{"id":2223,"date":"2023-07-10T15:31:21","date_gmt":"2023-07-10T13:31:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kaethe-kollwitz-digital.de\/unkategorisiert\/cycle-the-peasants-war\/"},"modified":"2023-09-05T15:52:32","modified_gmt":"2023-09-05T13:52:32","slug":"cycle-the-peasants-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kaethe-kollwitz-digital.de\/en\/permanent-exhibition\/cycle-the-peasants-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Cycle ‘The Peasants’ War’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Series of 7 etchings about the uprisings during the German Peasants’ War from 1524 to 1526<\/p>\n\n\n\n

K\u00e4the Kollwitz again turns to a historical event. The uprisings of peasants against the oppressive living conditions in the 16th century ended with a bloody defeat. Kollwitz reworks the subject into a non-historically defined, timeless depiction of suffering and oppression. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
K\u00e4the Kollwitz, Charge, 1902\/1903, etching<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

She read the extremely successful work Allgemeine Geschichte des gro\u00dfen Bauernkrieges<\/em> (General History of the Great Peasants’ War) published by the historian Wilhelm Zimmermann (1807-1878), probably not the original edition but an illustrated popular edition with excerpts published in 1891. She modelled her remembered figure of “Black Anna”, who cheered on the peasants, on the only historical female figure of the Peasants’ War known by name: the “Black Court Woman” Margarete Renner. She probably inspired Kollwitz to etch “Losbruch” in 1903.

The fact that a complete cycle on the Peasants’ War could be created at all is due to the 50th anniversary of the Association for Historical Art<\/em>. In the spring of 1904, the Dresden connection held a competition in which 37 artists participated with 126 graphic works. The etching Losbruch<\/em> by K\u00e4the Kollwitz received the “most applause” and she was subsequently commissioned to etch an entire cycle by June 1908 as an annual gift to the members. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

K\u00e4the Kollwitz herself in a letter from 1907:<\/p>\n\n\n\n