What is kitsch?
Contemporary definition from Meyers Lexicon, eighth edition 1939, Bibliographic Institut Leipzig
KITSCH. The (probably from the English sketch, sketch).
Refers to trash, dishonest things that are issued as genuine without justification of genuine sentiment or an inner truth.
Kitsch arises from standard produced falsifications of genuine folk art as well as from the mostly tasteless, emotionally blurred use of fundamental values of all arts in general.
Noteworthy kitsch to be mentioned: the sentimentalism of many entertaining novels, sweet music and clichéd films filled with fairy-tale happiness, also the inferior coloured prints and pictures, flamboyant and impractical furniture, as well as household atrocities such as „knick-knacks“ or „travel souvenirs“. The „national kitsch“ that wanted to spread after the upheaval, fell into prohibition as it was abusing national symbols and the images of the Führer and his fellow fighters. The national kitsch shows exemplarily how difficult it is to determine or to limit the general origin and possible impact of the kitsch.
