“Pro Arte in the hands of the jews": between German modernism and National Socialist propaganda.

Abstract

This paper discusses the tensions that arise in Pro Arte, an association of artists and “enthusiasts" of the German arts, from its coup by the German authorities in Brazil at the end of 1933. After the Putsch, the association became a center for dissemination of Nazi propaganda, which generated late reactions from the repressive apparatus of president Varga's Estado Novo and the national press after the declaration of war on the Axis in 1942.

The trajectory of Pro Arte, founded in 1931, was preceded by the work of its main founder, Theodor Heuberger, who had been organizing exhibitions since 1924. In the Pro Arte, Heuberger weaved international cooperations with Deutsche Akademie München and Deutscher Werkbund, two prestigious institutions in the field of humanities and arts in Germany. The Pro Arte Salons, organized by Alberto Guignard, brought together Brazilians and Germans, modernists and academics, communists and nationalists, etc. Its cultural policy, based on exhibitions, publications, language courses, scholarships, exchange of artists and scientists, etc. Reaching almost a thousand members, Pro Arte stood out among the brazilian Deutschtum, which attracted the attention of the German authorities.

Interestingly, the persecution of the Estado Novo's repressive apparatus, especially the DOPS (Department for Political and Social Order), did not directly impact Pro Arte, given that it was a Brazilian cultural institution. The DOPS reports contained contradictory informations, gross errors and all kinds of speculation - with the most serious damage to the association being in the newspaper headlines. The echoes of Nazi propaganda and cultural policy in Brazil through Pro Arte are the main object of this article.