Our Virtual Museum commemorates the artists whose lives were abruptly changed with the end of the Weimar Republic and the rise to power of the National Socialists. Their works were defamed as “degenerate,” and many were destroyed—particularly those of Jewish artists.

Many of them were murdered in concentration camps or psychiatric institutions. Others either went into internal exile or left Germany. Faced with impending repression or deportation, many saw no way out and took their own lives. With the Wehrmacht’s invasion of neighboring countries, Jewish artists in those nations also became victims of Nazi ideology.

From the 1990s onward, the works of these artists were rediscovered. With our presentation of “Lost Generation Art,” we are now laying the foundation for the establishment of a non-profit foundation whose goal is to present the works of these artists in a private museum in physical form in the coming years.

The collection currently comprises more than 100 artworks and is continually expanding. Priority is given not only to the works themselves but also to the often unknown life stories and biographies of those persecuted by the Nazi regime. In recent years, these artists have increasingly received the recognition they deserve within the field of art scholarship.

Since 2017, Salzburg has been home to the museum “Art of the Lost Generation.” It is also a private initiative and, so far, the only museum dedicated exclusively to these artists. Many of these artists still do not have an entry in the German Wikipedia.

We research and reconstruct their biographies, publish them on Wikipedia, and provide new information on Jewish artists to the Central Database of Holocaust Victims at Yad Vashem. In doing so, we help ensure that those who were marginalized by history are given a face once again and, above all, receive the recognition that was denied to them during their lifetimes.

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