That he was a member of the Hitler Youth in his youth (as were around 85 percent of all young people after 1939) does not make Joseph Beuys (1921–1986) a supporter of the NS party any more than his service as a radio operator in the Luftwaffe. However, after 1945, he participated in comradeship evenings of his Stuka unit and never explicitly distanced himself from that time. Critics like Hans Peter Riegel accuse Beuys of having maintained a "blood-and-soil mentality." This viewpoint is vehemently opposed by Beuys's companions like Klaus Staeck.

Angela Steffen, an intern at the Museum Schloss Moyland, which comprehensively documents the work and impact of the probably most influential German artist of the 20th century in its own archive, wants to place the controversially conducted debate on a solid factual basis. In the course of her "research internship art museums NRW," Steffen has evaluated the collection and archival material.

Your research has flowed into the presentation "Joseph Beuys and National Socialism – A Laboratory Space." In addition to around 90 works of art and photographs from the museum's collection, the exhibition presents multimedia information about Joseph Beuys' youth and his time as a soldier. A separate exhibition within the exhibition is dedicated to the artist's participation in the competition announced in 1957 for a memorial at the former concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. The information offer also includes interviews with Beuys researchers as well as with his students and pupils.

The memorial design marks a turning point in the artist's work. It is therefore at the center of the laboratory space. The project looks in two directions: back at works that Beuys created during the war and in the post-war period, and forward to the 1960s to 1980s, when the artist repeatedly dealt with World War II, Auschwitz, and the question of German collective guilt.