Posters and flyers
In her extensive poster work, Käthe Kollwitz confronted a wide variety of contemporary problems that had been brought to her by various initiatives. In this medium, too, she invented motifs that addressed grievances in a timeless pictorial language and are thus still understood by the viewer over a hundred years later.
The chalk lithograph Bread! is one of Käthe Kollwitz’s best-known works. It was created for the Hunger-Mappe (Starvation Portfolio) published in 1924 by the Internationale Arbeiterhilfe (IAH) (Workers International Relief). Kollwitz contributed her work along with six other well-known artists. The proceeds were intended for charitable purposes. The lithographed inscription “Brot!” (“Bread!”) gives a strong voice to the scene, silent in itself, consisting of a mother and her two starving children.
In a diary entry from late November 1923, the artist recorded the dramatic situation of the time:
“Everything is intensifying. Looting and attempted pogroms, Bavaria in a state of war against northern Germany. Hunger! A bread costs 140 billion! Then it goes down again to 80 billion. […] Hunger, hunger everywhere. In the streets, the unemployed swarm.”
German Cottage Industry Exhibition in Berlin 1906
The advertising poster for the German Heimarbeit Exhibition in Berlin in 1906 was probably the first poster Käthe Kollwitz designed. The commission was most likely made in reaction to her cycle A Weavers’ Revolt. The graphic sequence impressively expressed the hardship and desperation of the weavers working in their homes. The exhibition aimed to draw attention to the textile industry’s low wages. At the time, Berlin was considered the center of domestic work for the garment industry.
Käthe Kollwitz’s depiction of an overtired, frazzled woman caused a scandal on the fringes of the exhibition. The empress was less than enthusiastic about this kind of advertising and “declared that she would not visit the exhibition until the Kollwitz poster was removed.” (Otto Nagel, 1963, S. 33) Almost 20 years later, the artist again worked on a poster for a cottage industry exhibition. Little had changed in the precarious situation of the domestic workers in 1925.
Käthe Kollwitz – a “social” artist?
Käthe Kollwitz resisted attributions from outside that labeled her a “social” artist:
“I would like to say something here about the labeling as a ‘social’ artist that has accompanied me since then [seit ihrem Durchbruch mit dem „Weberaufstand“]. Certainly, even then my work was pointed to socialism by the attitude of my father, my brother, by all the literature of that time. But the real motive for my choice to depict almost only the lives of workers is that the motifs from that sphere were simply and unconditionally what I found beautiful. Beautiful for me was the Königsberg load-bearer, (…) beautiful was the generosity of the movement in the people. Without any charm for me were people from bourgeois life. The entirety of bourgeois life seemed pedantic to me. The proletariat, on the other hand, had a great force. Only much later, when I got to know, especially through my husband, the depth in gravity and tragedy of proletarian life, (…). Unresolved problems such as prostitution and unemployment tormented and troubled me. Those problems bound me to work on the representation of the lower people, and their ever-repeated representation opened an outlet or a way for me to endure life.”
Looking back to earlier times, 1941
Käthe Kollwitz — a “political” artist?
Käthe Kollwitz did not really want to be understood as political, criticizing herself as “being pulled back and forth” between the Social Democrats and the Communists, for whom she ultimately worked in the 1920s on a whole series of graphics, including various posters and flyers. World War I caused Kollwitz to take a clear stand on a number of issues, not just the campaign “Germany’s Children Starve”. She became a pacifist and got involved with the International Workers’ Aid for various demonstrations against the war starting in 1921. Posters were created such as The Survivors. War against War! , Never war again! and Release our Prisoners!.
“On the Totenfest (Day of the Dead), Karl and I were together in the Reichstag celebration for those who died in the World War. In such moments, when I know that I am working together in an international community against the war, I have a warm and satisfied feeling. Admittedly, mine is not free and pure art like Schmidt-Rottluff’s, for example. But it is still art. Everyone works as he can. I agree that my art has purposes. I want to have an effect in this time when people are so helpless and in need of comfort.”
Käthe Kollwitz, Dezember 4, 1922, Diaries 1908-1943, p.542
Nevertheless, Kollwitz remained strongly committed to social issues and found it comforting to “make an impact” with her art. Hunger was a central, serious consequence of World War I – not just Germany’s Children are starving. People in other parts of the world were also starving, something Käthe Kollwitz wanted to draw attention to in her often unpaid commissioned works: Help Russia!, Vienna is dying! Save its Children! The artist also repeatedly championed women’s causes. Down with the Abortion Paragraphs! and Mothers, share your Abundance! testify to her commitment.
