German Artist Kathe Kollwitz has dedicated most of her life’s work and art practice to the suffering of the innocent. Kollwitz cared about the less fortunate, those experiencing prejudice and pain. Elizabeth Prelinger describes “The name conjures up powerful images of mothers and children of solidarity among human beings, and of protest against social injustice and suffering” (Prelinger, 1992, p.13).
Kollwitz’s opposition to war has been her opinion for quite some time, due to the influence of her father’s political views. He was known to be a radical social democrat and was a driving force behind many of Kollwitz’s opinions and life choices. It was unusual for her father to actually supported her career choice of becoming an artist, Carl Zigrosser supposes that “she had been destined by her father even as a child”(Zigrosser, 1970, p.8). As a female, this was incredibly rare for the 1800s, Kearns adds “Even so, he was willing to support her training in art – which few fathers did in that day” (Kearns, 1976, p.20)
Her medium of choice is printmaking, including etching, woodcuts and lithography. throughout her career she has produced a number of cycles centred around themes of war and death. She lived through both the first and second world war and experienced the many horrors they held. One of these being the death of her son Peter on 22 oct 1914 during world war one, not ten days after he had volunteered. However, to fully understand what type of psychological effect this had on Kollwitz, one must understand how much her children, and children in general meant to her. A definite theme that holds strong throughout all of Kollwit’s work is motherhood. Children and women are a common occurrence throughout the focal point of her etchings, only ever focusing on the victims, never the prosecutors.
“Her allegiance was not to Aphrodite but to the eternal mother. In none of her works is a trace of alluring or sophisticated sex. She expressed feminine sensibility with masculine direct-ness, or perhaps one should say, with the plainspokenness of elemental woman – the matriarch – on whom tactics of subtle indirection had not yet been imposed by society” (Zigrosser, 1970, p.10-13)
This theme can be seen through one of kollwit’s works titled After the battle from her second major series Bauernkrieg (The peasants war). This cycle focused around The German Peasant war, or the Great peasant revolt, that took place in Germany and many German speaking countries in the years 1522-25. Kollwitz spent 6 years on this cycle of seven prints, as a means to represent an example of the terrible oppression that the poor were faced with during that time.
In the mid-16th century peasants rebelled against The Roman Catholic church, local nobles and princes after the break of the Feudal system. relations between Princes and peasants crumbled as those rulers sought to consolidate ownership of land and as a result increase power over peasants and farmers. 100,000 out of 300,000 farmers and peasants were killed during the wars, with the remainder taxed, as well none of the their goals were achieved. These people had no military training yet went up against military leaders with trained armies.
Kollwitz depicts a scene where a woman shines her lantern on the face on her dead child after finding his body in the battlefield. The print is surprisingly soft and detailed, the light acting as that of a holy ghost, a religious image that is chilling to witness. The mother bends over, a hand reaches out exposing not only her frailness, but the delicate touch she places on her son’s head. The scene is heart-breaking and you can feel the unbearable quiet the print possesses.
However it is only until after her son’s death that we really see the psychological damage war had on Kollwitz. In 1921/22 she produced a new cycle of print woodcuts titled War (Krieg), reflecting on the images she had seen and the effects it had left behind. Zigrosser thought “The cycle War represented the reaction of woman as wife and mother to war”(Zigrosser, 1970, p.14) Which can be seen in Sheet 3 of the series, called The parents. reflecting this idea, as it represents Kollwitz and her husband embracing one another in agony as they process their son’s death.
Just from the very change of medium alone we can see a flip in Kollwitz’s mind and work, no more are these prints soft and quiet, they are harsh and rough. There is a clear black and white print, reflecting the brutal reality of death, that there are no grey areas, there is no pleading with God. Zigrosser speaks again on Kollwitz as he supposes:
“one is convinced that the reactions of her characters are innately felt and psychologically true, hardly ever melodramatic or exaggerated. The reason for this, one almost believes, is that she tested them on herself” (Zigrosser, 1970, p.25).
This could possibly be true in this particular series alone, as she shows her sufferings from what war has taken away. However Zigrosser’s opinion may not apply to the peasant war cycle, as she was not personally involved or affected, only using it as a means to show suffering. However, her take on these particular events have been to Hildergard Barchet “Germany’s good conscience in its darkest hours” (Barchet, 1992, p.125). Kollwitz’s impact was great, her role as a mother soothing to the socialist public.
Kollwitz sends a message with this series, she captured grief and shows the reality of war. Which ultimately is the people it leaves behind, and the hopelessness that occurs once the youth of the world is taken away. She herself wrote:
“feeling that we were all betrayed then , at the beginning… peter and million, many millions of other boys all betrayed. That is why I cannot be calm. Within me is upheaval, turmoil” (Kollwitz, 1988, p.88).
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