Architecture Of Doom

Defining Nazism has always been difficult precisely because its policies and goals do not resemble any known political system. Even though enslavement has always been a popular method of controlling conquered peoples, history offers no parallel--political or otherwise--to Hitler's Final Solution. However, the insane workings of the Third Reich become a little clearer after watching Architecture of Doom, an excellent documentary by Peter Cohen which analyzes the relationship between Hitler the failed artist and architect and Hitler the war lord. The film, which combines archival film footage and stills along with paintings and architectural designs, traces Hitler's fascination with Wagner's grandiloquent operas, his fervent appreciation of antiquity, and his concomitant war on the "degenerate art" of the 1920s and 1930s in Germany (Hitler, who often purchased over 200 pieces of art at the annual German art show, favored rather bland-looking landscapes and perfectly proportioned Aryan sculpture). In fact, the film shows how the attack on avant garde art which often depicted misshapen people was transferred into standard medical protocol for eliminating undesirables (the mentally afflicted and physically deformed, initially). In what came to be known as the T4 program, carbon monoxide was used to kill unfortunates who did not meet up to Nazism's physical standards. In tracing the relationship between Hitler's thwarted artistic aims (he wasted huge amounts of German coin on grandiose--and often artistically immature--architecture) and his twisted leadership of the Nazi Party, Cohen illuminates some of the real mysteries behind the evolution of Hitler's ideas and his monstrous stewardship of Germany during WWII. Highly recommended. (R. Pitman)