Through the Eyes of Käthe Kollwitz and Otto Dix

Home , Hugo Erfurth, Martha Dix, The Trench (Dix), The War (Dix engravings), The War (Dix triptych)

VISIONS OF WORLD WAR I

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VISIONS OF WORLD WAR I Through the Eyes of Käthe Kollwitz and Otto Dix

Leona C. Sargent

Wright State University

Master of Humanities Thesis Project

December 2012

DISCRETION IS ADVISED: Contains images of a graphic nature.

Cover image from http://www.pictureshistory.blogspot.com

2 Table of Contents

Introduction 5

Käthe Kollwitz 8

Otto Dix 24

Something to Think About 38

Glossary of Terms 40

Image Credits 42

Bibliography 46

3 Early in the movie The Da Vinci Code, a Harvard University Professor, Robert Langdon, is speaking at a French University. “Symbols are a language. They can help us understand our past. As the saying goes, ‘A picture says a thousand words.’ But which words?” The professor goes on to display several seemingly familiar images. He asks his audience to interpret them. An image of individuals wearing white robes and cone shaped hats represents hatred and the Ku Klux Klan to a contemporary audience, while they are actually images of priests in Spain. A second image of a three-pronged weapon brings to mind Satan and his pitchfork to this audience, but on closer examination, it is Poseidon’s trident. Professor Langdon goes on to say, “Understanding our past determines actively our ability to understand the present. So, how do we sift truth from belief? How do we write our own histories, personally or culturally and thereby define our- selves? How do we penetrate years, centuries of historical distortion to find origi- nal truth? Tonight this will be our quest.”

4 INTRODUCTION The Great War (1914 — 1918)

rom 1792 to 1815, France pursued war that involved most of Europe. At the Con- gress of Vienna in 1815, the great powers of Europe established the Concert of Eu- F rope in an effort to avoid large scale wars. The nations that participated in the Con- cert of Europe agreed to meet regularly for this purpose. In 1914, another continental conflict seemed unlikely despite military build-up and imperialistic rivalry. The political sta- bility of the first decade of the twentieth-century was unstable. As early as 1905, the Ger- man military began planning an invasion of Belgium. Germany was determined to subdue France. Alliances existed between France and Russia and similarly between Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Great Britain was obligated to defend the neutrality it had established in Belgium. In 1912 and 1913 wars were fought over territory in the Bal- kans. Austria-Hungary considered the potential expansion by Balkan nations a threat to its interests. “Vienna had not intervened in either Balkan war. . . [appearing that] the Bal- kan states had been rewarded rather than penalized for discounting international agree- ments.” On June 28, 1914 the heir to the Austrian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, were assassinated in Sarajevo. This was seen as Serbi- an (Balkan) aggression against Austria-Hungary. It was the catalyst that gave Austria- Hungary an excuse to start a defensive war. Germany backed its ally, Austria-Hungary, in this action. What was supposed to be the Third Balkan War evolved into a European war when Russia came to the defense of its ally, the Serbs. These actions unintentionally plunged Europe into a war that eventually engulfed the world.

rom the first cave drawings to contemporary, electronically gener- ated images, art serves many purposes. Art reflects culture. It il- F lustrates historical events. Artistic mediums demonstrate financial prosperity, mechanical ability, and technology. Art articulates the very thoughts of man and entire societies. The very act of creating art has the ability to aid in healing after trauma. The historic clues left behind by artists are invaluable to scholars, but potentially incomplete, since art is subjective for both the creator and the viewer.

rtists create for a variety of rea- “Art practices and ritual are central to the ways in which sons. These purposes include: different societies and A documentation, politics, therapy, cultures cope with times of experimentation, creative extreme upheaval and expression, and many more reasons. transitions.” Kalmanowitz and Lloyd

äthe Kollwitz and Otto Dix are two German artists whose work gives us an intimate vision of the loss and devastation caused by World War I. K They were different in many ways. Käthe Kollwitz was a wife and a mother who witnessed and experienced the loss and grief at home. Her hus- band was a physician who treated the proletariat of Berlin. Otto Dix was a year older than Käthe Kollwitz’s son, Hans Kollwitz. Dix volunteered to serve in the German Army at the onset of World War I and served all four years in the trenches. He came from a poor family.

hese two artists had some things in common, as well. They both considered themselves realists who chronicled “the way it was.” They both rec- T ognized the healing potential of art. They were both painters and print- makers. Some of their works were controversial. Both Otto Dix and Käthe Koll- witz had artistic success during their lifetimes and their work was known interna- tionally.

7 KÄTHE KOLLWITZ 1867 — 1945 July 8, 1867 Käthe Schmidt born in Königsberg. Her father, Karl Schmidt, an attorney who changed professions and became a master Mason Her mother, Katharina Schmidt, daughter of Julius Rupp who founded the first Protestant Free Religious Congregation in Germany She had three siblings: Konrad (1863 — 1932) Julie (1865 — 1917) Lise (1870 — 1963) 1881 — 1882 First art lessons with engraver Rudolf Mauer in Königsberg 1885 — 1886 Attended the School for Women Artists in Berlin and studied under Karl Stauffer-Bern 1886 Returned to Königsberg, studied under Emile Neide, Became engaged to Karl Kollwtiz, who was a medical student 1888 — 1889 Studied in Munich under Ludwig Herterich June 13, 1891 Married Dr. Karl Kollwitz They moved to Berlin where Karl’s patients were the working poor 1892 Their first son, Hans, was born 1896 Their second son, Peter, was born 1814 Hans and Peter Kollwitz volunteered for military service at the outbreak of World War I October 22, 1914 Peter Kollwitz was killed in Dixmuiden in Belgium 1919 Käthe was the first woman to become a member of the Prussian Academy of Arts where she also became a professor 1928 Käthe became the director of the master studio for graphic arts at the Academy of Arts

8 Käthe Kollwitz forced to resign her position at the Academy of Arts when the National 1933 Socialists gained power in Germany

Outbreak of World War II 1939

Karl Kollwitz died 1940

Hans Kollwitz’s son, Peter, died in WWII on the Eastern Front September 1942

Käthe Kollwitz left Berlin because of the fighting 1943

Her home in Berlin was destroyed in the Berlin Blitz November 1943

Käthe Kollwitz died April 22, 1945

Käthe Kollwitz, c. 1872 Karl Kollwitz, c. 1890 Hans and Peter Kollwitz, c. 1904

9 äthe Kollwitz began planning a memorial K for her son, Peter, as early as December 1914. Peter Kollwitz died in World War I shortly after the fighting began.

er Diary records her struggles to find the H correct form for her memorial. She hoped others who had suffered loss would be able to identify with this public memorial. She hoped this memorial would provide healing.

t took 17 years for Käthe to complete the memorial for Peter. She titled the I Käthe Kollwitz, Mourning Parents (Installed 1932) Granite, Military Cemetery at memorial Mourning Parents. It Dixmuiden in Belgium was placed in the military cemetery at Dixmuiden in Belgium in 1932.

10 “Conceived the plan for a memorial for Peter tonight, but abandoned it again because it seemed to me impossible of execution. In the morning I suddenly thought of having Reike ask the city to give me a place for the memorial. There would have to be a collection taken “If I live to see Peter’s for it. It must stand on the heights of Schild- work [the memorial horn, looking out over the Havel. To be fin- sculpture] completed ished and dedicated on a glorious summer and good, commemorating him day. Schoolchildren of the community singing. and his friends in a ‘On the way to pray.’ The monument would beautiful site, then have Peter’s form, lying stretched out, the fa- perhaps Germany is ther at the head, the mother at the feet. It past the worst.” would be to commemorate the sacrifice of all Käthe Kollwitz, June 25, the young volunteers. 1919 It is a wonderful goal, and no one has more right than I to make this memorial.” Käthe Kollwitz, December 1, 1914

11 ermany was plunged into political turmoil after World War I. During G the struggle for power in the developing Weimar Republic, the Spartacist leader, Karl Liebknecht, was assassinated on January 15, 1919. The slain leader’s family asked Käthe Kollwitz to make drawings of the corpse in the morgue. On January 25, 1919, the artist recorded what she saw, “the shot-up forehead

Käthe Kollwitz, Head of Karl Liebknecht on His Deathbed (1919) decked with red flowers, a proud face Drawing, Private Collection with the mouth slightly open and painfully distorted. . . . I then went back to the house with the drawings and tried to very artist has a process that they make a better, more comprehensive go through during the creation of a drawing.” Käthe Kollwitz desired to cre- E work of art. Käthe Kollwitz internal- ate art that the common person could ized the emotions of those she drew. She identify with. So, in the final version of the attempted to identify with the emotions and work, Kollwitz focused past Leibknecht on then give form to those emotions in her art. the procession of mourners (See Page 13).

“As an artist I have the right to extract the emotional content out of everything, to let things work upon me and then give them outward form. And I also have the right to portray the working class’s farewell to Liebknehct and even dedicate it to Käthe Kollwitz, Memorial Sheet to Karl Liebknect (1919) Woodcut Print, Private Collection the workers, . . .” Käthe Kollwitz,

13 “Where do all the women who have watched so carefully over the lives of t was several years before Käthe Kollwitz was able to artistically ex- their beloved ones get the heroism to press the grief she experienced send them to face the cannon?” I and witnessed during the war. Kathe Kollwitz, August 27, 1914 n October 23, 1922 the artist wrote a letter to the novelist Ro- O main Rolland. The letter said, “I have repeatedly attempted to give form to the war. I could never grasp it. Now finally I have finished a series of wood- cuts, which in some measure say what I wanted to say. There are seven sheets, entitled: the Sacrifice—the Volunteers— the Parents—the Mothers—the Wid- ows—the People. These sheets should travel throughout the entire world and should tell all human beings compre- hensively: that is how it was—we have all endured that throughout these un- speakably difficult years.”

Käthe Kollwitz, The Mothers (1922) Woodcut Print, Private Collection

14 ven before the death of her own son, Käthe Koll- E witz was concerned for all the mothers who would suffer loss during the war. n August 27, 1914 she wrote in her Diary: “A O piece by Gabriele Reuter in the Tag on the tasks of women today. She spoke of the joy of sacrificing—a phrase that struck me hard. Where do all the women who have watched so carefully over the lives of their beloved ones get the heroism to send them to face the cannon? I am afraid that this soaring of the spir- it will be followed by the blackest despair and dejection.”

Käthe Kollwitz, The Sacrifice (1922) Woodcut Print, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Rosenwald Collection

“She spoke of the joy of sacrificing—a phrase that struck me hard.”

15 eter Kollwitz, the eighteen year old son of Karl and Käthe Kollwitz, died in Flanders on Octo- ber 22, 1914. Käthe never recovered from the loss of her son. Two years later, Käthe Kollwitz P was still struggling with the grief she felt from losing her son and so many of his friends in the war. She questioned the reason for it all in her Diary:

Everything remains as obscure as ever for me. . . It’s not only our youth who go willingly and joyfully into the war; it’s the same in all nations. People who would be friends under other conditions now hurl themselves at one another as enemies. Are the young really without judgment? . . . Do the young want war?...... It will always be true that life must be subordinated to the service of an ideal. . . . where has that princi- ple led us? Peter, Erich. Richard, all have subordinated their lives to the idea of patriotism. The English, Russian and French young men have done the same. The consequence has been this terrible killing, and the impoverishment of Europe. . . Has their capacity for sacrifice been exploited in order to bring on the war? Where are the guilty? Are there any? . . . Has it been a case of mass madness?. . . I shall never fully understand it all. But it is clear that our boys, our Peter, went into the war two years ago with pure hearts, and that they were ready to die for Germany. They died—almost all of them. Died . . . by the millions. . . . It is a breach of faith with you, Peter, if I can now see only madness in the war? Peter, you died believing. Was that also true of Erich, Walter, Meier, Gottfried, Richard, Noll? Or had they come to their senses and were they nevertheless forced to leap into the abyss? . . . Käthe Kollwitz October 11, 1916

16 Käthe Kollwitz, The Volunteers (1922) Woodcut Print, Private Collection

äthe Kollwitz gave artistic form to the patriotism she described in her Diary on October 11, 1916. Her print, The Volunteers, pictures young men, with arms K wrapped around each others shoulders, in a trancelike state, following Death into the battle.

17 etween 1918 and 1923 inflation plagued the Ger- man people. By 1923, the value of a German B mark fell by 80 percent. In 1923, a German news- paper cost two hundred billion marks. s a result of the inflation, German artists changed mediums. Paint and canvas were so A expensive that many artists turned to a less expensive means of artistic expression: print making. How- ever, even some types of print making were too expensive. ven Käthe Kollwitz, who preferred printmaking, changed the method of printmaking she used, for E a time. n 1920, she pondered changing from lithography to the less expensive woodcut technique of printmak- Käthe Kollwitz, The People (1922) Woodcut Print, I ing, “. . . Nowadays lithographic stones can only be National Gallery of Art, Washington, Rosenwald Col- got to the studio by begging and pleading, and cost a lot lection of money . . . Ought I . . . make a fresh start with wood- cuts? When I considered that up to now, I always told myself that lithography was the right method for me . . . . The artist used the woodcut Will woodcutting do it?” method in her War cycle (1922(1922).-1923).

18 Käthe Kollwitz, The Parents (1923) Woodcut Print, National Gallery of Art, Käthe Kollwitz, The Widow (1922) Woodcut Print, Washington, Rosenwald Collection National Gallery of Art, Washington, Rosenwald Collection

19 nce the inflation in Germany began to ease, Käthe Kollwitz returned to her fa- O vorite method of printmaking, lithography. n December 29,1922 Käthe wrote a letter to Erna Krüger which discussed the O pleasure she felt by accepting a commission from the International Trade Union Con- gress to create an anti-war poster. From this commission she produced Never Again War!

Käthe Kollwitz, Never Again War! (1924) Lithograph, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Richard A. Simms

Photograph of under-nourished Ger- man children after WWI. (1922)

20 äthe Kollwitz was a humanitarian. She wanted people who saw her work to understand it and K find healing. She accepted commissions to create posters that brought attention to social conditions during her lifetime. n January 4, 1920, the artist recorded what she wanted to illustrate in Vienna Is Dying! Save Its O Children! (1920). The continuing problem of hunger made it difficult for Käthe Kollwitz to find the same kind of peace she had while making Peter’s memorial.

“I want to show Death. Death swings the lash of famine—people, men, women, and children, bowed low, screaming and groaning, file past him.

While I drew, and wept along with the terrified children I was drawing. I really felt the burden I am bearing.” Käthe Kollwitz, Vienna Is Dying! Save Its Children! Käthe Kollwitz, January 4, 1920 (1920) Lithograph, Private Collection

21 äthe Kollwitz is an artist who is traditionally associated with Ger- man Expressionism. However, a diary entry from 1908 tells us that K Kollwitz saw Expressionism as a form of studio art unconcerned with the reality of society. n a 1916 Diary entry, Käthe Kollwitz records her desire to reach the public by meeting their needs through her art. She felt the only way to I establish this link was through images that reflected reality experienced by those who viewed her art. Kollwitz wrote: Read an article by E. von Keyserling on the future of art. He oppos- es expressionism and says that after the war the German people will need eccentric studio art less than ever before. What they need is realistic art. . . It is true that my sculptural work is rejected by the public. Why? . . . The average spectator does not understand it. . .I thoroughly agree Käthe Kollwitz (1917) Photograph that there must be understanding between the artist and the people. . . taken by Hugo Erfurth The fact that I am getting too far away from the average spectator is a danger to me. . . When I thought about my work at New Year’s 1914, I vowed to myself and to Peter that I would be more scrupulous than ever in “giving the honor to God, that is, in being wholly genuine Years after Hans Kollwitz and sincere.” . . . But in groping for the precious truth one falls easily asked his mother, Käthe into artistic oversubtleties and ingenuities—into preciosity. . . Perhaps the work on the memorial will bring me back to simplicity. Kollwitz, to create a written

account of her life, she he felt it necessary to portray simple reality as a method of connect- gave him the birthday gift of ing with her audience. Otto Dix also expressed the need for art that a sketchbook filled with her S reflects reality, including the “ugly” reality. handwritten memoirs.

22 n 1923, Gustav F. Hartlaub, the director of the Mannheim Kunsthalle, coined the term Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity). I The term refers to German works of art, music, architecture, and literature that grew out of and opposed Expressionism after World War One. eue Sachlichkeit included many artists. However, traditionally, George Grosz and Otto Dix are considered the movement’s N primary artists. One tremendous difference between Dix and some artists considered part of Neue Sachlichkeit is Dix’s assertion stating he lacked an interest in politics. n 1965, Dix explained his political position: Otto Dix (1917) “No, I never got involved with any sort of political program, from Ulricke Rueger, ed., Otto I probably because I could not stand all the jargon. When they Dix, Gera, 1977. came along and started making speeches, I switched off at once. I did not want to get roped in.”

“He emerged from the conflict [WWI] with a declared ambition to create what he described as ‘anti-painting,’ something which would be ‘objective, neutral, impassive.’”

Edward Lucie-Smith

23 WILHELM HEINRICH OTTO DIX 1891 — 1969

December 2, 1891 Wilhelm Heinrich Otto Dix born in Untermhaus, near Gera

His father, Ernst Franz Dix, (1862-1942) an iron foundry worker

His mother, Pauline Louise Dix, (1864-1953) a seamstress

He had three siblings: Toni (b. 1893) Fritz (b. 1895) Hedwig (b. 1898)

Before 1905 Attended elementary school in Gera-Untermhaus where he has his first drawing lessons

1909 Dix completed his apprenticeship as a house painter with Carl Senff

Worked as a journeyman painter in Pößneck in Thuringia for 6 months

1910 Moved to Dresden and attended the Großherzoglich-Sächsische Kunstgewerbeschule (Grand Du- cal Saxon School of Arts and Crafts)

1914 — 1918 Served as an artilleryman on both the Western and Eastern Fronts He sent several hundred drawings and gouaches home to his girlfriend, Helene Jakob

1919 Returned to Dresden and attended the Staatliche Akademie (State Academy) and became the master pupil of Max Feldbauer and Otto Grußmann

1919 Founded Gruppe 1919 with Conrad Felixmüller, Otto Schubert, Will Heckrott, Constantin vom Mitschke-Collande, Lasar Segall, and Hugo Zehder

1922 Karl Nierendorf became Dix’s dealer and artistic advisor

1922 Dix’s painting, Mädenchen vor dem Spiegel (Girl in Front of the Mirror) was confiscated and Dix put on trial for indecency

24 Became the master pupil of Heinrich Nauen at the academy in Dusseldorf where he learned 1922 etching and aquatint

Married Martha Koch February 1923 Their daughter, Nelly was born 1923 Their son, Ursus was born 1927 Their son, Jan was born 1928

Granted a professorship at the Akademie der bildenden Künste (Academy of Arts) October 1, 1926 in Dresden

Became a member of the Preußische Akademie der Künste (Prussian Academy of the Arts) 1931

Removed from teaching position at the Academy of Arts and membership in the Prussian 1933 Academy of Arts when the National Socialists came to power

Outbreak of World War II 1939

Dix drafted into service in World War II 1944 French prisoner of war April 1945 — February 1946

Wilhelm Heinrich Otto Dix died in Singen of a stroke July 25, 1969

Nelly, Ursus, Otto Dix with his Siblings Otto and Martha Dix and Jan Dix c. 1903 c. 1925 c. 1929

25 Photographs taken at the Third London General Hospital. Similar wards were common throughout Europe.

ounds that in past conflicts would have been fatal were survivable in WWI thanks to medical advances and experimentation, including plastic surgery. The first attempts at plastic W surgery included facial prosthetics that were clumsy and uneven. With the assistance of artists, including American Anna Coleman Ladd, Army doctors constructed masks of enameled, gal- vanized copper and tin in colors similar to the wounded soldier’s features. Doctors all over Europe experimented with such devices. Ward Muir, an attendant at the Third London General Hospital, re- ferred to them as “tin faces.”

erman and Russian physicians made considerable progress in skin grafting. But, their efforts failed to keep up with the physically devastating weapons. The static, emotionless tin faces G did not restore the wounded soldier’s ability to see, chew, or swallow; they merely hid the disfigured face.

26 “All Art is Exorcism!” Otto Dix

tto Dix desired to portray the destruction O caused by WWI natu- ralistically.

Photograph of Wounded Soldier Otto Dix, Wounded Veteran (1922)

either side thought the Great War would be a long conflict, but it consumed Europe from 1914-1918. The First World War introduced the world to wartime N atrocities never before experienced. Developing industrialization introduced troops to rapidly evolving mechanized weaponry. The continuous assaults on entrenched troops resulted in overwhelming injuries to the face and head. Poison gas was introduced in 1915 and ravaged troops who encountered it. There were millions of casualties. Those who survived to tell the story of the Great War became known as a “lost genera- tion.”

27 he trauma of four years in the trench provoked Dix to begin work on one of his now lost paintings, Der Schützengraben (The Trench). Dix described how he began making studies in the 1920s for the piece: “One T day I went to the dissection room and said ‘I want to paint corpses!’ I was taken to two female cadavers which had just been dissected and sewn up again in a hurry. I sat down and started to paint. . . . I came back again and asked for some entrails and a brain. I was given a brain sitting in a dish and made a watercolour of it.” The Trench is one of Otto Dix’s controversial works. Destruction, death, and decay are graphically depicted. When The Trench was exhibited in a German city occupied by Allied forces it offended several viewers who demanded the painting be removed from public. These images insulted families and veterans who had sacrificed life and limb in the trenches. The controversy caused by The Trench continued as it became the centerpiece for Dix’s War triptych. Dix expressed frustration about the distortion emerging about fighting in the trenches during World War I in a 1964 interview about his painting, War triptych, painted between 1929 & 1932: “I did the picture ten years after the First World War. . . In 1928, after I had been working on the subject for several years, I finally felt ready to tackle it properly. At that point, incidentally, there were a lot of books circulating in the Weimar Republic, promoting a notion of heroism which, in the trenches, had long since been rejected as an absurdity. People were already beginning to forget the terrible suffering that the war had caused. That was the situation in which I painted the triptych. . . . I simply wanted to summarize objec- tively, almost like reportage, my own experiences from 1914 to 1918 and to demonstrate that genuine human heroism lies in overcoming senseless death.”

“One day I went to the dissection room and said ‘I want to paint corpses!’ I was taken to two female cadavers which had just been dissected and sewn up again in a hurry. I sat down and started to paint. . . . I came back again and asked for some entrails and a brain. I was given a brain sitting in a dish and made a watercolour of it.” Otto Dix

28 Otto Dix, The Trench (Center Panel) (1923), War triptych (1929-1932)

tto Dix began The Trench at a time when the rising cost of materials and inflation deterred other artists from large, uncommissioned works. Dix only sold his works for United States O currency during the early 1920s.

29 tto Dix’s war paintings were not his only works that caused controversy. An 1871 German law banned the O “publication” of “obscene and immoral literature and illus- trations.” However, in spite of the 1871 obscenity law, Germans possessed an attraction to tales of violent sexual murders and murderers, like the Jack-the-Ripper murders in the 1880s. When the war broke out in 1914, documentation of sadistic mayhem, including the rape of civilian women by soldiers, by the German press satisfied the public’s attraction to brutal drama. n October 30, 1922 Dix’s painting, Girl at the Mirror (Mäden vor dem Spiegel) was confiscated from the Jury Free exhibition in Berlin. Authorities confiscated the Otto Dix, Girl at the Mirror (1922) O painting and charged Dix with violating the 1871 obscenity law. Dix’s Girl at the Mirror was not a beautiful young woman, but a worn out old prostitute. The publicity from the March 23, 1923 tri-

Ironically, all the al contributed to Dix’s growing reputation as a controversial artist controversy caused by throughout Germany. The prosecution sought to ban the display the negative publicity of the painting, as well as a fifty thousand mark fine. Dix, the de- fendant, presented his work as a warning against prostitution. He Dix was receiving also said a shockingly realistic image was necessary for his purpose. made his work The judge found in favor of Dix. popular.

30 ix began an artistic endeavor in the fall of 1923 that presented every possible aspect D of war, Der Krieg (The War), his series of fifty etchings. When speaking of these prints, Dix re- called: “I wanted no ecstatic extravagances. I depicted states of affairs produced by the war, and the consequences of war, simply as states of affairs.”

Otto Dix, “At Langemarck, February 1918” (1924) from The War, Etching, Drypoint

oung Otto Dix spent most of his four years of service in the Great War on the front in the trenches. Y This allowed him to become artistically involved in the war, something that German philosopher Nietzsche believed necessary to survive pain and tragedy. He chronicled his wartime experiences in the form of drawings on postcards that he sent back home. In 1924, Otto Dix’s fifty print series, Der Krieg (The War) continued the Otto Dix, “At Night the Troops in the Trenches Have to pictorial account of the artist’s experiences during WWI. Keep Firing” (1924) from The War, Etching, Drypoint, Aquatint

31 “I have studied war carefully. One has to show it realistically, so that its nature can be understood. The artist wants to work so that Otto Dix, “Corpses from the Trenches at Tahure” (1924) others can see what things were from The War, Etching, Drypoint, Aquatint like. . . . I believe no one else saw the reality of this war the way I did, the deprivation and gruesomeness. I chose to report war factually: the destroyed earth, the sorrows, the wounds.” Otto Dix, 1966

Otto Dix, “Dead Soldier” (1924) from The War, Drypoint

32 hen asked about his motivation for producing the works related to the W war, Dix replied:

“I wanted to get it out of my system!”

Otto Dix, “Mealtime in the Trench” (1924) from The War, Etching, Drypoint

ix considered himself a realist who felt it necessary to witness what he depicted. He spoke of his prewar D works in an interview in 1961: “War is horrible: hunger, lice, mud, terrifying noises. It is all completely different. You see, before the early paintings, I had a feeling that there was a dimension of reality Otto Dix, “Gassed to Death” (1924) from The War that had not been dealt with in art: the dimension of ugli- Etching, Drypoint, Aquatint ness. The war was a dreadful thing, but there was something awe-inspiring about it. There was no question of me missing out on that! You have to have seen people out of control in that way to know anything about man.”

33 Otto Dix, “Nighttime Encounter with a Otto Dix, “Ruined Trench” (1924) from The War, Madman” (1924) from The War Etching, Drypoint, and Aquatint Etching, Drypoint, and Aquatint

ix described his artistic process as several stages: “Origin—Experience—Idea—Process—Form—Meaning.” D The artist’s wartime field notebook indicated that the “origin” for his war related art was originally his inquisitiveness about the war.

34 “Lice, rats, barbed wire, fleas, shells, bombs, underground caves, corpses, blood, liquor, mice, cats, gas, artillery, filth, bullets, mortars, fire, steel: that is what war is! It is all the work of the Devil!” Otto Dix, War Diary (1915-1916)

Otto Dix, “Wounded Soldier” (1924) from The War, Etching

Otto Dix, “Wounded Soldier, 1916” (1924) from The War, Etching, Aquatint, Museum of Modern Art, NY

35 “These were all things that I simply had to experience. The experience of somebody falling down next to me, dead, with a bullet straight through him. I needed that experience, I wanted it. So I am not a pacifist at all. Or perhaps I was an inquisitive person. I had to see it all for myself. I am such a realist, you know, that I have to see everything with my own eyes, in order to make sure that it is really like that.”

Otto Dix, War Diary 1915-1916

Otto Dix, “Corpse in Barbed Wire, Belgium” (1924) from The War, Etching, Aquatint

rawing provided Otto Dix a di- version from boredom and fear D during the long waits while he was in the trenches during World War I. Photograph of Dead Soldier (WWI)

36 Otto Dix, “Shock Troops Advance Under Gas” (1924) from The War, Etching, Drypoint, Art Institute of Chicago

Otto Dix, “Bombing of Lens” (1924) from The War, Etching, Drypoint, Aquatint Photograph of Gas Attack during WWI

tto Dix never recovered from the nightmare of war. He spoke about the visual demons that recurred in his dreams for at least ten years: O “Well, it is like this—you do not notice, as a young man you do not notice it at all, that it is getting to you, inside. For years, for a good ten years, I had these dreams, in which I had to crawl through ruined houses with passageways I could hardly squeeze through. I dreamt continually about rubble and ruins. Not that painting provided any sort of release, mind you!”

37 SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT By Leona Sargent

rt historians and critics often group certain artists together based on similarities of style, thought, place, and time. Frequently, artists categorized like this are indeed attempting to belong to a larger group, but this is A not always the case.

tto Dix is often included in the New Objectivity, but differed from the other artists associated with it because Dix preferred not to become involved in politics. Dix speculated about his inclusion in the New Objectivity. O He stated: “Perhaps the reason why my work was regarded at the time as ‘objective’ was its strong empha- sis on content, on subject matter.”

imilarly, Käthe Kollwitz was labeled an Expressionist as well as a “socialist artist.” She criticized Expressionist work as “studio art” and discussed the label of “socialist artist” in the memoirs she gave to her son for his S birthday in 1941. At the age of seventy-four, Käthe wrote: “I should like to say something about my reputation for being a “socialist” artist, . . . Unquestionably my work at this time, as a result of the attitudes of my father and brother and the whole literature of the period, was in the direction of socialism. But my real motive for choosing my subjects almost exclusively from the life of the workers was that only such subjects gave me a simple and unqualified way what I felt to be beautiful. . . . The proletariat . . . had a grand- ness of manner, a breadth to their lives. Much later on, when I became acquainted with the difficulties and tragedies underlying proletarian life, . . . I was gripped by the full force of the proletarian’s fate. Unsolved problems such as prostitution and unemployment grieved and tormented me, and contributed to my feeling that I must keep on with my studies of the lower classes. And portraying them again and again opened a safety-valve for me; it made life bearable.”

his passage from her memoirs tells us that Kollwitz instinctively practiced what art therapists refer to today as “self-healing.” Therapist R. M. Simon states: “Creativity is an instinct common to all, as a method of self- T preservation.”

38 SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT

umanity’s greatest works of artistic expression and affirmations of life are often inspired by difficult or tragic circumstances. Therefore, the way societies and cultures cope with times of extreme upheaval is directly H influenced by the artistic practices of that era. With this in mind, examination of the art produced during a certain period in history gives us a more complete understanding of that time.

istorians and scholars integrate music, literature, art, beliefs, and customs to gain a more exhaustive view of past events and cultures. David E. Kyvig and Myron R. Marty discuss historic research practices in their H text, Nearby History: Exploring the Past Around You. According to Kyvig and Marty, societies leave behind four types of “traces”: immaterial, material, written, and representational. Material “traces,” such as tools, architecture, and art are valuable tools for historians. Effective historians must “become conversant in social history, the history of art and architecture, and possibly even psychology.” When artists are no longer available to answer questions about their work, the most reliable evidences are the artists’ own words. It is for this reason that I have focused on the recorded interviews, letters, and diaries of Käthe Kollwitz and Otto Dix.

inally, when you visit art exhibits in galleries and museums, keep in mind that we each interpret what we see based on our own past experiences. I conducted an experiment in one of my graduate school classes to il- F lustrate this point. During my presentation of this project, I displayed the images contained in this catalog. However, the images in the presentation were not accompanied by any explanation or tittles. I asked my classmates and professor to quickly write down their first impressions after seeing each image. As far as I know, none of my classmates in 2011 had personally experienced war. None of them related the images with war. The general consensus was that the images were dark or moody. One person even thought the children were “needy.” Her in- terpretation of “needy” was “bratty” and demanding, but not crying out of starvation.

n the 1920s, Europeans would have immediately associated these images with war and based on their person- I al feelings about the war and contemporary politics, assigned a meaning and motive to what they were seeing.

39 GLOSSARY OF TERMS

Aquatint a print from a metal plate on which certain areas have been “stopped out (blocked)” to prevent the acid from contacting the metal plate

Avant-garde literally the “advanced guard,” in art, a term used to denote modern originality

Commission when an artist is asked by a paying customer to create a work of art

Drypoint an engraving in which a pointed instrument is used to scratch an image directly into the surface of a metal plate

Edition a quantity of prints made from a single plate

Engraving (1) the process of cutting an image on a hard material, such as wood, stone, or a metal plate; (2) a print or impression made by such a process

Etching the printmaking process in which an image is engraved into a metal plate with acid and a pointed tool called a stylus

Etching Ground a substance unaffected by acid used to cover a metal plate before an image is etched on it

Expression a visual depiction of ideas, emotions, and values

Expressionism art movement with the main goal of expression of deeply felt emotions, sometimes accomplished through distortion of the images; In Germany, Die Brücke and Blaue Reiter practiced Expressionism before WWI and the Novembergruppe created Expressionist works after WWI.

Figurative depiction of a recognizable human figure

Gouche an opaque, water-soluble painting medium

Intrinsic to come from within

40 GLOSSARY OF TERMS

printmaking process in which an image is drawn on a smooth printing surface, like a stone or plate, Lithography with a crayon or some other oily substance

(pl. media) the materials an artists works with, such as paint, pencils, or ink Medium an effect of light and shade is produced in an engraving by smoothing parts of a textured Mezzotint surface of a metal plate artistic style trying to portray objects as they actually appear in nature Naturalism term used by G. F. Hartlaub in 1923 to describe German artists who reacted against (Neue Sachlichkeit) New Objectivity Expressionism person or group that commissions a work of art Patron flat piece of metal into which the engraved or etched image is cut Plate work of art created with one of the printmaking processes Print process of creating one or more images from a single prepared surface Printmaking working poor Proletariat naturalistic portrayal of objects; not to be confused with the 19th century art movement Realism

Altarpiece painting consisting of one central panel and two side panels Triptych painting genre in which the transitory nature of earthly things and the inevitability of Vanitas death is the theme printmaking process in which the parts of an image that are not to be printed are carved from Woodcut a block of wood, leaving the image to be printed raised

41 IMAGE CREDITS

Page 9 Photograph, Käthe Kollwitz, c. 1872 from Elizabeth Prelinger, Käthe Kollwtiz, page 177

Photograph, Karl Kollwitz, c. 1890 from Elizabeth Prelinger, Käthe Kollwitz, page 178

Photograph, Hans and Peter Kollwitz, c. 1904 from Elizabeth Prelinger, Käthe Kollwitz, page 179

Page 10 Käthe Kollwitz, Mourning Parents (Installed 1932) Granite, Military Cemetery at Dixmuiden in Belgium from http://www.online-utility.org/image/gallery

Page 12 Käthe Kollwtiz, Head of Karl Leibknect on His Deathbed (1919) Drawing, Private collection from Elizabeth Prelinger, Käthe Kollwitz, page 51

Page 13 Käthe Kollwitz, Memorial Sheet to Karl Liebknecht (1919) Woodcut Print, Private collection from Elizabeth Prelinger, Käthe Kollwitz, page 56

Page 14 Käthe Kollwitz, “The Mothers” (1922) from War, Woodcut Print, Private Collection from http://artcollection.wayne.edu/exhibitions

Page 15 Käthe Kollwitz, “The Sacrifice” (1922) from War, Woodcut Print, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Rosenwald Collection from Elizabeth Prelinger, Käthe Kollwitz, page 57

Page 17 Käthe Kollwitz, “The Volunteers” (1922) from War, Woodcut Print, Private Collection from Elizabeth Prelinger, Käthe Kollwitz, page 63

Page 18 Käthe Kollwitz, “The People” (1922) from War, Woodcut Print, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Rosenwald Collection from Elizabeth Prelinger, Käthe Kollwitz, page 59

Page 19 Käthe Kollwitz, “The Parents” (1923) from War, Woodcut Print, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Rosenwald Collection from Elizabeth Prelinger, Käthe Kollwitz, page 65

Käthe Kollwitz, “The Widow” (1922) from War, Woodcut Print, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Rosenwald Collection from Elizabeth Prelinger, Käthe Kollwitz, page 59

42 IMAGE CREDITS

Käthe Kollwitz, Never Again War! (1924) Lithograph, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Page 20 Richard A. Simms from Elizabeth Prelinger, Käthe Kollwitz, page 66

Photograph of under-nourished German children after WWI. (1922) Page 21 from http://www.oldmagazinearticles.com/Post-WW1_German_Poverty

Käthe Kollwitz, Vienna Is Dying! Save Its Children! (1920) Lithograph, Private Collection from Hans Kollwitz, ed., The Diary and Letters of Kaethe Kollwitz, np

Hugo Erfurth, Photograph, Käthe Kollwitz (1917) from http://www.kaethe--kollwitz.com Page 22

Photograph, Otto Dix (1917) from Ulricke Rueger, ed., Otto Dix, Gera, 1977 Page 23

Photograph Otto Dix with his Siblings (c. 1903) from Olaf Peters, ed. Otto Dix, page 234 Page 25

Photograph Otto and Martha Dix (1924) from http://www.artic.edu

Photograph Nelly, Ursus, and Jan Dix (c. 1929) from Olaf Peters, ed. Otto Dix, page 238

Photographs taken at the Third London General Hospital. from “Faces of War” Page 26 http://www.Smithsonian.com (February 2007)

Photograph of Wounded Soldier from http://www.gwpda.org Page 27

Otto Dix, Wounded Veteran (1922) from http://www.ottodix.org

Otto Dix, War triptych (1929-1932) from http://home.wlu.edu Page 29

43 IMAGE CREDITS

Page 30 Otto Dix, Girl at the Mirror (1922) from http://www.forbes.com

Page 31 Otto Dix, “At Langemarck February 1918” (1924) from The War, Etching, Drypoint, Aquatint from ARTstor Slide Gallery

Otto Dix, “At Night the Troops in the Trenches Have to Keep Firing” (1924) from The War, Etching, Drypoint, Aquatint from ARTstor Slide Gallery

Page 32 Otto Dix, “Corpses from the Trenches at Tahure” (1924) from The War, Etching, Drypoint, Aquatint from ARTstor Slide Gallery

Otto Dix, “Dead Soldier “(1924) from The War, Drypoint from ARTstor Slide Gallery

Page 33 Otto Dix, “Gassed to Death” (1924) from The War, Etching, Drypoint, Aquatint from ARTstor Slide Gallery

Otto Dix, “Mealtime in the Trench” (1924) from The War, Etching, Drypoint from ARTstor Slide Gallery

Page 34 Otto Dix, “Nighttime Encounter with a Madman” (1924) from The War, Etching, Drypoint, and Aquatint from ARTstor Slide Gallery

Otto Dix, “Ruined Trench” (1924) from The War, Etching, Drypoint, and Aquatint, from ARTstor Slide Gallery

44 IMAGE CREDITS

Otto Dix, “Wounded Soldier, 1916” (1924) from The War, Etching and Aquatint, Museum of Modern Page 35 Art, NY from ARTstor Slide Gallery

Otto Dix, “Wounded Soldier” (1924) from The War, Etching from ARTstor Slide Gallery

Otto Dix, “Corpse in Barbed Wire, Belgium” (1924) from The War, Etching, Aquatint Page 36 from ARTstor Slide Gallery

Photograph of Dead Soldier (WWI) from http://www.bbc-schoolsonline-worldwarone

Otto Dix, “Shock Troops Advance Under Gas” (1924) from The War, Etching and Drypoint, Page 37 Art Institute of Chicago from ARTstor Slide Gallery

Otto Dix, “Bombing of Lens” (1924) from The War, Etching, Drypoint, Aquatint from ARTstor Slide Gallery

Photograph of Gas Attack during World War I from http://www.chemical-corps.org

45 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Akiva Goldsman, Simon. The Da Vinci Code. Directed by Ron Howard (2006; Culver City, CA: Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. 2011), DVD.

Alexander, Caroline. “Faces of War” Smithsonian Magazine (February 2007) accessed November 17, 2012, http:// www.smithsonian.com.

Arnason, H. H. and Elizabeth C. Mansfield. History of Modern Art: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, Photography . Upper Saddle Riv- er: Prentice Hall, 2010.

Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art, and Society. London: Thames and Hudson World of Art, 2002.

Crockett, Dennis. German Post-Expressionism: The Art of the Great Disorder 1918-1924. University Park, Pennsylvania: The Penn- sylvania State University Press, 1999.

Donson, Andrew. Youth in the Fatherless Land: War Pedagogy, Nationalism, and Authority in Germany, 1914—1918. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2010.

Gordon, Donald E. Expressionism: Art and Idea. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1987.

Graf, Mercedes. On the Field of Mercy: Women Medical Volunteers from the Civil War to the First World War . Amherst, NY: Humani- ty Books, 2010.

Kalmanowitz, Debra and Bobby Lloyd, ed., Art Therapy and Political Violence: With Art, Without Illusion. London and New York: Routledge Taylor and Francis Group, 2005.

Karcher, Eva. Otto Dix. Translated by John Ormrod. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1987.

Kollwitz, Hans, ed., The Diary and Letters of Käethe Kollwitz. Translated by Richard and Clara Winston. Evanston, Illinois: Northwest- ern University Press, 1988.

Kyvig, David E. and Myron A. Marty, Nearby History: Exploring the Past Around You . Lanham, New York, Toronto, Plymouth UK: Alta Mira Press, 2010.

46 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Lucie-Smith, Edward. Lives of the Great 20th—Century Artists. London: Thames and Hudson, Ltd., 1999.

Peters, Olaf, ed. Otto Dix. New York: Prestel, 2010.

Prelinger, Elizabeth. Käthe Kollwitz. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1992.

Sheldon, Sayre P., ed. Her War Story: Twentieth-Century Women Write about War. Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1999.

Strachan, Hew. The First World War . New York: Penguin Books, 2003.

Winter, Jay. Remembering War: The Great War Between Memory and History in the Twentieth Century. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2006.

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