arts in exile

Back to the graphical presentation

• 26 May 1939

  Leopold Jessner's ensemble Continental Players, comprised exclusively of refugees from Hitler's Germany, presents the first English version of Wilhelm Tell, at the El Capitain Theater in Los Angeles.
• 30 June 1939

  The Reich government auctions works by "degenerate artists" in Lucerne. The works are sold for a fraction of their actual value.
  The auction is carried out at the suggestion of Hermann Göring, who hopes to get a hold of foreign currencies by selling art abroad. The Swiss art dealer, Theodor Fischer is instructed not to reveal that the German government is the beneficiary from the auction.
• 24 August 1939

  Signing of the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact, also known as the "Hitler-Stalin Pact", which is set for ten years.
• 

  Invasion of Poland: Danzig "national police" and border officials restore the demolished Polish border posts on the border to the Free City of Danzig. Near Sopot, on 1 September 1939.

  Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-51909-0003, photographer: Sönnke, Hans

  1 September 1939

  The invasion of Poland signals the start of the Second World War.
• 3 September 1939

  France and the UK declare war on Germany.
• September 1939

  A former brickworks in the French town of Les Milles is turned into an internment camp for "enemy aliens", where prominent German writers and artists such as Lion Feuchtwanger, Max Ernst and Hans Bellmer will be interned.  
• 

  Gruppenführer SS and Head of the Reich Main Security Office Reinhard Heydrich 

  Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-R98683, photographer: not stated

  27 September 1939

  The key security police organs (the Gestapo and the Reich Criminal Police) are merged with the Main Security Office of the Reichsführer-SS to form the Reich Main Security Office.
  This union leads to the creation of the central office responsible for all Nazi acts of terror and repression with the “Central Reich Office for Jewish Emigration” also subject to its jurisdiction.
• 17 October 1939

  Members of the SS and the police are no longer under normal jurisdiction, and thus no longer constrained by the rule of law.
• 9 November 1939

  The film Ninotchka, by German-American director Ernst Lubitsch, premieres in the US. Story, script and direction are all supplied by emigrants, and the cast includes German exile Alexander Granach.
• 11 January 1940

  Premiere of German scriptwriter Curt Alexander's film Menaces in Paris. The film is an émigré tragedy.