Cardinal in "Nazi Art Term" Row

The BBC reports that a German archbishop has sparked controversy by calling some modern art "degenerate" - a term used by the Nazi regime in its persecution of artists. Cardinal Joachim Meisner, Archbishop of Cologne, was speaking as the church inaugurated its Kolumba art museum. Cardinal Meisner warned that when art became estranged from worship, culture became degenerate. The cardinal had not intended to pay tribute to "old ideologies", a spokesman said. The BBC's Marianne Landzettel says this was no off-the-cuff remark by the cardinal, delivered in a sermon in Cologne Cathedral, but was precisely scripted. She says the phrase degenerate art - "entartete Kunst" - in German has only one connotation: that of Nazi Germany and the persecution of artists, the banning of paintings and the burning of books. After Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, the Nazi government started to bring art under its control. All modern art, and Expressionism in particular, was labelled degenerate and was not to be shown in public. More than 15,000 paintings were removed from German museums. (For full source and full article click the Headline). Irish Art