Der Neue Mensch
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
"Nazi Germany hated modern art. One of the reasons was that modern art was influenced by non-western art. The cover the 1937 guide book to the degenerate art exhibition features the sculpture Der Neue Mensch by Otto Freundlich, linking modern art with 'primitive art'."--Sholem Stein |
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Der Neue Mensch (1912, The New Man) is the title of a sculpture by Otto Freundlich, resembling the Moai large head sculptures on Easter Island.
The work was seized and displayed at the infamous Nazi Degenerate Art Exhibition. Furthermore, it was photographed unsympathetically and used as the cover illustration of the exhibition catalogue. Der Neue Mensch was never recovered and is assumed to have been destroyed.
« Der Neue Mensch » [The new man] is also the title of an essay by Richard Huelsenbeck published in May 1917 in the extreme left journal Neue Jugend. Often cited from that essay is the phrase "der Bürger, der Dicksack, Der Freßhans, das Mastschwein der Geistigkeit, der Türhüter aller Jämmerlichkeiten."