ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that quotes such as the one were not empty rhetoric: theatre played a crucial role in Nazi Germany's war effort. Upon occupation the Nazis made the most of the fact that German language theatres in Eastern Europe had been struggling after 1918. Subsidies were lost and companies were disbanded, although amateur groups tried their best to keep going. The German theatres in occupied Europe spearheaded a cultural colonisation which had no interest in relating to local sensitivities. The German occupiers were convinced of the quality of their cultural production and its power to influence people. The chapter argues that the claim that culture and National Socialism can somehow be separated – put forward in a number of studies on the arts under National Socialism. It examines by books such as Bettina Schultke's Theater or Propaganda? – cannot be upheld when discussing German theatre in occupied Europe during the Second World War.
