A Graphic Design Field Journal by Cherise: Käthe Kollwitz, Expressionist


War, Never Again, Poster, Käthe Kollwitz, 1924

Käthe Kollwitz is an artist who has always intrigued me. I was glad to see her introduced in the realm of Expressionism. Her work deeply embodies the sentiment felt by artists in the Expressionist movement that, according to Meggs’ depicted “subjective emotions and personal responses to subjects and events.” Known primarily as a print maker and sculptor, Kollwitz created paintings, woodcuts, etchings, lithographs, sculpture and drawings. Her emotional works were featured in antiwar posters as a reaction to World War I and World War II. Working figuratively, she can be categorized as part of the Die Brucke (the Bridge) Expressionist.

March of the Weavers, etching, Käthe Kollwitz 1895

Born in Russia in 1867, she was encouraged early on by her father to pursue her artistic capabilities. Her parents recognized her keen drawing skill, and in 1881 she began studies with a local copper engraver. She later attended the Berlin School for Woman Artists where she ultimately held a part-time teaching position. In 1919 she was appointed to a full professorship at the prestigious Prussian Academy of Arts.

Widows and Orphans, Lithograph, 1919, MOMA site

The Sacrifice, woodcut, Käthe Kollwitz, 1922

The humanistic views of her parents and grandfather helped develop her deep sense of compassion for the human condition. A pacifist and socialist, she developed a feminist perspective from the readings of August Bebel, Woman and Socialism (1879). She was inspired by the teachings in this book that professed “one day in the new society women will be entirely independent socially and economically.” Married to a physician practicing in a Berlin working class neighborhood, Kollwitz expressed her impressions in her artwork. Interestingly, Kollwitz created seventy self portraits during her lifetime.

Death, Woman and Child, etching, Käthe Kollwitz, 1919

Kollwitz’ personal experience with loss and war also influenced her foray into expressionism. Her son was killed in World War I and her grandson was killed in World War II. She openly criticized Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party, causing her to be arrested by the Gestapo. In 1938, her work, Tower of Mothers, was deemed “degenerate art” by the Nazi Government and seized from the Academy show. In 1945 her family home in Berlin was destroyed during the bombing and she died shortly before the end of WWII.

As an expressionist Kathe Kollwitz explored topics such as poverty, war, death, plight of the working class, grief and despair. Her work was not only a reaction to her own pain and suffering but equally to

those suffering around her.