ABSTRACT
The most populist facet of National Socialist culture was its anti-modernist stance, particularly in the visual arts and in architecture. All modem art, for example, was rejected as degenerate, whether or not it was abstract. The reason why this nihilist attitude struck chords with the masses was the way it echoed disillusionment with modem industrialism, with the crises of capital, especially during the 1920s. Beyond the rejection of the modem, though, the Nazis cultivated a pattern which reflected and supported their ideology, satisfied the cultural pretensions and social separateness of their elites, and countered or masked deteriorating fortunes in war. Thus the works of Jews were summarily banned. Farmer, factory worker and soldier were cast as idyllic partners of social production. Allegorical themes saw a resurgence. And historic wars and conflicts were resurrected and mythologised.
