in a diary entry of 4 june 1937, goebbels conceived the idea of a separate exhibition of works from the weimar era, which he called "the era of decay. so the people can see and understand." the art historian olaf peters says goebbels' motivation in proposing the exhibition was partly to obscure the weakness of the works in the great german art exhibition, and partly to regain hitler's trust after the dictator's replacement of goebbel's jurors with hoffmann, who goebbels feared as a rival. on 30 june, hitler signed an order authorizing the degenerate art exhibition. goebbels put adolf ziegler, the head of the reichskammer der bildenden künste (reich chamber of visual art), in charge of a five-man commission that toured state collections in numerous cities, in two weeks seizing 5,238 works they deemed degenerate (showing qualities such as "decadence", "weakness of character","mental disease", and "racial impurity"). this collection would be boosted by subsequent raids on museums, for future exhibitions. the commission focused on works by artists mentioned in avant-garde publications, and was aided by some vehement opponents of modern art, such as wolfgang willrich.