Contents
Käthe Kollwitz
Making powerful prints and sculptures about poverty, mourning and the human cost of war.
A Weavers' Revolt · Peasants' War
- Born
- 8 July 1867
- Birthplace
- Königsberg, Prussia, now Kaliningrad, Russia
- Died
- 22 April 1945
More people
Käthe Kollwitz
Käthe Kollwitz was a German artist whose drawings, prints and sculpture centred working people and bereaved families. Personal losses deepened a public commitment to peace and social justice.
Early life
An encouraged talent
Her father supported her artistic training in Königsberg, Berlin and Munich.
Life in a working district
Married physician Karl Kollwitz and settled in Berlin, where his patients' lives informed her art.
Career
- 1898
A breakthrough in print
Exhibited A Weavers' Revolt to critical attention.
- 1900s
Printmaking and sculpture
Developed increasingly ambitious print cycles and studied sculpture in Paris.
- 1919
Academy recognition
Became the first woman elected to the Prussian Academy of Arts.
- 1933
Forced out
Was made to leave the academy after the Nazis came to power.
Selected work
A Weavers' Revolt
Six prints depict oppression, resistance and its aftermath.
Peasants' War
A print cycle about a historical uprising.
War
Woodcuts concentrate on the grief of families left behind; published as a portfolio in 1923.
The Grieving Parents
Two kneeling figures mourn near her son’s grave in Belgium.
Beyond the studio
Loss in two wars
Her son Peter died in the First World War and her grandson Peter in the Second.
Final displacement
Left bombed Berlin during the Second World War and died near Dresden in 1945.
Sources & photo credit
Life, career and references ↗Museum or specialist research ↗Photo: Hugo Erfurth. Public domain · Original image. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.
