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The Gallery of Miracles and Madness

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What to expect

‘A riveting tale, brilliantly told' Philippe Sands

The little-known story of Hitler’s war on modern art and the mentally ill.

In the first years of the Weimar Republic, the German psychiatrist Hans Prinzhorn gathered a remarkable collection of works by schizophrenic patients that would astonish and delight the world.

The Prinzhorn collection, as it was called, inspired a new generation of artists, including Paul Klee, Max Ernst and Salvador Dali. What the doctor could not have known, however, was that these works would later be used to prepare the ground for mass-murder.

Soon after his rise to power, Hitler—a failed artist of the old school—declared war on modern art. The Nazis staged giant ‘Degenerate Art’ shows to ridicule the avant-garde, and seized and destroyed the cream of Germany's modern art collections. This action was mere preparation, however, for the even more sinister campaign Hitler would later wage against so-called "degenerate" people, and Prinzhorn's artists were caught up in both.

Bringing together inspirational art history, genius and madness, and the wanton cruelty of the fanatical "artist-Führer", this astonishing story lays bare the culture war that paved the way for Hitler's first extermination programme, the psychiatric Holocaust.

Critics Review

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u2018A superbly told story of worlds colliding u2026Thereu2019s so much thatu2019s wonderful about this book; itu2019s hard to know where to start heaping praise. It is by turns intriguing, tragic, horrifying and occasionally funnyu2019
The Times

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u2018English has written a terrific book, taut and thematicu00a0u2026 As beautiful as it is bleaku2019
Guardian

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u2018Engrossing u2026The work of these artists, much of which miraculously survived the war, lives on as testament to the variety of human experience, and of ways to communicate what it feels like to be aliveu2019
Economist

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u2018Compelling u2026 The twin strands of Hitleru2019s thinking on art and racial purity draw remorselessly together u2026 Memorableu2019
Literary Review

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u2018A riveting tale, brilliantly told'
Philippe Sands

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u2018A fascinating new booku2019
Daily Mail

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u2018Fascinating u2026 Journalist English unpacks Hitleru2019s mad campaign against mentally ill artists u2026 Englishu2019s story feels strikingly relevant. While shedding new light on this piece of history, English also provides a cautionary tale for the futureu2019
Publishers Weekly

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u2018An extraordinary, deeply researched work which is a testament to the Prinzhorn artistsu2019
The Tablet

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u2018Perhaps only in 1920s Weimar Germany where expressionism and dadaism were exploring the dark sides of sex and fantasy could the art of the mentally ill first get its due. And perhaps only in Germany could the story Charlie English tells so well have ended in such horror. English takes us through uncharted artistic waters in a narrative of great humanity: a gripping journey into art, madness and modern historyu2019
Jonathan Jones, author of Sensations

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u2018Dazzling u2026 This poignant narrative centres on the complicated psychiatrist Hans Prizhorn and the eccentric patient artists whose work helped usher in a new epoch of the modernist avant-garde only to become fodder for Hitler's hateful ideology of u201cdegenerationu201d. Richly wrought, and deeply researchedu2019
Susannah Cahalan, author ofu00a0Brain on Fire

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