| Nederlandsche Kultuurkamer | |
 | |
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 25 November 1941 |
| Dissolved | 1945 |
| Jurisdiction | Reichskommissariat Niederlande |
| Headquarters | 2 Van de Boschstraat, The Hague |
| Parent department | Department of Public Information and the Arts |
The Netherlands Chamber of Culture (Dutch: Nederlandsche Kultuurkamer) was an institution established by Nazi Germany in the occupied Netherlands to regulate the production and distribution of art. Officially established on 25 November 1941, the chamber followed the model of the Reich Chamber of Culture in Germany and began operations on 22 January 1942. By 1 April of that year, all persons and institutions involved in the arts were required to register, with the former being demanded to submit an Aryan certificate and the latter being compelled to align their regulations with those of the chamber. By August 1944, the chamber had 42,000 registered members, from prominent artists to organ grinders.
Initially headed by Tobie Goedewaagen, the Nederlandsche Kultuurkamer was briefly led by Hermannus Reydon in February 1943 before Sebastiaan de Ranitz took office. The chamber consisted of six guilds, dealing respectively with theatre and dance, music, literature, film, architecture, and the press. It had the legislated power to close shops, impose fines on artists who continued to work in public without registering, and ban books, music broadcasts, and visual arts. The chamber also published its own magazine, De Schouw (The View).
After the Second World War ended in 1945, Goedewaagen and de Ranitz were both arrested; Reydon had died in August 1943 following an attack by the Dutch resistance. Members of the Nederlandsche Kultuurkamer were prohibited from public performance until cleared by the government. Artists who had resisted, either by refusing to register or by actively continuing to practise, were viewed more positively. The chamber's national headquarters in the Hague were destroyed during the bombing of the Bezuidenhout.