Kathe Kollwitz: Background Kathe Kollwitz very directly experienced the trauma of World War I, and like Otto Dix she tried to grapple with the personal experience of war through her art. Already established as an artist in Germany before the war, Kollwitz lost her eldest son Peter in October 1914, during the earliest stages of the War. The loss threw her into a state of depression, and she dedicated her efforts during the war and its immediate aftermath toward creating monuments honoring the fallen soldiers. In the 1920’s, Kollwitz produced a great many etchings, woodcuts and monuments in which she endeavored to capture the reality of war, poverty and hunger in the early twentieth century. The works included here are from this period. Kollwitz of course would like other Germans have to live through further traumas in the ensuing years. After coming to power, the Nazis condemned her art as pacifist and ‘degenerate’ and removed her from her faculty position, preventing museums as well from showing her work. Still more painfully, she would also have to bury her grandson, also named Peter, when he dies on the eastern front in 1941 during World War II.

Kollwitz: Questions to consider How would you describe the style of Kollwitz’ work overall? Why would she choose this style to depict the subject matter she is representing? Are there any similarities between her representation of war and that offered by Otto Dix in his own etchings? Or are there differences in emphasis or approach?

Kathe Kollwitz, “Self-Portrait”, 1923

Kathe Kollwitz, “Mothers and Orphans”, 1919

Kathe Kollwitz, “Killed in Battle”, 1921

Kathe Kollwitz, “Departure and Death”, 1923

Kathe Kollwitz, “Death with Woman on her Lap”, 1921

Kathe Kollwitz, “The Volunteers”, 1922

Kathe Kollwitz, “The Mothers”, 1922-3

“The Widow”, 1922-3

“The Sacrifice”