| Nederlandsche Kultuurkamer | |
 | |
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 25 November 1941 (1941-11-25) |
| Dissolved | 1945 (1945) |
| Jurisdiction | Reichskommissariat Niederlande |
| Headquarters | 2 Van de Boschstraat, The Hague |
| Parent department | Department of Public Information and the Arts [nl] |
TheNetherlands Chamber of Culture (Dutch:Nederlandsche Kultuurkamer) was an institution established byNazi Germany in theoccupied Netherlands to regulate the production and distribution of art. Officially established on 25 November 1941, the chamber followed the model of theReich Chamber of Culture in Germany and began operations on 22 January 1942. By 1 April of that year, all persons and institutions involved in the arts were required to register, with the former being demanded to submit anAryan certificate and the latter being compelled to align their regulations with those of the chamber. By August 1944, the chamber had 42,000 registered members, from prominent artists toorgan grinders.
Initially headed byTobie Goedewaagen, theNederlandsche Kultuurkamer was briefly led byHermannus Reydon in February 1943 beforeSebastiaan de Ranitz took office. The chamber consisted of six guilds, dealing respectively with theatre and dance, music, literature, film, architecture, and the press. It had the legislated power to close shops, impose fines on artists who continued to work in public without registering, andban books, music broadcasts, and visual arts. The chamber also published its own magazine,De Schouw [nl] (The View).
After the Second World War ended in 1945, Goedewaagen and de Ranitz were both arrested; Reydon had died in August 1943 following an attack by theDutch resistance. Members of theNederlandsche Kultuurkamer were prohibited from public performance until cleared by the government. Artists who had resisted, either by refusing to register or by actively continuing to practise, were viewed more positively. The chamber's national headquarters in the Hague were destroyed during thebombing of the Bezuidenhout.
Following the 1933 appointment ofAdolf Hitler aschancellor of Germany, theNazi Party rose to power in Germany through the 1930s.[1] The expansionist regimeannexed numerous areas, with the 1939invasion of Poland officially recognized as the start of the Second World War.[2] The Netherlands, hoping that neutrality would protect it asduring the First World War, remained officially neutral. Nevertheless, Germanyinvaded the country on 10 May 1940. Four days later, after the city ofRotterdam washeavily damaged in a series of bombings, the government capitulated to the Nazi regime and Germany assumed control.[3] In a May 1940 speech,Arthur Seyss-Inquart, thereichskommissar for the occupied Netherlands, promised that Dutch culture would remain unaffected.[4] Nonetheless, as in other territories, the occupation regime ultimately enacted a policy ofgleichschaltung – enforced political conformity.[1]
.jpg)
In this capacity, theNederlandsche Kultuurkamer was officially established on 25 November 1941.[5] Operations began two months later, on 22 January 1942.[6] Modelled after theReich Chamber of Culture, which had been established in Germany in 1933,[5] it was mandated with promoting Dutch culture "in the light of its responsibility towards the national community"[a] while simultaneously regulating and coordinating the cultural professions.[7]Tobie Goedewaagen, a member of theNational Socialist Movement in the Netherlands (NSB) who served concurrently as the Secretary General of theDepartment of Public Information and the Arts [nl] and the chamber's first president, described the chamber as necessary to bridge the cultural gap between artists and "the people".[5][6] This, according to the institutional mandate, would be achieved by eradicatingdegenerate art and nazifying Dutch society.[5]
To spread awareness of theNederlandsche Kultuurkamer, the occupation government published a brochure titledWaarom een Nederlandsche Kultuurkamer? (Why a Netherlands Chamber of Culture?). This brochure emphasized the chamber's status as a regulatory, rather than professional, body and held that it organized artists and not art.[8] A second pamphlet, detailing the organizational structure of the chamber, was published by the Nazi regime in November 1942.[9] The chamber also published its own magazine,De Schouw [nl] (The View), between January 1942 and January 1945.[10] Nonetheless, resistance among artists was high, with a 1942 open letter initiated by the sculptorGerrit van der Veen receiving hundreds of signatures.[11]
Goedewaagen led theNederlandsche Kultuurkamer from its inception through 28 January 1943, when he was dismissed from the NSB for failure to report to a disciplinary committee after a conflict withAnton Mussert.[12] In his memoirs, he wrote that his leadership had been marked by tension with the German occupation government, including differences of opinion over the work ofJan Sluyters,[13] as well as his opposition to the propaganda work ofErnst Voorhoeve [nl].[12] He was replaced byHermannus Reydon, the former editor-in-chief of the NSB-associatedHet Nationale Dagblad [nl].[14]
Reydon's leadership, however, was short-lived, as he was attacked by a member of theDutch resistance on 9 February 1943.[14] By March the acting presidency had been taken bySebastiaan de Ranitz,[15] a jurist who had headed the legal office at the Department of Public Information and the Arts.[16] Reydon died of his wounds on 24 August of that year,[12][14] and de Ranitz remained the president of the organization until its dissolution;[17] theParlementair Documentatie Centrum lists him as officially holding the role until May 1945, the month that the German regime capitulated.[16]
On 6 June 1944,Allied forceslanded in Normandy, France. Over the next three months, these forces fought toward Belgium and the Netherlands. By 4 September, the Belgian port ofAntwerp had been liberated.[18] When this was reported in the Netherlands on 5 September 1944, together with claims that Allies were already inBreda, residents celebrated in the streets. This reverie, popularly known asMad Tuesday, was premature;[19] the Allies'Operation Market Garden to secure bridges across theMeuse,Waal, andRhine Rivers was unsuccessful, and only parts of the southern Netherlands were liberated by the end of the month. Subsequent efforts, however, were able tosecure the Scheldt River by November. Although the retreating Germans flooded parts of the Netherlands andinduced famine, in early 1945 theFirst Canadian Army was pushing through the country.[18]
Sometime after Mad Tuesday, as many Nazis and collaborators fled the Netherlands for Germany,[19] de Ranitz left the national headquarters of theNederlandsche Kultuurkamer for the Groningen regional office. The number of staff decreased steadily, in part due to increased demand for labour andLandwacht, and in part due to the flight of the loyalists.[20] Over the ensuing months, staff in the Hague continued to write reports and make plans for further development. Some expected that, should the Allies liberate the Netherlands, they could simply transfer matters over to the new government.[21] Ultimately, however, the national headquarters at Van de Boschstraat 2 was destroyed on 3 March 1945, after the Royal Air Forcebombed the nearbyBezuidenhout neighbourhood.[22]
Also in March 1945, the authorities in the liberated Netherlands announced that a special committee would be established under theMinistry of Education, Arts, and Science to assess the members of theNederlandsche Kultuurkamer and their motivations. In the interim, all former members were prohibited from performing in public. Persons who had refused to join the chamber, meanwhile, could receive a declaration to that effect;[23] these artists were viewed more positively than former members by the public.[5] The Germans in the Netherlands officially surrendered on 5 May 1945,[18] formally ending the chamber. In August 1945, A. Mout of the Hague was appointed liquidator,[24] and both Goedewaagen and de Ranitz were ultimately arrested.[16][25]
.jpg)
In scope, theNederlandsche Kultuurkamer encompassed all areas related to the production, reproduction, processing, distribution, maintenance, marketing, and mediation of cultural property, except where exclusively commercial, administrative, or mechanical.[7] In exercising its mandate, the organization consisted of six guilds, variously responsible for theatre and dance, music, literature, film, architecture, and the press.[5] These guilds were accountable to a president, who had the authority to appoint deputies and represent the chamber in court, as well as establish provincial branches. The president, in turn, was accountable to the Secretary General of the Department of Public Information and the Arts.[7]
In music, theNederlandsche Kultuurkamer prohibited the playing and broadcast of Jewish works, and several symphonies associated with Jewish musicians were disbanded.[26] Later, censorship expanded to include music from Poland, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, including jazz.[5] Visual artists were limited in their approaches, and items deemedkitsch were prohibited; in 1944, several dealerships throughout the Netherlands that sold such works were closed by the chamber.[27] Works byMarc Chagall andPablo Picasso were deemed degenerate.[13]
Much of theNederlandsche Kultuurkamer's attention was given to the written word and film. The new regime deemed film to be a political weapon, and thus the German leadership put heavy emphasis on propaganda.[13] In literature, the chamber established new awards to incentivize membership. At the same time, works byAlbert Verwey andHenriëtte Roland Holst were banned, andlending libraries were subjected to significant oversight as potential promulgators of forbidden works.[28] The literature guild, under the philologistJan de Vries, promoted provincial (rather than urban) literature as coming "from the heart of the people".[b][29] Consequently, the virtues ofEvert Zandstra [nl],Jan Eekhout, andReinder Brolsma [nl] were extolled.[29]
Meanwhile, in the press, theNederlandsche Kultuurkamer controlled the mass media. Journalists were required to register with the government, as well as partake in a four-week introduction toNational Socialism.[13] Most commercial publications registered with the agency, fearing the commercial implications of non-compliance, though some individual journalists resisted. One member,De Telegraaf, published several pro-German articles during the war; consequently, after theliberation of the Netherlands in 1945, its publication was prohibited for thirty years, though this restriction was lifted in 1949.[5]
Effective 1 April 1942, registration with theNederlandsche Kultuurkamer was required for all persons and institutions involved in the arts;[30] exemptions could be granted by the president of the chamber where the practice of art was incidental.[7] As Jewish artists were excluded, and in compliance withNazi eugenic policies, potential candidates were required to submit anAryan certificate to prove theirracial purity.[5] By mid-year 26,000 artists had registered; this number increased to 42,000 by August 1944.[5] Some of these registrants werecollaborators, while others sought to safeguard their incomes and maintain hope during theoccupation.[5] Members ranged from prominent figures in their fields toorgan grinders and pub owners.[31]
Individual non-registrants found to be practising the arts would be subject to fines of up to 5,000guilders or prosecution.[32] Nonetheless, enforcement activities were limited, and several artists flouted the requirements. The poetAdriaan Roland Holst, when urged to register, refused to complete his Aryan certificate and wrote that the institution's disapproval would be greatly appreciated.[5] The actorAdolphe Engers stopped performing, as did the songstressJo Vincent, who gave her last performance of the war on 31 March 1942.[33][34] Authors such asAntoon Coolen,Ferdinand Bordewijk, andMadelon Szekely-Lulofs refused to publish works during the occupation.[34] A colony atOost Castle inEijsden, led byJopie andTeun Roosenburg, smuggled Jews out of the Netherlands while trading art for food.[35]
Institutions and organizations that became members of theNederlandsche Kultuurkamer were required to bring their internal policies in line with those of the chamber.[7] Members included the Federation of Dutch Musical Artists' Associations, theAssociation of Men of Letters [nl], the Dutch Publishers' Union, theAssociation for the Promotion of the Interests of Book Trades [nl], and the Dutch Booksellers' Union, all of which served as the basis of the guilds in their respective fields. Other organizations were incorporated into the chamber itself.[36]
For organizations, failure to comply likewise carried penalties.[32] Nonetheless, some refused to register with theNederlandsche Kultuurkamer. When the Royal Harmonic of Maastricht refused to register with the chamber, arguing that it was "better to go down with honour than to continue to exist in doubt",[c] its assets – including its instruments and sheet music – were seized.[37] Other organizations, such as the craft and industrial art communityV.A.N.K, chose to disband rather than register.[38]