Architecture and PropagandaD. vii. Haus der (Deutschen) Kunst

Architecture is used as a propagandistic tool to intentionally communicate ideas of power

and politics for many years if not always. Architects have the ability to create a social narrative that

revolves around physical and theoretical construction and destruction of parties. Architecture plays

a role in influencing viewers while being influenced at the same time. Nowadays designs are even

more affected and moulded in the way the political or economical aspirations intend them to.

Higher authorities and leaders of nations try to use design and architecture to prove a point and their

power economically or politically. This definitely does not sound too unfamiliar because it is the

exact strategy the Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt and Roman emperors like Trajan and many others

used before.

Haus der (Deutschen) Kunst

In 1930-1940s when National Socialist Party is in power, architecture in Germany is

definitely controlled and manipulated as a propaganda tool. The way buildings are designed and the

plans of a newly constructed city plan in Munich, where Hitler had his head quarters and many

people related to the party lived and worked, clearly are designed in a propagandistic motive.

Haus der Kunst building in Munich, is one of the first representative buildings of the time.

Adolf Hitler hires the architect Paul Ludwig Troost and the construction begins in 1934. The

building is to serve as a blatant and huge propaganda to National Socialist Regime. Art has been

hugely important to their ideology, therefore even the plans of a new, polished and enormous

building to exhibit German artworks is a strong propaganda in itself. The style the building is

designed tells many things about the motives of the architect. [vii] The size of the whole body of the

building can be quite scary. One can feel very small and insignificant climbing the steps and

walking into the arcade surrounded by excess number of very large columns. This was the exact

feeling that the architectural style of the design is intended to give. They wanted the person walking

in and around the building to feel small and weak unless they were a part of a bigger group. This

supports the ideology’s emphasis on strength in unity and togetherness.

Many other examples can be given for national socialist architecture which show

architecture is used as a very crucial and successful, one might even say, tool of propaganda in

1930’s and onwards.