Grandfather Julius Rupp
*13 August 1809 Königsberg; † 1884 ibid.
“Man does not exist to be happy, but that he may fulfill his duty.”
Inscription on the memorial stone of Julius Rupp
The engraved writing on Julius Rupp’s gravestone already tells us a lot about his strict yet benevolent personality. Käthe Kollwitz once described him as a kind-hearted grandfather, once as fearsome. The latter can probably be attributed to his strong will and the tenacity with which he defied the norms of his time. Born in Königsberg in 1809, as a theologian and founder of the Free congregation of Königsberg, he had a significant influence on the religious-political community in which Kollwitz grew up. He studied theology at Königsberg University and trained as a pastor at the Wittenberg Preacher’s Seminary. After his habilitation on Spinoza, Rupp taught history at the Altstädter Gymnasium in Königsberg. In 1842 he took up his post as divisional pastor. At this time, only a few years before the bourgeois revolution of 1848, the idea of bourgeois emancipation and self-determination also ignited in Rupp. Rupp publicly voiced his criticism that the state church was submitting to the state order and his accompanying demand for independence from church and state in a speech, with drastic consequences. In 1845 he lost his post as divisional pastor and in 1846, with the support of many followers, founded the religious community Freie Gemeinde Königsberg. Here he created a place for religious self-determination, freedom and equality.
Father Carl Schmidt
*1825 Bischofsburg; †1898 Königsberg
“He always measured the truth of an idea only by how it stood in life, and people were for him the starting point and goal of all his thinking and searching.”
Stern, Lisbeth: Käthe Kollwitz, in: Freie Welt, p. 4
Carl Schmidt, who came from a humble background, experienced the generosity of helpful fellow human beings at a young age, who enabled him to continue his schooling. In 1846, he began his law studies at the University of Königsberg. Enthusiastic about republican ideas, he became involved in the revolution of 1848/49. He passed his law exams and was active in the Free congregation of Königsberg, which was banned at that time. As a result of his involvement, he was dismissed from the Prussian judicial service. His life took an abrupt turn – he trained as a bricklayer and founded his own construction company as a master mason in 1859. With several building contracts his fortune grew as well. His participation in the founding of the local craftsmen’s association, as a member of the Progress Party and a deputy to the Königsberg City Assembly, solidified his political stance in the 1870s. He retired from business a few years later and rose to become a congregational preacher in the Königsberg Free Congregation. As a father, he taught his children respect and obedience to their parents and at the same time gave them many freedoms – they could freely dispose of their pocket money, were allowed to explore the city independently, explore the bookcase and try their hand at art. After Julius Rupp’s death in 1884, Carl Schmidt took over the leadership of the community.
Brother Konrad Schmidt
*1863 Königsberg; † 1932 Berlin
The young Käthe Kollwitz looked up to her older brother and was always closely connected to him throughout her life. As a child, he was given much freedom in his own intellectual development. While Käthe and Lisbeth tried their hand at drawing, Konrad sought his literary expression. The Königsberg community as well as his father’s politico-religious views, which flowed into his upbringing, had a lasting influence on him. Thus he took up his studies of national economics in Berlin, which he completed with a dissertation in 1886. He studied the work of Karl Marx and met Friedrich Engels, whom he visited in London. After returning home to Königsberg, he joined his father in the Socialist Workers’ Party of Germany, which developed into today’s SPD. He increasingly focused on the ethical aspects of the workers’ movement. In 1895 he settled in Berlin. He obtained employment with the Social Democratic weekly Vorwärts and became chairman of the Freie Volksbühne from 1897 to 1918. In 1919, Konrad Haenisch, minister of education in the first SPD-led Prussian state government, appointed Conrad Schmidt professor at the Berlin Polytechnic. Weakened in health, he lived with Käthe and Karl Kollwitz in Berlin from 1925. There he died after a long illness on October 14, 1932.
Sister Lisbeth Stern and her family
Lisbeth Stern *1870 Königsberg; †1963 Berlin
Georg Stern * 1867 Königsberg; †1934 Berlin
Käthe and Lisbeth had a particularly strong bond and were not only sisters but closest confidants and friends throughout their lives. Lisbeth supported Käthe’s artistic ambitions and modeled for her when she drew. In 1893 she married Georg Stern and had four daughters with him, all of whom were highly talented in the arts.
Georg Stern came from a Jewish family in Königsberg. In 1890 he graduated with a doctorate in physics. In 1893, he began his engineering career at Ludwig Loewe & Co. In 1904, he obtained a managerial position at AEG in Berlin’s Brunnenstrasse. Stern was a pioneer in the field of high-voltage technology and became internationally known through his publications in technical journals. In 1926, he was appointed deputy member of the AEG board of directors. He retired in 1931 and devoted himself to his passion as a composer. In 1933, his pieces were even performed in the Berlin Philharmonic Hall. When the NSDAP came to power, he lost half of his pension payment due to his Jewish ancestry. His daughters Regula, Hanna, Katharina and Maria also no longer received work. Hanna and Maria then emigrated to the USA.
Husband Karl Kollwitz
*1863 Rudau; †1940 Berlin
Karl Kollwitz, a native of Rudau in East Prussia, lost his father at a very early age and spent his childhood first in the Royal Orphanage in Königsberg, then in various boarding houses. He soon became acquainted with the Free congregation of Königsberg, turned to Social Democracy and became a close friend of Konrad Schmidt. He was always welcome at the Schmidts’ and found his second home there, where he also made the acquaintance of the young Käthe Schmidt. After graduating from high school, he began studying medicine at the Albertus University in Königsberg. Despite Käthe’s fear that marriage would get in the way of her artistic existence, Käthe and Karl Kollwitz married in 1891. In Berlin, he had his general practice in the same apartment building where they lived, in Prenzlauer Berg. They had two sons, Hans in 1892 and Peter Kollwitz in 1896. Hans later followed in his father’s footsteps as a doctor, while Peter devoted himself to painting. With his cash practice, he became involved in the Social Democratic Medical Association and was active as a member of the Youth Welfare Committee in Prenzlauer Berg and in the German League for Human Rights. In 1919 he was elected as a city councillor for the SPD.
His relationship with his wife had its ups and downs, but it was full of understanding and intimacy. In the evening Karl always asked her to read him the words of Novalis:
Faithfully give me your hands,
Be brother to me and turn
Your eyes before your end
not away from me again.
The sons Hans und Peter
Hans Kollwitz *1892 †1971
Peter Kollwitz *1896 †1914
Käthe Kollwitz had a very intimate and strong bond with her sons Hans and Peter Kollwitz. Both of them took an important part in her artistic work, for example, they stood as models for her and accompanied her work in the studio. Influenced by the intellectual currents of his time, Hans developed a literary interest, while Peter had the desire to become a painter. While still at school, both joined the “Wandervogel,” a bourgeois youth movement to which Walter Benjamin also belonged. Characteristic of the time, they followed with strong pathos idealistic ideas of giving youth their own voice and rebelling against the obedience of the Wilhelmine era. When World War I broke out in 1914, all of Germany, and especially the younger generation, was in the throes of war. The patriotic euphoria also gripped the two brothers, who signed up as war volunteers for the front. But Peter Kollwitz, 18 years old and therefore still a minor, needed the consent of his parents. Karl Kollwitz was decidedly against the war. Käthe Kollwitz was carried away by the idea of a new era and the abolition of old structures and took her son’s side. Karl was also persuaded and finally signed the declaration of consent. Only four weeks later Peter fell in Flanders.
Hans Kollwitz followed in his father’s footsteps professionally, completed his medical studies in 1920 and initially worked in Karl Kollwitz’s practice. In 1921 he married the painter and book illustrator Ottilie Ehlers. They named their first son Peter, in honor of his fallen brother. The young family settled in Berlin-Lichtenrade, the twins Jutta and Jördis, and son Arne completed the family happiness. Käthe Kollwitz often spent entire summer days with Hans and his family in the village of Lichtenrade and enjoyed being involved in family life as a grandmother. From 1928 he worked as a school doctor and after the Second World War in the Tempelhof health administration as a public health officer. Granddaughter Jutta cared for Käthe Kollwitz in 1944, weakened by her advanced age, before the bombing raids in Moritzburg near Dresden. As post-war Germany became increasingly interested in Käthe Kollwitz’s art, Hans Kollwitz devoted himself to his mother’s life’s work after his retirement. He supported exhibitions of her work and published her diaries and letters.
