Käthe Kollwitz (Born: Schmidt) (1867 - 1945)

Käthe Kollwitz (1867 - 1945) (born Schmidt). The painter , printmaker and sculptor, Käthe Schmidt was born on July 8, 1867 in Königsberg (at that time in Prussia--assumed into Russia after WWII). In that the art schools of the times were not open to women, Kollwitz enrolled in a women's art school in Berlin. It was in Berlin that she met her future husband, Karl Kollwitz. In 1888 she moved to Munich to continue her art studies at a women's art school there.

Her work had, early on, begun to focus on the poor and disadvantaged. That choice of subject matter would remain with her throughout her career. In 1890 the artist returned to Königsberg and opened a studio there. In 1891 Käthe Schmidt married the physician, Karl Kollwitz and took his name. The couple had two sons, one of whom was killed as a soldier in WWI. Kollwitz was, of course, devastated by the loss of her son. During the next few years she was inspired to produce a series of drawings showing the impact that war had on women.

In 1919 Kollwitz became the first woman taken into the Prussian Academy of Art and granted the title of professor of art. Her work continued to feature the underprivileged and the victims of war and violence. She became more and more pacifist in her outlook and moved, politically, progressively to the left. She was sympathetic to the communist movement but was deeply disappointed at the direction of the Russian revolution. When the Nazis came to power in 1933 she was removed from her position at the Academy of Art and forbidden to exhibit her work. She continued to work privately at her home in Berlin until 1943. In that year she left Berlin and settled in Moritzburg near Dresden. She died on April 22, 1945 just before the end of WWII.

Käthe Kollwitz war Graphikerin und Bildhauerin und eine der größten deutschen Künstlerinnen des 20. Jahrhunderts. Sie wurde am 8. Juli 1867 in Königsberg, Ostpreußen, im heutigen Kaliningrad geboren und starb am 22. April 1945 in der Nähe von Dresden. Käthe Kollwitz widmet sich nach frühzeitiger Aufgabe der Ölmalerei ganz der Graphik, zunächst Radierung und Lithographie, seit ca.1920 auch dem Holzschnitt. Mit dem graphischen Zyklus "Ein Weberaufstand", angeregt durch das Drama von Gerhart Hauptmann, gelingt ihr 1898 der Durchbruch in der Öffentlichkeit. Zwischen 1903 und 1908 entsteht eine Folge von sieben großformatigen Radierungen: "Ein Bauernkrieg". Kollwitz begrüßte die Russische Revolution und die deutsche Revolution 1918 mit Hoffnung, war jedoch bald vom sowjetischen Kommunismus enttäuscht. Im Jahre 1919, während der Weimarer Republik, wird sie als erste Frau in die Preußische Akademie der Künste aufgenommen unter gleichzeitiger Verleihung des Professorentitels. Trotz dieser Ehrungen entstehen zwischen 1921 und 1924 ihre berühmten Plakate und Flugblätter gegen Krieg, Hunger und soziale Benachteiligung. 1928 über