ABSTRACT
Mary Wigman and Kurt Jooss represent two different responses to the crisis that faced artists in Germany under National Socialism. Wigman, choosing to remain in Germany, had personal rather than political or moral motives. She did not want to separate from a companion who, since 1929, had supported her in many difficult situations, Hanns Benkert. An engineer in a leading position at Siemens and her confidante since the stressful preparations for Totenmal, Benkert had given stability to Wigman and also had influenced her to adapt her art to National Socialist ideologies in the years between 1933 and 1936. Their partnership endured until 1942, when Benkert decided to marry another woman. By this time, in the midst of World War II, it was too late for Wigman to leave. 1
