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German Expressionism
German expressionism was an early twentieth century German art movement that emphasized the artist's inner feelings and ideas. It originated in the 1920s as a rejection of Western bourgeois conventions. Reality is not the point of the art, but rather a distortion of reality to create emotional effects in the audience. -
The Yellow Cow
Franz Marc, The Yellow Cow, 1911
This painting is an example of one of his animal paintings that used bright colors, to express symbolic rather than naturalistic ideas. -
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Nollendorfplatz
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Nollendorfplatz, 1912, One of a series of paintings of Berlin street scenes, many of which featured prostitutes. His work criticized German urbanization and conservative German society, and us deemed degenerate by the Nazis. -
The Avenger
Ernst Barlach, The Avenger, 1914
The Avenger was made at the beginning of the war when Barlach was still a war supporter. After his war service, he became best known for his sculptures protesting the war. -
The Burial
Emil Nolde, The Burial, 1915 One of the first Expressionists, Nolde is known for expressive brushwork and brilliant colors. -
Der Gestürzte
Wilhelm Lehmbruck, Der Gestürzte, 1915
Created in Berlin, Der Gestürzte reflects Lehmbruck’s horror of what he saw in the war. about the First World War. A Nazi manifesto moved to destroy all works that were offensive on a national level, including this one. -
Woman with a Bag
Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Woman with a Bag, 1915
Schmidt-Rottluff was a soldier in WWI, and although the subjects of his paintings did not reflect the war, the nightmarish elements of his style did. -
Die Nacht
Max Beckmann, Die Nacht, 1918–1919
After experiencing the horror of WWI, Beckman, initially a supporter of the war, became disillusioned. Die Nacht’s portrays the horrific traumas of war that leak into society as a whole. -
Portrait of a Man
Erich Heckel, Portrait of a Man, 1919
One of the founding members of Die Brücke is best known for his paintings and bold woodcuts of nudes and landscapes. His work often focused on themes of illness. This woodcut is a self-portrait made a year after World War I ended. -
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) is the first example of German Expressionist film. A horror film, Caligari follows an insane hypnotist who uses one of his patients to commit murders. The film set down the characteristics of the genre in its focus on the world as being a psychological representation, twisted physically, of the brutality of Germany between the wars. -
The Skat Players
Otto Dix, The Skat Players, 1920
The painting represents three WWI veterans mutilated in the war playing a German card game called skat. The painting was denounced as degenerate because of its criticism of the war. -
Daum marries her pedantic automaton George
George Grosz, Daum marries her pedantic automaton George, 1920
Another Expressionist artist denounced by the Nazis, Grosz was known for his caricatures of Berlin life. -
The Golem: How He Came into the World
The Golem: How He Came into the World,1920
A German silent horror directed by Paul Wegener and Carl Boese film based on a 1915 novel about a golem from Jewish folklore. The only surviving film of the Golem trilogy. -
Monument to the March Dead
Walter Gropius Monument to the March Dead, 1921
Monument memorializes workers killed in the 1920 Kapp Putsch. Later destroyed by the Nazis for being degenerate. -
Nosferatu
Nosferatu (1922) is an unofficial German adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula. The film is set in 1800’s Transylvania with Dracula being transformed into Count Orlock. German Expressionist influences show in the dramatic lighting, distorted sets, and overly dramatic acting. -
Die Mütter
Kathe Kollwitz, Die Mütter, 1922 Her art depicts the effects of war and poverty. After the death of her son in WWI, she concentrated on prints and representations of mourning. -
The Trial
Franz Kafka, The Trial (1925)
It tells the story of Josef K., a man who is arrested but who never is told what the crime is. The crime is never revealed to the characters or to the readers and Josef K. is lost to a criminal bureaucracy. -
Atlantis Haus
Bernhard Hoetger, Atlantis Haus, 1926-1931
The building was designed on ideas that Atlantis was originally inhabited by Germanic people until it sunk under the sea. The building is now a hotel. -
Metropolis
Fritz Lang’s 1927 Metropolis was based on a science fiction novel of the same name. The film is set in a futuristic dystopia, which is run by underground workers who are pushed to revolt by an entity called Maria. The settings of distorted architecture and the exaggerated differences between the worlds above and below betray its German Expressionist roots. -
Berlin Alexanderplatz
Alfred Döblin, Berlin Alexanderplatz (1929)
Franz Biberkopf is a convict whose friend murders a prostitute to whom he was close. Biberkopf falls further into the criminal underworld during the ascendancy of Nazism. -
Lissy
Elfriede Lohse-Wächtler, Lissy, 1931
Lissy is a depiction of a brothel workers. The artist was murdered in a forced euthanasia program of Nazi Germany after being institutionalized for schizophrenia.