---
title: Goebbels at the 'Entartete Kunst' exhibition, February 1938
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/goebbels-entartete-kunst-exhibition-1938/
description: Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels in a light trench coat and hat walks through a gallery of the 'Entartete Kunst' (Degenerate Art) exhibition, flanked…
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

[![Goebbels at the 'Entartete Kunst' exhibition, February 1938](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/goebbels-entartete-kunst-exhibition-1938.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/goebbels-entartete-kunst-exhibition-1938.jpg)

# Goebbels at the 'Entartete Kunst' exhibition, February 1938

Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels in a light trench coat and hat walks through a gallery of the 'Entartete Kunst' (Degenerate Art) exhibition, flanked by civilians and SS and uniformed officers. Expressionist paintings hang tightly together on the wall, each with a small placard beneath, and a carved wooden figure stands at right. The loaded label in the exhibition's title does the work: modern works are presented to visitors as a category to reject, not as works to be judged.

## Text on the object

Original (German) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
[placard text beneath the two paintings illegible at this resolution]
```

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

```
[placard text beneath the two paintings illegible at this resolution]
```

The only text on the object is the small placards under the paintings, too small to read at 776 px. The exhibition's title 'Entartete Kunst' does not appear in the frame; it comes from the archive caption quoted in the notes.

[← Human Sterilization Today](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/human-sterilization-today-1938/) [Bank Melli Iran 500 rials (five Pahlavi) note with Reza Shah, 1317 (1938) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/bank-melli-500-rials-reza-shah-1938/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Passional Christi und Antichristi: the emperor kisses the pope's foot (leaf 'Antichristus')](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passional-christi-antichristi-emperor-kisses-pope-1521/) (Electoral Saxony · 1521 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (Dutch Republic · 1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling). Content note: Engraving of a hanged, bare-breasted Taino woman, burning huts and people being killed by Spanish soldiers.
- [Ondersoeckt de Geesten, ofse van den Duyvel syn, of niet (the De Witt brothers as devils)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ondersoeckt-de-geesten-de-witt-devils-1672/) (Dutch Republic · 1672 · Scapegoating, Name-calling)
- [The Highlanders Medley, or The Duke Triumphant (A Loyal Song)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/highlanders-medley-duke-triumphant-1746/) (Great Britain · 1746 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [The North Briton, No. XLV, 23 April 1763 (John Wilkes), opening page](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/north-briton-no-45-wilkes-1763/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Apr 23, 1763 · Name-calling)
- [The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th Regt.](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/revere-bloody-massacre-king-street-1770/) (Province of Massachusetts Bay · Mar 1770 · Name-calling, Card stacking). Content note: Hand-coloured engraving of bloodied dead and wounded colonists after soldiers fired on a crowd.
- [Marche du Dom Quichotte moderne pour la deffence du Moulin des Abus (March of the Modern Don Quixote in Defence of the Mill of Abuses)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dom-quichotte-moulin-des-abus-1791/) (France · 1791 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)