On November 11, 1918, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany abdicated his throne, bringing to an end World War I, a war that had raged for more than four years, leaving Germany in shambles. The nation went into a state of civil war, with factions from across the political spectrum vying for the chance to shape the new republic at what many hoped would be the dawn of a new era.
On the left were the radical Spartacists, who founded a brand of the Communist Party in 1918, who attempted to overthrow the government on two separate occasions, and resulted in the state-ordered assassination of communist leaders Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht. The result was a period of violence and unrest that was waged on the streets between factions, parties, and police against a backdrop of political propaganda that took the form of posters, prints, books, and periodicals.
The battle for power traveled across the nation through a searing network of artists, politicians, and radicals who believed in the power of the image and the word to shape the public’s point of view. With Expressionism being the dominant artistic style of the times, the outlook was dire and bleak, creating a sense of urgency and intensity that spoke to the desperation of the times. The war on the streets rages on in the art and propaganda for nearly a year until the Weimar Republic was established as a constitutional democracy, which would rule until the rise of the Third Reich in 1933.
An oft-forgotten episode in Germany’s tumultuous history, the civil war produced some of the century’s most visceral visual iconography of modern times. A selection of works from the era is currently on display in AKTION! Art and Revolution in Germany, 1918-1919, at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art now through January 10, 2016.
In the hands of artists such as Max Pechstein and Käthe Kollwitz, political propaganda became an effective medium to inspire social change, reminding the people that the fate of the nation was now in their hands. At a time when mass media was defined by the illustration and the word, whether printed on a poster or in a book, artists became activists, encouraging the people to do the same. Artists took up the task of memorializing its martyrs and the social ideals that had perished with them, while simultaneously speaking to the new generation, compelled to lead.
This pivotal year in German history was one which marked a tremendous change in the country’s fortune, as women were granted the right to vote by the interim German parliament. With this new voting block suddenly able to contribute in such a meaningful way to the direction of the country, many posters sponsored by the government’s publicity office were designed to appeal specifically to women, telegraphing the urgency of the period and the importance of living into the responsibility now given to them. Taken as a whole, AKTION! reveals the way in which art, politics, and media commingle and overlap, providing a look at the ways in which iconography can be used to connect people to a message and an outcome much greater than themselves.
AKTION! Art and Revolution in Germany, 1918-1919 runs from now until January 10, 2016.
Header: Rolf Niczky, “Bolshevism: Germany’s Murderer” c.1919 Black/Blue/Red/Yellow Lithograph on wove paper mounted on linen. Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Miss Rosen is a New York-based writer, curator, and brand strategist. There is nothing she adores so much as photography and books. A small part of her wishes she had a proper library, like in the game of Clue. Then she could blaze and write soliloquies to her in-and-out-of-print loves.
