The Nazis made frequent use of idealized nude male figures on
representation buildings and in illustrations, even though they
took pains to present themselves as the party of respectability.
They banned pornography and nudism shortly after coming to
power, winning the praise of all those who (like members of the
Evangelical Purity Leagues) had deplored the overt sexuality of
Weimar Art and Berlin city-life. The Nazis felt a need to go
beyond Winckelmann in removing the danger to respectability
posed by the nude male body. Where nudity seemed inevitable
in private life, it was circumscribed, as for example, in
physical training, which the Nazis encouraged. Hans Suren's
much-used German Gymnastics, Physical Beauty and
Training (1938) advocated nearly complete nudity in pursuit
of sport or while running through the countryside. But the male
body had to be prepared carefully before it could be offered to
public scrutiny: the skin must be hairless, smooth, and bronze.
The body became an abstract symbol of Aryan beauty. . . .
---George L. Mosse, "National Socialism, Nudity and the Male
Body" in Culturefront: A Magazine of the Humanities
(New York: New York Council for the Humanities, Winter 1993).