Gottbegnadeten list

The list exempted the designated artists from military mobilisation during the final stages of World War II. Each listed artist received a letter from the Nazi Propaganda Ministry which certified his or her status. A total of 1,041 names of artists, architects, music conductors, singers, writers and filmmakers appeared on the list. Of that number, 24 were named as especially indispensable; they thus became the equivalent of National Socialism's "national treasures".

Goebbels included about 640 motion picture actors, writers and directors on an extended version of the list. They were to be protected as part of his propaganda film efforts, which persisted through the end of the war (and culminating in the expensive final UFA production Kolberg, released in January 1945).

Many of the cultural figures appearing on the list are no longer widely remembered but there are exceptions, including a number of renowned classical musicians such as the composers Richard Strauss, Hans Pfitzner, and Carl Orff, the orchestral conductors Wilhelm Furtwängler and Herbert von Karajan, and the Wagnerian baritone Rudolf Bockelmann. The only foreigner (Ausländer) on the list was Dutch actor Johannes Heesters.[1]

There was also an extended list, the so-called "Führerliste" that included "God-gifted artists" who were not to be drafted but worked as "Künstler im Kriegseinsatz" (artists in the war effort).

Authors

Writer Hans Grimm

• Hans Friedrich Blunck (1888–1961)
• Friedrich Griese (1890–1975)
• Josef Weinheber (1892–1945)
• Gustav Frenssen (1863–1945)
• Hans Grimm (1875–1959)
• Max Halbe (1865–1944)
• Heinrich Lilienfein (1879–1952)
• Börries Freiherr von Münchhausen (1874–1945)
• Wilhelm Schäfer (1868–1952)
• Helene Voigt-Diederichs (1875–1961)

Composers

Conductor and composer Ottmar Gerster

Composer Carl Orff

• Johann Nepomuk David (1895–1977)
• Werner Egk (1901–1983)
• Gerhard Frommel (1906–1984)
• Harald Genzmer (1909–2007)
• Ottmar Gerster (1897–1969)
• Kurt Hessenberg (1908–1994)
• Paul Höffer (1895–1949)
• Karl Höller (1907–1987)
• Mark Lothar (1902–1985)
• Joseph Marx (1882–1964)
• Gottfried Müller (Komponist) (1914–1993)
• Carl Orff (1895–1982)
• Ernst Pepping (1901–1981)
• Max Trapp (1887–1971)
• Fried Walter (1907–1996)
• Hermann Zilcher (1881–1948)[2][4]

Conductors

Conductor Herbert von Karajan

• Hermann Abendroth (1883–1956)
• Karl Elmendorff (1891–1962)
• Robert Heger (1886–1978)
• Oswald Kabasta (1896–1946)
• Herbert von Karajan (1908–1989)
• Johannes Schüler (1894–1966)
• Karl Böhm (1894–1981)
• Eugen Jochum (1902–1987)
• Hans Knappertsbusch (1888–1965)
• Joseph Keilberth (1908–1968)
• Rudolf Krasselt (1879–1954)
• Clemens Krauss (1893–1954)
• Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt (1900–1973)
• Carl Schuricht (1880–1967)

Instrumentalists

Composer and pianist Walter Gieseking

• Ludwig Hoelscher (1907–1996), cellist
• Elly Ney (1882–1968), pianist
• Walter Morse Rummel (1887–1953), pianist
• Günther Ramin (1898–1956), organist and choirmaster
• Walter Gieseking (1895–1956), pianist
• Wilhelm Stross (1907–1966), violinist
• Gerhard Taschner (1922–1976), violinist

Theater and opera

Actor Heinrich George

• Raoul Aslan (1886–1958), director and actor
• Heinrich George (1893–1946), actor
• Werner Krauß (1884–1959), actor
• Karl-Heinz Stroux (1908–1985), actor and director
• Heinrich Schlusnus (1888–1952), singer
• Wilhelm Strienz (1899–1987), singer
• Paula Wessely (1907–2000), actress

Fine Arts

Painter Ludwig Dettmann

• Claus Bergen (1885–1964), marine painter
• Ludwig Dettmann (1865–1944), war painter (member of the Berlin Secession)
• Fritz Mackensen (1866–1953), painter
• Franz Stassen (1869–1949), painter
• Clemens Klotz (1886–1969), architect
• Alfred Mahlau (1894–1967), painter
• Ernst Neufert (1900–1986), architect
• Bruno Paul (1874–1968), architect
• Richard Scheibe (1879–1964), sculptor
• Joseph Wackerle (1880–1959), sculptor

Actor Wolf Albach-Retty

• Wolf Albach-Retty (1908–1967)
• Willy Fritsch (1901–1973)
• Attila Hörbiger (1896–1987)
• Viktor de Kowa (1904–1973)
• Harry Piel (1892–1963)
• Hans Albers (1891–1960)
• Karl Dannemann (1896–1945)
• O. W. Fischer (1915–2004)
• Hans Holt (1909–2001)
• Paul Hörbiger (1894–1981)
• Ferdinand Marian (1902–1946)
• Armin Schweizer (1892–1968)
• Hermann Thimig (1890–1982)

• Reserved occupation

• Maximilian Haas: Die Gottbegnadeten-Liste (BArch R 55/20252a) in: Juri Giannini, Maximilian Haas und Erwin Strouhal (Hrsg.): Eine Institution zwischen Repräsentation und Macht. Die Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien im Kulturleben des Nationalsozialismus. Mille Tre Verlag, Vienna 2014, pp. 239–276. ISBN 978-3-900198-36-7.
• Rathkolb, Oliver (1991). Führertreu und gottbegnadet: Künstlereliten im Dritten Reich. Vienna: ÖBV.