“Когда я слышу слово “культура”, я хватаюсь за пистолет”
“When I hear the word ‘culture’, I grab the gun”

Summary/Abstract: Telling the story of the aphorism “When I hear the word ‘culture’, I grab a gun,” the author of the essay reflects on the current problems of the attitude of German National Socialism to culture and the intelligentsia. The Nazis contrasted the “healthy” German folk culture with the anti-national one, “degenerated under the influence of Jews”. Proclaiming the value hierarchy of world culture, Nazi ideology assigned a leading place in it to “healthy” German culture. The policy of the Third Reich in the field of culture was implemented in the state system, which, on the one hand, encouraged, rewarded and exalted workers of “correct”, “popular”, “Aryan” culture and, on the other hand, suppressed, punished, destroyed works and representatives of “anti-national”, “Jewish”, “degenerate” culture. An example of this policy was the “Action against the non-German Spirit”. This action was started on April 12. 1933 with the publication of “12 theses against the non-German spirit” and ended on May 10. 1933 with the public burning of “wrong” books in Berlin and in many other German cities.

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