Abstract

This article reconstructs changes in the German art market during the First World War on the basis of an art-price index for the years 1910 to 1918. The art market during the war was closely tied to the monetary deterioration of the German economy, which undermined trust in paper money. Through an analysis of prices and auction reports, this article shows that from 1916 onwards, the public invested in art, evidence that the pattern of expenditure for tangible assets more commonly associated with postwar hyperinflation had already taken off during the war. At the same time, the First World War precipitated the disintegration of a bourgeois milieu of collectors, marking a transition from the traditional market into a modern and rational auction more open to speculative incentives. The inflow of new buyers shook the hierarchies and conventions of the market. Reports published in the auction journal Der Kunstmarkt provide insight into the reactions of insiders from Germany’s Bildungsbürgertum to this transformation. The more visible the monetary value of art, the bigger these insiders’ contempt for newcomers, whom they found guilty of overthrowing the rules of patronage of the old market. Derogatory depictions of new buyers as either investors or war profiteers were a means for insiders to define their own socio-cultural standing at a time of crisis, establishing a pattern that would subsequently characterize many postwar debates on both politics and culture.

中文翻译：

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鸡尾酒之乡：德国艺术市场与第一次世界大战*

摘要

本文根据1910年至1918年的艺术品价格指数，重建了第一次世界大战期间德国艺术品市场的变化。战争期间的艺术品市场与德国经济的货币恶化紧密相关，从而破坏了信任纸币。通过对价格和拍卖报告的分析，该文章表明，从1916年起，公众开始对艺术品进行投资，这证明了战后恶性通货膨胀更普遍地涉及到有形资产的支出方式。同时，第一次世界大战促使收藏家的资产阶级环境瓦解，这标志着从传统市场向现代，理性的拍卖的过渡，这种拍卖对投机性激励更加开放。新买家的涌入动摇了市场的等级制度和惯例。在拍卖杂志上发表的报告Der Kunstmarkt提供了有关德国Bildungsbürgertum内部人士对这一转变的反应的见解。艺术的货币价值越明显，这些内部人士对新移民的蔑视就越大，他们认为新移民有罪推翻旧市场的赞助规则。对新买主既是投资者又是战争获利者的贬损描绘，是内部人士在危机时期定义自己的社会文化地位的一种手段，建立了一种模式，该模式随后将成为战后许多关于政治和文化辩论的特征。