Art-People-Power

We provide the following group offer:

• Guided thematic tour of the exhibition “Art-People-Power: Schloss Schönhausen (Schönhausen House) as a Site of the Nazi Campaign “Degenerate Art”  (guided tour, available from June 2026

Schönhausen House is known as the Palace of Layers of Time. At this location, one can, just a few steps apart, immerse oneself in entirely different historical eras. One of these temporal layers is highlighted in five newly designed exhibition rooms: During the Nazi period, Schönhausen was not only a popular cultural center, renovated and prepared for exhibitions and events by the Reich Chamber of Fine Arts. Away from public view, however, the palace halls were also used between September 1938 and June 1941 as storage for around 3,750 modern artworks that had been defamed as “degenerate” and confiscated from public museums and collections. These works were intended to be sold to foreign buyers in exchange for foreign currency.

The guided tour through the new section of the permanent exhibition at Schloss Schönhausen (Schönhausen House) explains the process of this “exploitation” using selected documents and introduces individuals who, as employees of the Reich Chamber of Fine Arts, art dealers, or buyers of the works, were either involved in the operation or affected by these art-political measures as artists. From what economic, social, and political circumstances did they act? What were the consequences of being labeled “degenerate” for the artists? During the tour, the stories of the people involved and affected are connected with the histories of the artworks displayed in the five exhibition rooms. These artworks, confiscated in 1938, stored and sold at the palace, have now returned to Schloss Schönhausen 8Schönhausen House) as witnesses of this history.