Jonathan Petropoulos Livres

Hitler and his consorts carried out the most extensive looting campaign in history - the theft and forced sale of millions of works of art belonging to Jews. This plunder could not have been carried out without the co-operation of German art experts. Who they were and what motivated respected professionals to sell their souls to the Nazi regime? In this text, Petrpoulos follows the careers of prominent figures who collaborated with the Nazis and implemented their programme of systematic plunder.

As scholars have remarked, the word kleos in the Iliad and the Odyssey alike refers to something more substantive and complex than 'fame' or 'glory'. This book presents a meditation on this concept as expressed and experienced in the adult society Telemachos find himself in.

"Princes Philipp and Christoph von hessen-Kassel, great-grandsons of Queen Victoria of England, had been humiliated by defeat in World War I and, like much of the German aristocracy, feared the social unrest wrought by the ineffectual Weimar Republic. Petropoulos shows how the princes, lured by prominent positions in the Nazi regime and highly susceptible to nationalist appeals, became enthusiastic supporters of Hitler. Prince Philipp, son-in-law to the King of Italy, became the became the highest-ranking prince in the Nazi state and developed a close personal relationship with Hitler and Hermann Goring. Prince Christoph was a prominent SS officer and head of one of the most important intelligence agencies in the Third Reich

A charged biography of a notorious Nazi art plunderer and his career in the postwar art world

The political elite of Nazi Germany perceived itself as a cultural elite. This work explores their cultural aspirations by examining the content of art collections held by Nazis. The author demonstrates how they manipulated public policy and their collecting patterns to articulate Nazi ideology.

'Artists Under Hitler' closely examines cases of artists who failed in their attempts to find accommodation in the Nazi regime as well as others whose desire for official acceptance was realised. They illuminate the complex cultural history of this period and provide haunting portraits of people facing excruciating choices and grave moral questions.

"Umělci za Hitlera" je kniha převážně o modernistických umělcích, kteří se snažili najít kompromis s nacistickým režimem. Autor se soustředí jak na umělce, jejichž snahy selhaly (Walter Gropius, Paul Hindemith, Gottfried Benn, Ernst Barlach, Emil Nolde), tak i na ty, kteří byli režimem akceptováni (Richard Strauss, Gustaf Gründgens, Leni Riefenstahlová, Arno Breker, Albert Speer). Tyto osobnosti společně reprezentují skrytou kulturní historii nacistického Německa. Každá z nich si musela projít bolestivými životními volbami a zavírat oči před morálními a estetickými zásadami. Jejich příběhy vnášejí nový pohled na režim, ze kterého se Hitler snažil vytvořit „diktaturu géniů“. Tato kniha je příběhem beznaděje a odhodlanosti, iluzí a reality, naděje a tragédie. Výsledkem je pronikavá sonda odhalující nejednoznačnost samotného umění.