Gottbegnadeten list
Encyclopedia
The Gottbegnadeten list ("God-gifted list" or "Important Artist Exempt List") was a 36-page list of artists considered crucial to Nazi culture. The list was assembled in September 1944 by Joseph Goebbels
, the head of the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda
, and Germany's dictator Adolf Hitler
.
The list exempted the designated artists from military mobilization during the final stages of World War II. A total of 1,041 names of artists, architects, music conductors, singers, writers and filmmakers appeared on the list. Of that number, 24 were named as especially indispensable. They thus became the equivalent of National Socialism's "national treasures".
Goebbels included about 640 motion picture actors, writers and directors on an extended version of the list. They were to be protected as part of his propaganda film
efforts, which persisted through the end of the war (and culminating in the expensive final UFA
production Kolberg
, released in January 1945).
Many of the cultural figures appearing on the list are no longer widely remembered but there are exceptions, including a number of renowned classical musicians such as the composers Richard Strauss
, Hans Pfitzner
, Carl Orff
and Norbert Schultze
, the orchestral conductors Wilhelm Furtwängler
and Herbert von Karajan
, and the Wagnerian baritone
Rudolf Bockelmann
. Each listed artist received a letter from the Nazi Propaganda Ministry which certified his or her status. The only foreigner (Ausländer) on the list was Dutch actor Johannes Heesters
.
The six most important writers were:
The most important composers were:
The three most important actors were:
Joseph Goebbels
Paul Joseph Goebbels was a German politician and Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. As one of Adolf Hitler's closest associates and most devout followers, he was known for his zealous oratory and anti-Semitism...
, the head of the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda
Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda
The Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda was Nazi Germany's ministry that enforced Nazi Party ideology in Germany and regulated its culture and society. Founded on March 13, 1933, by Adolf Hitler's new National Socialist government, the Ministry was headed by Dr...
, and Germany's dictator Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
.
The list exempted the designated artists from military mobilization during the final stages of World War II. A total of 1,041 names of artists, architects, music conductors, singers, writers and filmmakers appeared on the list. Of that number, 24 were named as especially indispensable. They thus became the equivalent of National Socialism's "national treasures".
Goebbels included about 640 motion picture actors, writers and directors on an extended version of the list. They were to be protected as part of his propaganda film
Propaganda film
The term propaganda can be defined as the ability to produce and spread fertile messages that, once sown, will germinate in large human cultures.” However, in the 20th century, a “new” propaganda emerged, which revolved around political organizations and their need to communicate messages that...
efforts, which persisted through the end of the war (and culminating in the expensive final UFA
UFA
Ufa is a city in Russia.UFA or Ufa may also refer to:*Ufa River, a river in Russia*Ufa, Ethiopia, a town in Ethiopia*Ultra flat architecture, a network architecture design for LTE 4G mobile telecommunication networks...
production Kolberg
Kolberg (film)
Kolberg is a 1945 German propaganda film directed by Veit Harlan and Wolfgang Liebeneiner. It opened on January 30, 1945 simultaneously in Berlin and to the crew of the naval base at La Rochelle. It was also screened in the Reich chancellery after the broadcast of Hitler's last radio address on...
, released in January 1945).
Many of the cultural figures appearing on the list are no longer widely remembered but there are exceptions, including a number of renowned classical musicians such as the composers Richard Strauss
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...
, Hans Pfitzner
Hans Pfitzner
Hans Erich Pfitzner was a German composer and self-described anti-modernist. His best known work is the post-Romantic opera Palestrina, loosely based on the life of the great sixteenth-century composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina.-Biography:Pfitzner was born in Moscow, Russia, where his...
, Carl Orff
Carl Orff
Carl Orff was a 20th-century German composer, best known for his cantata Carmina Burana . In addition to his career as a composer, Orff developed an influential method of music education for children.-Early life:...
and Norbert Schultze
Norbert Schultze
Norbert Arnold Wilhelm Richard Schultze was a prolific German composer of film music...
, the orchestral conductors Wilhelm Furtwängler
Wilhelm Furtwängler
Wilhelm Furtwängler was a German conductor and composer. He is widely considered to have been one of the greatest symphonic and operatic conductors of the 20th century. By the 1930s he had built a reputation as one of the leading conductors in Europe, and he was the leading conductor who remained...
and Herbert von Karajan
Herbert von Karajan
Herbert von Karajan was an Austrian orchestra and opera conductor. To the wider world he was perhaps most famously associated with the Berlin Philharmonic, of which he was principal conductor for 35 years...
, and the Wagnerian baritone
Baritone
Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...
Rudolf Bockelmann
Rudolf Bockelmann
Rudolf Bockelmann was a German dramatic baritone and Kammersänger. He built an international career as an outstanding Wagnerian singer but damaged his reputation during the 1930s by joining the Nazi Party.-Biography:Bockelmann, the son of a village schoolmaster, was born at Bodenteich near Celle...
. Each listed artist received a letter from the Nazi Propaganda Ministry which certified his or her status. The only foreigner (Ausländer) on the list was Dutch actor Johannes Heesters
Johannes Heesters
Johan Marius Nicolaas "Johannes" Heesters is a Dutch actor, singer and entertainer with a -year career, almost exclusively in the German-speaking world. In Germany and Austria, Heesters is mainly known for his acting career...
.
Special listed artists
The 12 most important Third Reich visual artists named on the list were:- sculptor Arno BrekerArno BrekerArno Breker was a German sculptor, best known for his public works in Nazi Germany, which were endorsed by the authorities as the antithesis of degenerate art....
(1900–1991), named as "Reichskultursenator" (Reich Culture Senator) - sculptor Fritz KlimschFritz KlimschFritz Klimsch was a German sculptor.Klimsch studied at the Royal College for the Academic Fine Arts in Berlin, and was then a student of Fritz Schaper. In 1898 Klimsch was a founding member of the Berlin Secession....
(1870–1960) - sculptor Georg KolbeGeorg KolbeGeorg Kolbe was the leading German figure sculptor of his generation, in a vigorous, modern, simplified classical style similar to Aristide Maillol of France.Kolbe was born in Waldheim ....
(1877–1947) - sculptor Josef ThorakJosef ThorakJosef Thorak was an Austrian-German sculptor.In 1922 Thorak's reputation increased when he created Der sterbende Krieger, a statue in memory to the dead of World War I of Stolpmünde.In 1933 and in following years, Thorak joined Arno Breker as one of the two "official sculptors" of the Third Reich...
(1889–1952) - painter and illustrator Hermann Gradl (1883–1964)
- history painter Arthur Kampf (1864–1950)
- painter Willy Kriegel (1901–1966)
- painter Werner PeinerWerner PeinerWerner Peiner was a German painter. He was first influenced by expressionism, but he became one of the most known and talented official painters of the Third Reich....
(1897–1984) - architect Leonhard GallLeonhard GallProfessor Leonhard Gall was one of Adolf Hitler's architects.Gall worked for Paul Troost and he designed a new chancellery for Munich. He helped to complete the House of German Art after Troost's death, and was named on the Gottbegnadeten list of artists valuable to the Nazi regime in 1944.-See...
(1884–1952), "Reichskultursenator" - architect Hermann GieslerHermann GieslerHermann Giesler was a German architect during the Nazi era, one of the two architects most favored and rewarded by Adolf Hitler ....
(1898–1987), "Reichskultursenator" - architect Wilhelm KreisWilhelm KreisWilhelm Kreis was a prominent German architect and professor of architecture, active through four political systems in German history: the Wilhelmine era, the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich, and the foundation of the Federal Republic.Kreis was born in Eltville am Rhein in Hesse-Nassau...
(1873–1955) - architect and critic Paul Schultze-NaumburgPaul Schultze-NaumburgPaul Schultze-Naumburg was a Nazi architect and one of Nazi Germany's most vocal political critics of modern architecture...
(1869–1949)
The six most important writers were:
- Gerhart HauptmannGerhart HauptmannGerhart Hauptmann was a German dramatist and novelist who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1912.-Life and work:...
(1862–1946) - Hans CarossaHans CarossaHans Carossa was a German novelist and poet, known mostly for his autobiographical novels, and his innere Emigration during the Nazi era....
(1878–1956) - Hanns JohstHanns JohstHanns Johst was a German playwright and Nazi Poet Laureate.Hanns Johst was born in Seehausen as the son of an elementary school teacher. He grew up in Oschatz and Leipzig. As a juvenile he planned to become a missionary. When he was 17 years old he worked as an auxiliary in a Bethel Institution...
(1890–1979), "Reichskultursenator" - Erwin Guido KolbenheyerErwin Guido KolbenheyerErwin Guido Kolbenheyer was an Austrian novelist, poet and playwright. Later based in Germany, he belonged to a group of writers that included the likes of Hans Grimm, Rudolf G...
(1878–1962) - Agnes MiegelAgnes MiegelAgnes Miegel was a German author, journalist, and poet. She received the Kleist Prize for lyric in 1913, the Herder Prize in 1936, the Goethe Prize of the City of Frankfurt in 1940, the literature prize of the Bavarian Academy of Art in 1959 and the...
(1879–1964) - Ina Seidel (1885–1974)
The most important composers were:
- Richard StraussRichard StraussRichard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...
(1864–1949) - Hans PfitznerHans PfitznerHans Erich Pfitzner was a German composer and self-described anti-modernist. His best known work is the post-Romantic opera Palestrina, loosely based on the life of the great sixteenth-century composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina.-Biography:Pfitzner was born in Moscow, Russia, where his...
(1869–1949) - Wilhelm FurtwänglerWilhelm FurtwänglerWilhelm Furtwängler was a German conductor and composer. He is widely considered to have been one of the greatest symphonic and operatic conductors of the 20th century. By the 1930s he had built a reputation as one of the leading conductors in Europe, and he was the leading conductor who remained...
(1886–1954)* - Carl OrffCarl OrffCarl Orff was a 20th-century German composer, best known for his cantata Carmina Burana . In addition to his career as a composer, Orff developed an influential method of music education for children.-Early life:...
(1895–1982) - Werner EgkWerner EgkWerner Egk , born Werner Joseph Mayer, was a German composer.-Early career:He was born in the Swabian town of Auchsesheim, today part of Donauwörth, Germany. His family, of Catholic peasant stock, moved to Augsburg when Egk was six. He studied at a Benedictine Gymnasium and entered the municipal...
(1901 – 1983)
The three most important actors were:
- Otto FalckenbergOtto FalckenbergOtto Falckenberg was a German theatre director, manager and writer. In April 1901, he co-founded Die Elf Scharfrichter, the first political kabarett in Germany....
(1873–1947) - Friedrich KayßlerFriedrich KayßlerFriedrich Kayßler was a German theatre and film actor. He appeared in 56 films between 1913 and 1945.-Biography:...
(1874–1945) - Hermine Körner (1878–1960)