Rathausausstellung 2026 - Tafel 04: Kultur unter Verwaltung | Town-hall Exhibition 2026 - Panel 04: State-sanctioned culture

The Hamburg Cultural Authority established under the Nazi regime In October 1933, Hamburg’s National Socialist government placed the cultural sector under state administration by establishing the ‘Authority for Church and Art Affairs'. As Senator for Culture, Wilhelm von Allwörden was in charge of five civil servants and a dozen employees. The authority dismissed museum directors and theatre managers deemed politically undesirable. Disputes over modern art meant that the cultural administration as a whole was restructured. Following the Greater Hamburg Act of 1938, the cultural administration was reorganised once again under the stewardship of Dr Hellmuth Becker and was renamed the ‘Authority for Art and Cultural Affairs’. It had a budget of 7 million Reichsmarks. When the Second World War broke out, it was entrusted with the special task of bolstering the population's and the soldiers' readiness for war through cultural means