II. „Degenerate Art“

Frankfurt, Germany, 1905. Georg Swarzenski is appointed director of the Städel at the age of 30. He wants to open the richly traditional museum for exciting new art. In 1911, he purchases the “Portrait of Dr Gachet” in Paris – an act that makes a strong statement in the unyielding German Empire. Swarzenski very skilfully develops the Städel into a modern museum. In 1933, however, when he is at the height of his career, the Third Reich descends upon him. Swarzenski is of Jewish descent but not only personally under existential threat: his lifework, the modern collection, is also the target of attack. The “Portrait of Dr Gachet”, the silent observer of all these goings-on, is confiscated in 1937 and declared “degenerate art”. This is a chapter in the painting’s history that bears witness to the brutal and contradictory ideology of the National Socialists – and to the importance they attach to art.