In July 1937, Adolf Hitler's Nazi party mounted an exhibition of confiscated art, "Entartete Kunst", meaning "Degenerate Art". It showcased –and ridiculed– the work of contemporary artists such as Max Beckman, Emil Nolde, Otto Dix, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Oskar Kokoschka, and over 200 others.

The exhibition was intended to show the public the insanity, atrocity, and depravity of the modern art movement. Artists included in the show, many of whom are now recognized as modern masters, were depicted as demented, deranged, and subhuman.

On March 20th, 1939, the Degenerate Art Commission ordered over one thousand paintings and almost four thousand watercolors and drawings burned in the courtyard of a fire station in Berlin. Other works were auctioned off to the highest bidder. The final solution for artwork deemed unacceptable for public consumption was complete.