Editing Kurt Schwitters (section)

===Norway===
[[File:Entartete Kunst, Degenerate Art exhibition catalogue, 1937, p. 23, Johannes Molzahn, Jean Metzinger, Kurt Schwitters.jpg|thumb|Entartete Kunst, [[Degenerate Art Exhibition]] catalogue, 1937, p. 23, [[Johannes Molzahn]], [[Jean Metzinger]] (''[[En Canot]]''), Kurt Schwitters]]

As the political situation in Germany under the [[Nazis]] continued to deteriorate throughout the 1930s, Schwitters's work began to be included in the [[Degenerate Art|''Entartete Kunst'' (Degenerate Art)]] touring exhibition organised by the Nazi party from 1933. He lost his contract with Hanover City Council in 1934, and examples of his work in German museums were confiscated and publicly ridiculed in 1935. By the time his close friends Christof and Luise Spengemann and their son Walter were arrested by the [[Gestapo]] in August 1936<ref name=archive2>{{cite web |last1=Schröder |first1=Silke |last2=Husslik |first2=Jürgen |last3=Gottfried |first3=Sagitta |title=Kurt & Ernst Schwitters Archive |url=http://www.schwitters-stiftung.de/english/bio-ks2.html |url-status=live |website=Schwitters-stiftung.de |publisher=Schlütersche Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG |location=Hanover |access-date=17 February 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080523104655/http://www.schwitters-stiftung.de/english/bio-ks2.html |archive-date=23 May 2008}}</ref> the situation had clearly become perilous.

On 2 January 1937 Schwitters, wanted for an "interview" with the Gestapo,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.stunned.org/kdeE.htm |title=Stunned Art |publisher=Stunned.org |date=26 December 1936 |access-date=17 February 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080828183848/http://www.stunned.org/kdeE.htm |archive-date=28 August 2008 |url-status=dead}}</ref> fled to Norway to join his son Ernst, who had already left Germany on 26 December 1936. His wife Helma decided to remain in Hanover, to manage their four properties.<ref name=archive2/> In the same year, his Merz pictures were included in the ''Entartete Kunst'' exhibition in Munich, making his return impossible.

Helma visited Schwitters in Norway for a few months each year up to the outbreak of World War II. The joint celebrations for his mother Henriette's 80th birthday and his son Ernst's engagement, held in Oslo on 2 June 1939, would be the last time the two met.

Schwitters started a second Merzbau while in exile in [[Lysaker]], near [[Oslo]], in 1937, but abandoned it in 1940 when the [[Nazi Germany|Nazis]] invaded; this Merzbau was subsequently destroyed in a fire in 1951. His hut on the Norwegian island of Hjertøya, near [[Molde (town)|Molde]], is also frequently regarded as a Merzbau. For decades this building was more or less left to rot, but measures have now been taken to preserve the interior.<ref>See the Kurt Schwitters Project at Henie Ostad art centre in Norway.{{cite web|url=http://www.hok.no/kurt-schwitters.4819348.html |title=THE KURT SCHWITTERS ROOM – Henie-Onstad Kunstsenter |access-date=18 February 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130420004725/http://www.hok.no/kurt-schwitters.4819348.html |archive-date=20 April 2013}}</ref>