Fritz Bayerlein, the 'Gottbegnadeten' and Nazi cultural policy

After nearly three decades of a partly bitter controversy, the Bamberg city council decided in July 2020 to remove four large-format paintings depicting views of the city by Fritz Bayerlein (1872-1955) from the council chamber and the wedding hall of the town hall. The publication featuring contributions from a conference of the same name, held in October 2022 at the Otto Friedrich University of Bamberg, addresses the landscape painter trained at the Munich Academy, who was an early Nazi and experienced a late career boost during the Third Reich with numerous commissions and substantial income. Additionally, it discusses the conditions of art under the Nazi regime, the landscape painting of Hermann Gradl, Willy Kriegel, and others, as well as the denazification and continued careers of the "God-gifted" after 1945.