he shared this lack of real experience with the untraveled hitler even as an adult hitler continued to read carl my's books during the war he could cite carl my as proof that it wasn't necessary to know the desert to command troops in africa hitler was well aware of mai's lack of experience he did not regard my as a girl as Adventurer though but rather in all

seriousness as a fount of wisdom he saw in carl my a kind of armchair visionary with the clairvoyance access to distant realities on another occasion hitler names my as an example of how someone with imagination and the power of insight does not need to know a certain people Even as mai did not know better ones are indians to know their souls better than any anthropologist who had studied them to hitler carl my was proof that one needn't travel to know the world hitler explicitly held the view that imagination could provide the basis for knowledge thus

he was betrayed by his inability to distance himself from the visions that crowded in on him this lack of Critical distance was particularly obvious in one area where hitler's experience was scanty his assessment of unfamiliar peoples this is typified by his attitude toward the jews anti-semitism's classical document the protocols of the elders of zion a fake document which purports to verify a jewish conspiracy to rule the world struck hitler like a revelation while the question of its authenticity Pale by comparison the grip these ideas had on hitler is evident in his paradoxical strategies the more

futile the war against the allies became the more zealously annihilation of the jews was pursued despite the constant dearth of vital equipment and transportation extermination of the jews had the highest priority [Music] To understand the seeming lack of logic one must reflect over the nature of hitler's anti-semitism he saw the jew as a sub-human a cancer spreading itself over the world but because the jew had preserved his own racial purity he was the aryan's fiercest rival for world domination in hitler's imagination a fight to the death was raging against the strongest and Most dangerous of

enemies to wage war without fighting this primary enemy was unthinkable for hitler the more casualties the war reaped the more important extermination of the jews became to hitler losing the war would not mean the end of nazism a grandiose german fall would provide inspiration to coming generations extermination of the jews would enable The temporarily weakened german nation to raise itself once more from the ruins [Applause] on the night of may 30th and 31st 1942 thousands of british bombers expel their payloads over cologne for the first time the allies strike a deadly blow to germany's heart

the destruction is horrible the attack is a harbinger of the firestorms that will now plague germany stalingrad january 31st 1943. The sixth german army has been surrounded and destroyed ninety thousand germans are taken prisoner and now the whole world knows that germany is losing the war [Applause] [Applause] is [Music] the soviet armies are now advancing all along the front As the german troops retreat the ss are given still another mission himmler has ordered that every trace of the mass murders be eradicated the job is to be carried out by a special unit sunder commando 1005

even as the german war machine slowly falls to pieces sunder commando 1005 is occupied with the cosmetic adjustment of history before the russian onslaught the mass Graves must be opened the corpses burned and the skeletons ground to dust in bone mills weeds will be sown to hide the grave sites the great german art exhibit 1943 [Music] foreign [Music] ulman hitler buys 48 paintings and sculptures hitler's plans for the lynch museums are Still preceding a pace architect hermann geesler works non-stop on the blueprints and models the hunt for europe's art treasures continues between 1942 and 43

hitler's men acquired some 3 000 more works vermeer rubens vicelli amigoni each work is carefully cataloged In war-torn germany an evacuation is planned the yard treasures will be stored in a salt mine in the austrian alps normandy june 6 1944 the allied invasion has begun paris august 20th the allies approach paris the germans are preparing to pull out of the city the french resistance are already fighting them in the periscopes over four years have passed since hitler Visited paris as her conqueror now his thoughts return there on august 23rd he orders defense of the city

if this fails paris is to be leveled with the earth two days later paris is liberated the german armies are now in retreat on every front hitler orders the scorched earth policy the allies have penetrated germany's National borders now the war will be fought on german soil as well [Applause] is [Music] hitler prepares his retreat to a bunker beneath the chancellery in berlin auschwitz january 27 1945 russian troops have reached the death camp on february 9th hermann geesler delivers To hitler's bunker the final model of lindsay's recreation for hours on end hitler studies the doom

plans all that remains now of the lintz project is an attempt which fails to destroy the planned museum's art treasures in the salt mine and the austrian alps where most of the works are stored explosives are planted which at the approach of the enemy troops Should blow the entire depot sky high rapidly now the allied armies approached germany's core on march 1st hitler orders the press to publish articles of a punic wars the german struggles to be likened to rome's wars against carthage it took three long wars to secure rome's place in the ancient world

despite his physical and mental decline Hitler keeps his grip on those around him the impending catastrophe seems to arouse new vigor in him the shame of the feat will be offset by the glory of germany's fall out of total defeat new grain will sprout forth he declares on march 19th hitler orders targeted areas empty to population at once and all supply depots and objects of Real value destroyed if the war is lost the german people are also lost hitler maintains it isn't necessary to be concerned about what the germans will need for elementary survival after

this struggle only the inferior will be left the good will have perished the germans hitler's chosen people had left him in the lurch now they would meet their doom The soviet troops have reached berlin i will be true though all have me forsaken i'll bear my banner even to defeat upon my tongue a madman's words awaken yet if i fall this banner will be taken to be in death my glorious winding sheet already in 1933 baldervan shirak had penned this verse based on hitler's own words as if this drama's final scene was most Important they

had begun at the end hitler saw doom as art's highest form of expression each time that he and bayer ruth had seen vocner's go to with its fiery collapse at the end he would reach for winifred wagner's hand in the darkness of the box and kiss it with devotion the drama had now become reality for hitler Its completion was his final and decisive theatrical mission after defeat there is nothing with hitler's death the nazi movement collapses there are no slogans urging on the fight no nests of resistance overnight nazism has completely lost its momentum far

from germany in the cellars of the victors portraits of the nazi hierarchy come to light Decades later alongside gaul lighter and party functionaries we find doctors genocide experts and architects defining nazism in traditional political terms is difficult mainly because its dynamic was fueled by something quite different from what we usually call politics this driving force was to a great degree aesthetic its ambition was to beautify The world through violence [Music] from the first murders of mental patients to the mass murders of jews there is no real political motive it was not enemies who were liquidated

nor opponents of the regime but innocent people whose very existence was in conflict with the nazi dream the civilian character of the mass killing makes it unlike War crimes these were civilian murders under a military guise [Music] the obscure mental baggage the bizarre political notions which constitute a kind of under vegetation in european culture suddenly saw the light of day with [Music] hitler hitler went from words to deeds without restraint he transformed an Absurd ideology into a hellish reality so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] was one of the tenets of nazi ideology once

long ago the world was beautiful But race mixing and degeneration had polluted it only a return to earlier ideals could make mankind flourish again [Music] in the early 30s hitler began putting together an art collection this private gallery gives an inkling of his world view and the ideals he sought to re-establish The collection is dominated by art from the bismarck era works by hans markhart [Music] franz de frager rudolph epp franz von stook [Music] perhaps the collection was meant for the museum hitler dreamt of founding in lintz a museum for which he would choose the

object jar [Music] and where he alone would decide what great art was the collection reveals how limited hitler's intellectual world was among the 74 works included are a few portraits all of them painted from photographs one of hitler's mother one of his father two of his niece kelly robel The only woman hitler was ever close to a suicide in 1931. one of his deceased chauffeur julius shrek and one of richard wagner as museum founder hitler would create the reich's first great art event pl troost architect and hitler's confidante had been commissioned in 1933 to build

a new museum in munich in october hitler lays the foundation stone [Music] is even before the museum is completed the first exhibit is in preparation [Music] a jury made up of experts whom hitler trusts are to make selections from the fifteen thousand words submitted six weeks before the museum's opening hitler Inspects the results disappointed exasperated he takes over the job himself heinrich hoffman his photographer and well versed in hitler's taste is assigned to model the exhibit after hitler's intentions on july 18 1937 the house of german art and the great german art exhibit are unveiled

it is a showing of the new genuine german art Sculptor is given great precedence sculptors such as brecker and thorac launched the style that is to be typical of the nazi era but hitler's inauguration speech is not about art alone this exhibit represents the end of lunacy in art and the denial of the german people's culture henceforth we shall wage a relentless purgative war Against the rear guard of our culture's disintegration a flyer comes with a catalog in the quest for pure blood the enemies are the jew race mixing and degeneration in a special section

schultz nomberg's comparisons turn up another section is devoted to the mentally ill and asocial A grisly vision is conjured up of idiots and retards gradually outnumbering normal people still other sections deal with race preservation and refinement our first principle of beauty is health hitler declares the methods of medical science will ensure that end with the physician as esthetician aesthetic problems became medical ones this exhibition already defines the Presumptions underlying mass murder no longer does the physician minister to the individual now he is the healer of the corpus of the race a biological warrior fighting diseased

and inferior elements that threaten the body of the german folk now the physician in uniform comes to the fore of society the nazification of physicians began in The first months of nazi rule as jewish doctors were stripped of their positions this mass expulsion created undreamt of career possibilities physicians with the right ideology quickly soared to the top special schools offered courses in nazi medicine no other profession could boast so many party members 45 percent of german physicians belong To the party mein kampf clearly states the goal of nazism's biomedical pioneers a state which preserves in

a time of pollution its finest racial elements must one day be lord of the earth our followers must never forget this when they compare the sacrifices to the envisioned results gerhard wagner the third reich's chief doctor promises that in the future too we shall fulfill our Mission according to the fears will to create the new german man at the national party rally in 1935 hitler tells wagner his intention to have the incurably ill liquidated underfaltened and intuition the interactions are shining on this alloy inside rendez during this rally new laws are made public which gerhard

wagner lauds in his speech As the law that will protect german blood the nuremberg laws marriage between germans and jews is outlawed [Music] in 1936 wagner discusses with other high-ranking party men and doctors the possibility of making a film at the film's premiere in berlin 1937 dr wagner gives the welcoming speech the Film will be shown in every cinema in germany [Music] [Music] the [Music] it was said that in a little german village during the 30s people had their own idea of what national socialism was nazism they thought had something to do with Purity indeed

they even believed its most important feature to be sexual denial and when the old women talked of this stringent demand they would shake their troubled heads and say this national socialism is a tough one it's only the teacher who might manage it or maybe the barber even though the villagers had their own idea about nazism They nevertheless touched on something important nazism's dream of creating through purity and sacrifice a more beautiful world the nazi gospel warns of a world about to collapse an eternal twilight that threatens to engulf the earth the nazis claim to have

discovered the source of this threat and took it upon themselves to eradicate It purified and preserved from decay a new germany would arise mightier and more beautiful than ever [Music] before germany celebrates german arts day in munich 1939. it is the third reich's last major art exhibit within six weeks the second world war would commence [Applause] yes this government half of which consists of men who once aspired to serve the arts is conscious of the artist's role as an intermediary declares hans frederick monk author and president of the rice chamber of literature he continues this

government born out of the opposition to rationalism knows the people's inner longings their Boundless dreams to which only the artist can give form [Music] though this claim may be hyperbole it is not entirely groundless failed artists were characteristic of the leadership of the third reich [Music] several of the men nearest hitler had made serious artistic endeavors goebbels for one who had written a novel As well as poetry and plays or rosenberg the party ideologist who had dabbled in painting and entertained literary ambitions or fond sherock hitler's youth leader who was considered one of the reich's

foremost poets [Music] and hitler himself a failed painter who dreamt of being an architect [Music] He never abandoned the dream his artistic efforts extended into the 1920s pedantically drawn watercolors in the style of postcards oh how i'd love to stay here working with art he declares from his retreat shortly before war breaks out he's an artist not a politician and as soon as the war is over he will retire and devote himself to art at 18 hitler had unsuccessfully applied To the academy of art in vienna refusal was a hard blow but he hid his

disappointment instead of returning to his home in lintz he remained in vienna he drifts around vienna goes to the opera paints a little occasionally he devotes himself to some far-fetched artistic project [Music] he and his childhood friend august Kubick make an amateurish effort based on an idea that richard wagner abandoned to write an opera together three years earlier he and kubichuk have had a decisive opera experience and at the theater in lynch they have seen wagner's opera re-embassy the opera is set in medieval rome riensey the people's spokesman rises against the aristocracy He wants to

turn the clock back 15 centuries and re-establish the roman republic of antiquity in that spirit he lets himself be made tribune of the people but rienci falls victim to a conspiracy [Music] he fights his last battle in the capital as it crashes burning around him [Music] hitler is deeply moved by rienzy Overwhelmed he outlines for kubichek his plans for his own future and that of his people later he would say it was in that hour it all began this experience cemented three fixations in hitler that would never lose their grip on him his fixations on

lintz his home city on antiquity and on wagner whoever would understand nazism must First know wagner said hitler and indeed wagner occupied a special place in hitler's imagination wagner's political tracks were early favorites of hitler's already in lintz he had fantasized over his own operas so extravagant as to eclipse bachner's works [Music] it was opera's scenic possibilities that Fascinated hitler the fantastic illusion the flight from reality [Music] in wagner he saw his idol creative artist and politician in one person hitler borrowed wagner's props anti-semitism the cult of a nordic legacy the myth of pure blood

all gave counter to hitler's world view From wagner ii came the notions of art as the basis of a new civilization and the artist prince risen from the people who will unite life and art to herald the advent of the new state hitler found use for his artistic bent in political work he created nazi props everything from uniforms to flags and standards with his own sketches and instructions he gave the nazi movement Its form hitler's 1923 sketch of the party standard the goldsmith gar prepares from hitler's sketches the first standard of the nsdap propaganda provided

the outlet for hitler's artistic ambitions the nazi mass rallies were quasi art of gigantic proportions with hitler as set designer director and leading actor [Music] Mass rallies also embodied a central nazi ideal the myth of the body of the german folk this myth the people the masses seen as one body with its own circulatory system would become a basic element in the nazi vision of racial purification [Music] 30th of january 1933 the nazis celebrate hitler's seizure of power [Applause] [Music] feverish activity is begun to quickly gain control over every level of german society everywhere nazi

activists forced their way in [Music] [Applause] [Music] a proclamation is made in march what german artists expect of the new Government the paper's source is a coalition of nazi cultural groups their program demands that bolshevik on art and unculture be destroyed and they offer at the same time to stand like seasoned soldiers in the vanguard of the struggle they also demand that all purged works be shown publicly and then burnt as a warning to all In 1933 a wave of exhibitions of so-called degenerate art washes over germany mannheim nuremberg dessau stuttgart dresden already in the

early 20s art was of first rank importance to the nazis cultural degeneration was seen by many as a genuine threat decay was a modest word among the german petty bourgeoisie Behind the calamities that had plagued germany cultural bolshevism in particular the jew was felt to be the instigator the ringleader with its skewed perspectives avant-garde art was to the nazi an augury of impending doom to them the chaos they perceived in it was visible evidence of spiritual and intellectual depravity In 1928 under the leadership of rosenberg the first nazi cultural organization was founded the national socialist

society for german culture one of the six founders is ss leader heinrich himmler later the society renames itself the defense guild for german culture the offensive against modern art soon took on a hygienic character Modern artists works were said to show signs of mental illness their creators were right for the madhouse one of the defense guild's most influential members art theorist paul schultz nomberg begins a nationwide speaking tour in january 1931. in the world of german art a struggle to the death rages not unlike the struggle in politics and it must be fought with the

same gravity And singleness of mind he says showing lantern slides to illustrate the lectures he projects his vision of art hygiene by choosing pictures of deformed cases from medical journals and comparing them with modern art he claims to show a link between physical degeneration and artistic perversion the pictures and diagnoses are supplied To him by dr ray gunt of hamburg university psychiatric clinic in schultz nomberg's view art is not only a mirror of racial health here he refers to antiquity and the renaissance but has as its duty even as the grecian marbles did to be

a representative expression of the people's longing for racial fulfillment on seeing these pictures no one can identify them With anything but the misshapen wretches and clinics and madhouses where the blighted and degenerate of our species are gathered concludes schultz nomberg no spiritually healthy person needs to be convinced that an outlook is revealed here which must be forever banished from the new germany on july 14 1933 a new law Is enacted it permits mandatory sterilization of the insane the asocial and the hereditarily tainted but this law is only the first step in an ongoing process in

march 1935 an exhibition opens in berlin the miracle of life here the physician emerges as the spearhead of nazi racial policy