Editing Otto Dix (section)

===The Nazis and World War II===
The Nazi-affiliated Deutsche Kunstgesellschaft Dresden [The German Art Society Dresden] had defined Dix as one of Germany's most 'degenerate' artists long before the Nazis' takeover of power in January 1933. For example, when ''Metropolis'' was exhibited in Dresden for the first time in 1928, one of the German Art Society's founding members and most prominent writer Bettina Feistel-Rohmeder pilloried both Dix personally and the depiction of German society that ''Metropolis'' offered, in the Society's art bulletin, the ''Deutsche Kunstkorrespondenz'' [German Art Correspondence].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Murray |first1=Ann |title=Otto Dix and the Memorialisation of World War I in German Visual Culture, 1914-1936 |date=2023 |publisher=Bloomsbury |location=London |isbn=9781350354647 |pages=124–146 |edition=1st |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nu8LEQAAQBAJ |access-date=5 July 2024}}</ref> In April 1933, Richard Müller, who with Feistel-Rohmeder had founded the ''Deutsche Kunstgesellschaft Dresden'', sacked Dix from his post as a professor of painting at the [[Dresden Academy of Fine Arts|Dresden Academy]], on a directive from Saxony's Reichskommissar Manfred von Killinger. The reason given was that, through his art, he had committed a 'violation of the moral sensibilities' of the nation.<ref>Dr Brad Evans. {{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3DjtCQ_26s |title=What is: Degenerate Art? {{!}} HENI Talks |date=2021-02-15 |last=HENI Talks |access-date=2025-01-07 |via=YouTube}}</ref> Dix later moved to [[Lake Constance]] in the southwest of Germany.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Christie's |title=Otto Dix (1891-1969) Familie Glaser--Karton zum Gemälde |url=https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-4983627 |website=christies.com |quote=In 1933, Dix was dismissed from his post as a professor of art at the Dresden Academy of Art and was forced into internal exile at Lake Constance, near the Swiss border, where he was permitted to paint landscapes only.}}</ref> Dix's paintings ''[[The Trench (Dix)|The Trench]]'' and ''War Cripples'' were exhibited in the [[Degenerate Art Exhibition|state-sponsored Munich 1937 exhibition of degenerate art]], ''[[Degenerate art|Entartete Kunst]]''. ''War Cripples'' was later burned.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-1010/art-between-wars/neue-sachlichkeit/a/art-in-nazi-germany |title=Khan Academy |website=Khan Academy |language=en |access-date=2 January 2018}}</ref> ''The Trench'' was long thought to have been destroyed too, but there are indications the work survived until at least 1940.  Its later whereabouts are unknown; it may have been looted during the confusion at the end of the war.  It has been called 'perhaps the most famous picture in post-war Europe ... a masterpiece of unspeakable horror.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/n/neue-sachlichkeit/lost-art-otto-dix |title=Tate Gallery |website=Tate Gallery |language=en |access-date=14 June 2018}}</ref>

Dix, like all other practising artists, was forced to join the Nazi government's Reich Chamber of Fine Arts (Reichskammer der bildenden Kuenste), a subdivision of Goebbels' Cultural Ministry (''[[Reichskulturkammer]]''). Membership was mandatory for all artists in the Reich. Dix had to promise to paint only inoffensive landscapes. He still painted an occasional allegorical painting that criticized Nazi ideals.<ref>Conzelmann, 1959, p. 50.</ref> His paintings that were considered "degenerate" were discovered in 2012 among the 1500+ paintings [[Gurlitt Collection|hidden away]] by the son of Hitler's looted-art dealer [[Hildebrand Gurlitt]].<ref>Kimmelman, Michael (2013) [https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/06/arts/design/in-a-rediscovered-trove-of-art-a-triumph-over-the-nazis-will.html?_r=0 ''In a Rediscovered Trove of Art, a Triumph Over the Nazis' Will'' in The New York Times] (Accessed: 16 January 2017).</ref><ref name=spiegel>{{cite news|url=http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/photo-gallery-munich-nazi-art-stash-revealed-fotostrecke-103675-4.html |title=Photo Gallery: Munich Nazi Art Stash Revealed |date=17 November 2013 |work=Der Spiegel |access-date=17 November 2013}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title="Trésor nazi": la petite-fille d'Otto Dix accuse Berlin – Nazi Treasure – Otto Dix's Granddaughter accuses Berlin |url=https://lootedart.com/news.php?r=QD1BKT897821 |access-date=16 February 2021 |work=L'Express}}</ref>

In 1939 he was arrested on the trumped-up charge of being involved in a plot against Hitler (see [[Georg Elser]]), but was later released.

During World War II, Dix was conscripted into the ''[[Volkssturm]]''. He was captured by French troops at the end of the war and released in February 1946.