I hope y’all are familiar with the history of art in Nazi Germany. It’s a fascinating topic. One key thing to understand is that Adolf Hitler was a fairly decent painter. Unfortunately, he wasn’t considered good enough as a young man to be accepted to Vienna’s Academy of Fine Arts, and this failure seems to have curdled his soul with tragic consequences for the world. Still, he had strong opinions about art and a definite distaste for abstract or modern modes of expression.

Mere months after becoming chancellor of Germany in 1933, Hitler established the Reichskulturkammer (RKK) under the leadership of propaganda minister Josef Goebbels. Seven departments were created to oversee, respectively, film, music, visual arts, theatre, literature, media, and radio. In order to work as a professional artist, people had to obtain an Aryan certificate and register with the the RKK.

Cultural works in the Third Reich were supposed to glorify Germany and the regime, and to embody Aryan values. But it wasn’t clear what criteria would or could be used to define ‘Aryan’ art. Unsurprisingly, the people most responsible for making these decisions had different tastes. Goebbels actually enjoyed and collected some abstract art, while Alfred Rosenberg “liked the pastoral, romantic style that depicted humble farmers, rural landscapes and blond maidens.” Heinrich Himmler preferred “mystical, Germanic art that harked back to a tribal past.” For several years, these men battled it out to determine what should be the standard.

Then in 1937, the regime decided to show their work. In Munich, they produced two dueling exhibits at the newly unveiled House of German Art. The first was the Great Exhibition of German Art, which displayed what they considered the ideal in Aryan values. Simultaneously, they ran the Entartete Kunst (Degenerate Art) exhibition, which included disapproved art taken from museums from all across the country. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the people flocked much more heavily to see the “degenerate” art, although that doesn’t mean that they preferred it. The display was intentionally made to inspire revulsion and ridicule: “The pictures were hung askew, there was graffiti on the walls, which insulted the art and the artists, and made claims that made this art seem outlandish, ridiculous.”

It was the culmination of a dream for Hitler, which he explained in a speech before the doors were opened to the public.

When, four years ago, the ceremonial cornerstone laying for this building took place, we were all aware that it was imperative to lay not only the cornerstone for a new building, but also the foundation for a new and genuinely German art. The goal was to bring about a turning point in the development of all German cultural creation…

…The collapse and overall decline of Germany was – as we know – not only academic or political, but rather, and perhaps to a far greater extent, cultural. Moreover, this process was also not solely attributable to the fact of the lost war. Such catastrophes have often afflicted peoples and states, and these events have not infrequently provided an impetus for their cleansing and, with it, their inner elevation. But that flood of slime and refuse, which the year 1918 spewed onto the surface of our lives, was not produced by the loss of the war, but instead only released by it. It was only through the defeat that such a thoroughly rotten body first experienced the full extent of its inner decay. After the collapse of those earlier social, political, and cultural forms that were only seemingly in order, the baseness that was underlying them for so long began to triumph, and in all areas of life at that…

…And so this exhibit today is a beginning. But I am convinced that it is the necessary and promising beginning to bring about also in this area the beneficial change that we have already been able to accomplish in so many other areas. For let no one deceive himself: National Socialism has given itself the task of freeing the German Reich, and thus our people and their life, from all those influences that are pernicious to our existence. And even if this purification cannot happen in a single day, every person or thing that is participating in this perversion should realize that the hour of his elimination will come sooner or later.

But the opening of this exhibit is the beginning of the end of German artistic foolery and thus of the cultural destruction of our people.

Now, with that history in mind, let’s jump to the present.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday taking aim at the Smithsonian and its museums, education and research centers. Trump directed Vice President JD Vance to eliminate ‘improper, divisive, or anti-American’ ideology from programs at the Smithsonian Institution, which receives federal funding.

The presidential order seeks to restore “truth and sanity to American history by revitalizing key cultural institutions and reversing the spread of divisive ideology.” It states that President Trump wants the Smithsonian to exhibit work that “celebrates American history and ingenuity, serves as a symbol to the world of American greatness, and makes America proud.”

It further states, under the heading “COMBATING CORROSIVE IDEOLOGY,” that “In the last decade, Americans have witnessed a concerted effort to rewrite American history and force our nation to adopt a factually baseless ideology aimed at diminishing American achievement.”

As Steve Benen states, “How does the White House define words such as “improper,” “divisive,” “anti-American” and “corrosive” in an ideological context? The order didn’t say. Presumably, Trump knows it when he sees it…It comes on the heels of Trump’s recent takeover of the Kennedy Center, part of which included his desire to see the arts institution put on productions in line with his cultural vision.”

The effort to seize ideological control of cultural institutions and control what kind of art can be performed or displayed within them is straight of out Hitler’s playbook, only this time J.D Vance, the vice-president, is playing Goebbel’s role as Reichsminister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda.

And he’s getting an assist from Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, who is charged in the order with restoring “Federal parks, monuments, memorials, statues, markers, or similar properties that have been improperly removed or changed in the last five years to perpetuate a false revision of history or improperly minimize or disparage certain historical figures or events.” In other words, Burgum is to reverse the decision to end the practice of honoring Confederate generals. This is presumably because, in the fascist regime’s view, a failure to honor treasonous slaver-holders diminishes “American achievement.”

Make no mistake. J.D. Vance has just been tasked with ” freeing the [country], and thus our people and their life, from all those influences that are pernicious to our existence. And even if this purification cannot happen in a single day, every person or thing that is participating in this perversion should realize that the hour of his elimination will come sooner or later.”

This means you.

Nothing will improve until the fascist regime is defeated.