Definition:
Degenerate art is a translation of the German term Entartete Kunst used by Hitler for art that didn't fit his definition of good German art, which included most modern art. By 1937 some 16,000 artworks had been removed from museums and galleries in Germany. An exhibition mocking modern art, called Entartete Kunst, with 650 confiscated works by about 112 artists, opened in Munich on 19 July 1937, and then toured Germany, Austria, and Poland. More than three million people saw the exhibition.
Originally the intention had been to destroy all the artwork, but the Nazi regime realized they could get hard currency for them on the international art market. At an auction in Lucerne on 30 June 1939, 125 artworks were sold, but nearly five thousand works deemed unsalable were burned by the Berlin fire department.
Quote from Hitler's inaugural speech of the Great German Art Exhibition on 18 July 1937:
"Cubism, Dadaism, Futurism, Impressionism, etc., have nothing to do with our German people. For these concepts are neither old nor modern, but are only artifactitious stammerings of men to whom God has denied the grace of a truly artistic talent, and in its place has awarded them the gift of jabbering or deception."2
