Culture in the Third Reich

Moritz Foellmer's artful and nuanced study of culture in Nazi Germany explores a wide range of topics, including not only official Nazi culture as reflected in the work of Leni Riefenstahl and Albert Speer, but also subjects such as Jewish cultural life, the exile experience, and Nazi art plundering. Foellmer shows the myriad ways in which culture matteredfrom indoctrination and an effort to legitimize the war, to satisfying a desire for entertainment, among other reasons. Situating culture in the broader socio-political history of the Third Reich, Foellmer has produced a tour de force. * Jonathan Petropoulos, author of Artists Under Hitler: Collaboration and Survival in Nazi Germany * Hermann Goering is famous for supposedly having said, When I hear the word 'culture', I reach for my revolver. In fact, the quote originated elsewhere. It would have been surprising if the case were otherwise, since the Nazis, being Germans, could hardly regard culture as something to be ignored or suppressed. Quite the contrary, they had their own complex and contradictory ideas about it - as [this] book explores in rich detail. * Mark Falcoff, The Critic * Culture in the Third Reich is readable and convincing. Engagingly and meticulously translated, it can only be recommended. * Bill Niven, History Today * A fascinating work. * All About History * An impressively researched and steady-handed account ... Foellmer deepens our understanding of how National Socialism shook up the German psyche in a radical way but in such culturally conservative terms. * Niall McGarrigle, Irish Times * [Foellmer] applies a sharp cultural lens to metropolitan life, politics and individual strivings and pastimes as the backdrop to disaster falling on Germany. * Anne McElvoy, The Observer *