Sabine Brantl: The "Haus der Deutschen Kunst" as a Commercial Enterprise. Lecture (in German) by Sabine Brantl

The House of German Art [Haus der Deutschen Kunst] was the first architectural showpiece project of Nazi propaganda. With its annual staging of the Great German Art Exhibitions [Grosse Deutsche Kunstausstellungen] the building became the central stage and symbol of official, state-directed art in the Third Reich. These aspects – the building's history and the functional determination of the House of German Art, as well as art and culture in the Nazi system in general – have already been the focus of research and more or less adequately explored. Largely ignored, however, has been the question of how the House of German Art was structured until the end of the Second World War. How did the exhibition operation function organizationally and economically behind the facade of art, power, and propaganda? The lecture focuses on the House of German Art's organizational form, its advertising strategies and economic circumstances, as well as at its accounting records.