This is an excellent example of the big 6-1/2 x 9-1/4 inch, 324 page, very, very heavily illustrated hard to find comprehensive history of the Nazi Entartete Kunst (Degenerate Art) exhibition that was held in Munich in the fall of 1937, in the context of other events that took place in Germany’s City of Arts that year.

Beginning with an excellent overview of the Nazi attitude toward art, this book, Nationalsozialismus und Entartete Kunst, perfectly explains the art heritage of Munich, the construction and opening of the Haus der Deutschen Kunst (House of German Art) by Hitler and the grand opening of the first Grosse Deutsche Kunstausstellung or Great German Art Exhibition.

The book then concentrates on the exhibition of Entartete Kunst or Degenerate Art near the House of German Art in the Weißen Saal der Polizeidirektion on Neuhauserstraße and Augustinerstraße near the Marienplatz in München. The book contains room by room floorplans of the exhibition with photographs of much of the Entartete Kunst hanging in place on the walls. The photos are referenced by the actual catalog number of the art, the name of the artist, the name and date and size of the piece, and the name of the museum from which the degenerate art was removed.

There is a full text copy of every page of the rare guidebook for the Entartete Kunst exhibit (originals of that booklet sell for prices upward of $600.00 today) as well as the full text of Adolf Ziegeler’s speech at the opening of the Ausstellung Entartete Kunst. That is followed by a complete catalog inventory of the Grossdeutsche Kunstausstellung going on a few blocks away in the House of German Art.

The book includes two large German newspaper pages related to the subject that were added by a previous owner.