Käthe Kollwitz 1867 - 1945

The German graphic artist, painter and sculptor Käthe Kollwitz is one of the most important artists of the early 20th century. She is known not only for her expressive, socially critical lithographs, etchings, copperplate engravings, woodcuts and sculptures with a biographical influence, but also for her tireless socio-political commitment. She is considered a pioneer of her time, both artistically and politically. Kollwitz pursued a style all her own, integrating expressionism and realism simultaneously.

Käthe Kollwitz (née Schmidt) was born in 1867 in what was then Prussia (Königsberg, now Kaliningrad). Her father discovered his daughter's talent early and supported her in her education. In 1885 she attended the  »Damenakademie« (Ladies' Academy) of the Association of Berlin Women Artists. On various trips and other stages of her education, she made important contacts, such as with Max Liebermann - she met him at the school for women artists in Munich from 1888 to 1890. He was to become her greatest supporter.

In 1891, the young artist married Dr. Karl Kollwitz. Together, the couple moved to Berlin, where Karl Kollwitz opened a panel doctor's practice on Weißenburger Strasse (today: Kollwitzstrasse). In 1898, the then 31-year-old made her breakthrough with the etching cycle Ein Weberaufstand (A Weavers' Revolt). It was shown at the Great Berlin Art Exhibition - her friend and patron Max Liebermann even proposed her to Kaiser Wilhelm II for a medal. The ball was set rolling when Max Lehrs (1855-1938), director of the Dresden Kupferstich-Kabinett, took notice of her and became the first person from the museum context to begin collecting Kollwitz's print works. Lehrs also became an important patron.

In 1901 Kollwitz joined the Berliner Secession, founded in 1898 as a counterpoint to the Berlin art establishment - in the same year she produced the first color combination print Frau mit Orange (Woman with Orange), of which it is even said that she invented the technique. A year later, the Berlin Kupferstichkabinett also bought some of Kollwitz's prints. Shortly thereafter, during a trip to Paris, she took courses in sculpture, learned to work in plastic - and finally made the acquaintance of Auguste Rodin.

At the beginning of the 20th century, she was increasingly represented at exhibitions. Her Bauernkrieg (Peasants' War), completed in 1908, was even printed in large numbers and sold over the counter. She also worked for the satirical magazine Simplicissimus during this period, and her illustrated graphics increasingly referred to the situation of the proletariat. It was the prelude to her socially critical works, which were to dominate her work in the 1910s.

During World War I, Kollwitz's younger son Peter was killed when he was 18 and fighting as a volunteer at the front. The war turned her into a pacifist, driving her even further to become politically involved – she opposed the war with an open letter, for example.

In 1916, the artist completed her first sculptural work, the Liebesgruppe (Love Group). On the occasion of her 50th birthday, several museums celebrated her with exhibitions, for example the Berlin Kupferstichkabinett. In 1919, the Prussian Academy appointed her professor. Around this time, her political involvement increased further: until 1924, she belonged to the communist  Internationalen Arbeiterhilfe (IAH) (the International Workers' Aid (IAH)) and in 1922, for example, she signed the appeal of the German League for Human Rights for an understanding with France.

She designed numerous anti-war posters and artworks dealing with the subject of war and its consequences. Her plan was always to design a monument for her son Peter - the sketches for the sculpture Trauernde Eltern (Mourning Parents) were shown at the Berlin Academy Exhibition in 1931, and the finished sculptures later in the National Gallery. She was a member of the Society of Friends of New Russia and was invited to the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution. Various solo exhibitions were held in the Soviet Union. Kollwitz was the first woman to receive the Order Pour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts on May 29, 1929, and also became known in China: the writer Lu Xun published texts about Kollwitz and disseminated her work via reproductions in Shanghai.

Finally, the turning point: Shortly before the decisive elections at the beginning of the 1930s, Kollwitz joined Heinrich Mann and Albert Einstein in calling for a merger of the KPD and the SPD - and she persisted with this appeal even after Hitler came to power in 1933. The National Socialists harassed her and her husband with house searches and threats to close their studio. They gradually removed Kollwitz's works from museums and had her interrogated by the Gestapo.

At the same time, the artist was becoming better known in the United States - art collector Lessing J. Rosenwald bought many of her works and later bequeathed them to the National Gallery in Washington. In 1943, Kollwitz fled to Nordhausen in Thuringia because of the advanced state of the war. After one of her grandsons was killed in action, her house in Berlin was bombed. In 1944, Prince Ernst Heinrich of Saxony invited her to Moritzburg near Dresden, where she lived for another year and died two days before the end of the war.