Karlsruhe has a uniquely strong historical authenticity as a location for a Museum of the Lost Generation. Even in the years before 1933, the city was a place where modern art came under growing pressure. Völkisch and far-right cultural circles held significant influence over museums and art schools. In this climate, in the fall of 1932—before the National Socialists came to power—the painter Hans Adolf Bühler, an avowed antisemite, NSDAP member, and outspoken opponent of modernism, was appointed director of the Academy of Fine Arts.
On April 8, 1933, Bühler organized an exhibition at the Kunsthalle in Karlsruhe titled “Baden Government Art 1918–1933.” Together with the Mannheim show “Culture-Bolshevist Pictures,” it was among the very first public defamations of modern art. At the time, the Karlsruher Zeitung referred to the presentation as a “chamber of horrors of art.”
This marked the birth of the term that soon spread across Germany alongside the label “shame exhibition.” It was coined by Curt Amend, editor-in-chief of the Karlsruher Zeitung. The deliberately chaotic hanging and disparaging commentary later served as a blueprint for the major Munich exhibition “Degenerate Art” of 1937, which was shown in many cities across Germany and Austria.
Although the “Museum of the Lost Generation” has existed in Salzburg since 2017, a comparable institution in Germany—the country where the persecution originated—would carry a particularly significant symbolic meaning.
Our objective is to consistently implement this project and to fund it entirely through private means within the framework of a non-profit foundation. To this end, we are seeking to acquire additional works by artists of the 'Lost Generation' for our collection, which currently comprises approximately 130 pieces. We welcome every work offered to us for purchase or as a donation.
The planned opening date is April 8, 2033—the very day, exactly 100 years earlier, when the “chamber of horrors of art” opened its doors in Karlsruhe. From that day onward—coincidentally a Friday—the works of the Lost Generation will once again be visible in the city where, a century earlier, they were branded as “degenerate.”
