***September 2005*** |
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Käthe Kollwitz
July 8, 1867 – April 22, 1945 |
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Käthe Kollwitz was born in Königsberg, Prussia. She grew up in a
very religious household and drew frequently as a child, encouraged
by her father. She began taking art lessons at fourteen and
in 1884, at the age of seventeen, enrolled at the School for
Women Artists in Berlin.
When she married in 1891, her father advised her “to
be a wife and mother and to abandon her career.” Her
husband Dr. Karl Kollwitz, was a physician who had set up
a practice in one of the poorest districts of the Berlin slums,
only fuelled her desire to create art and it was here that
Kollwitz developed her strong social conscience, which is
so fiercely reflected in her work. |
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It is not surprising that the art patrons of Germany
who patronised pleasant, comfortable art did not appreciate her
stirring paintings and etchings. Her pictures were rejected by several
juries of art exhibitions until, in 1893, she joined with Edward
Munch and a few others in an independent exhibition. |
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In 1898 Kollwitz began teaching in the School for Women Artists.
The following year a series of her work entitled “Weavers’
Uprising’ was exhibited in Dresden and purchased by a local
museum.
After the success of a Weavers’ Uprising, Kollwitz began
work on the Peasants War series (1902-08). During this period she
taught at the Academie Julien in Paris and spent several months
in Italy. When she returned to Germany in 1909, Kollwitz began contributing
work to the journal, ‘Simplicissimus’ and illustrated
the poverty of working class people living in Germany. |
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Soon after the start of the First World
War her son, Peter Kollwitz, who was in the German army,
was killed on 22nd October, 1914. Over the next few years
Kollwitz produced a series of drawings illustrating the
impact that war had on civilians especially women and
children.
In 1920 Kollwitz joined Albert Einstein
and George Grosz to form the International Workers Aid
where she produced several posters for the organization.
In 1932 she joined with other socialists in signing an
appeal of unity against the Nazi Party but after Hitler
gained power, Kollwitz was forced to resign from the Prussian
Academy of Arts. (She was its first female member).
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During the World War II, her grandson, Peter Kollwitz, was
killed while fighting for the German’s on the Eastern
Front. Harassed by the Nazi regime, Kollwitz's home was bombed
in 1943 and she was forbidden to exhibit, and her art was
classified as "degenerate." Despite these events,
Kollwitz remained in Berlin unlike artists such as Max Beckman
and George Grosz who fled the country.
Having lost all worldly possessions, Kathe Kollwitz
died in hiding, at Moritzberg, on 22nd April, 1945. The war
ended for the rest of the world just four months later. |
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