As Nazi culture policy encroached on Germany’s modernist art scene, many artists found themselves under increasing scrutiny and attack. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880–1938) was a German expressionist painter and graphic artist, whose artwork raised the ire of the regime. By the time the National Socialists came to power, Kirchner, once active in Dresden and Berlin, had been living in Davos, Switzerland, for more than a decade, although he still maintained active ties to the German art scene. Kirchner had never joined a political party and did not support the regime. Although he was considered an Aryan, and despite his voluntary service in the First World War, the Prussian Academy of Art stripped Kirchner of his membership in 1937, and two dozen of his works were displayed as part of the Nazi’s “Degenerate Art” exhibition that same year. In an attempt to redeem his reputation and restore his position, Kirchner wrote a carefully crafted letter to the Prussian Academy, in which he tried to strike a balance between his apolitical nature and his pro-German credentials. His protestations were unsuccessful, and Kirchner was ultimately removed from the Academy’s membership roster six weeks after he penned this letter. Kirchner shot himself to death in Switzerland in 1938.