Artists
As noted in the introduction, it is possible to gain an overview of artists during the Third Reich because they were regulated by the professional organization, the Reich Chamber for the Visual Arts. Although this neocorporatist body turned professionalization models on their head because the organization stemmed from above, rather than from the members themselves, there can be no doubt about a professional identity for the vast majority of the practicing artists during the Third Reich. The Reich Chamber for the Visual Arts was designated a public law corporation and, as such, had the power to regulate the issues that were important to the artists' professional livelihood: training, economic conditions, awards, among others. 1 Because membership in one of the seven Reich Chambers of Culture was required of all individuals "who participated in the 'creation, reproduction, intellectual or technical processing, dissemination, preservation, and sale of cultural goods'" and because the First Decree for the Implementation of the Reich Chamber of Culture Law included a crucial provision in paragraph 10, according to which "admission into a cham-
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