Die deutsche Kunstpolitik in den besetzten Niederlanden und die Städtische Galerie Stuttgart 1942

Abstract

This year, Städtische Galerie Stuttgart, today Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, celebrates its centennial anniversary. In its collection there are still art works with an unknown history, which therefore will be investigated in more detail as part of the museum history. A particular example for this is the Still Life by the Dutch painter Digna Roovers-Verploegh (1885-1965), which was acquired during the time of National Socialism and the history of which had been unknown until recently. On the one hand, the painting is only one of many still lifes which were collected in the course of the museum’s history. This also includes the time of National Socialism. On the other hand, the painting constitutes a testimony and remnant of the art, cultural and exhibition policy conducted by the “Reichskommissar” for the German-occupied Netherlands, which to this day is little known in Germany. The painting had been sent to Stuttgart in the context of Nazi art propaganda. In October 1942, it was employed by the Nazis together with other exhibits of the special exhibition Niederländische Kunst der Gegenwart (Dutch Contemporary Art) at the Stuttgart museum “Ehrenmal der Deutschen Leistung im Ausland” (Memorial of German Achievement Abroad) to represent a Dutch art which allegedly was unaffected by modern or other tendencies dissenting from Nazi art doctrine and seemingly rooting in an unbroken Dutch tradition. The article retraces a specific aspect of the cultural relations between the German-occupied Netherlands and Nazi Germany. Using the examples of the exhibition Niederländische Kunst der Gegenwart and the painting Still Life by Roovers-Verploegh, it tries to answer the question why Stuttgart was chosen to become the venue of a ‘Dutch’ exhibition organized by the “Reichskommissar” for the German-occupied Netherlands.