In 1933, Max Beckmann was dismissed from his position as a professor in Frankfurt. His work was stigmatized as “un-German” in Nazi propaganda and 10 of his paintings were exhibited in the Degenerate Art exhibition. Ultimately more than 670 artworks by Beckmann were declared "degenerate" and removed from German museums—including Descent from the Cross, which had originally been purchased by the Städelsche Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt, in 1919, only two years after its completion.