Käthe Kollwitz

Biography

One of the great artists of the twentieth century, Käthe Kollwitz lived through two world wars, losing a son in the first and a grandson in the second. She was already 65 when Hitler came to power in 1933. She is included here because of her powerful and compassionate posters executed in the early 1920s.

Käthe Schmidt was born 8 July 1867 in Königsburg, East Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia), later studying there with the engraver Rudolf Mauer and the painter Gustav Naujok. 1885-6: studied at the Women Artists’ School (Künstlerinnenschule) in Berlin during which time she was encouraged by her teacher Karl Stauffer-Bern and came under the influence of the work and writings of Max Klinger. 1887: studied in Königsburg with the genre painter Emil Neide (1843-1908). 1888-9: studied at the Munich Künstlerinnenschule where she became familiar with the socially conscious writings of Zola (especially the recently-published Germinal), Ibsen, Gorki, Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky. Her work first exhibited 1888. She again returned to Königsburg, now as a printmaker, where she again studied with Rudolf Mauer. 1891: married Dr Karl Kollwitz (2 sons: 1892, 1896). In the same year they moved to the working-class area of north Berlin where Karl had a clinic. Käthe taught etching and life study at the Women Artists’ School, 1898-1903. Visited Paris during 1904 and spent a year in Italy in 1907.

Her natural compassion for the poor and oppressed – many, her husband’s patients – resulted in several memorable print series: ‘Weberaufstand’ (Weavers’ Rebellion, 1893-8), ‘Aufrur’ (Uprising, 1899) and ‘Bauernkrieg’ (The Peasants’ War, 1902-8, for which she was awarded in 1907 the Villa Romana Prize for study in Italy). The pain expressed in these subjects was intense – as it was by her prints (from 1903) of mothers grieving over the bodies of dead infants. Her youngest son, Peter, was killed in Flanders (Dixmuiden) shortly after the start in 1914 of the Great War.

She had become a master of the printmaking art and her work received early recognition. 1908-11: her work in the journal Simplicissimus. From 1909: took up sculpture (in addition to her printmaking); the subjects are equally agonizing, the technique equally powerful. 1914: numerous prints exhibited in Das Haus der Frau at the World Exhibition of Buchgewerbe und Graphik (‘Bugra’), Leipzig. 1919: appointed the first woman professor at the Prussian Academy of Arts (Akademie der Künste), Berlin. 1920: influenced by an exhibition of Ernst Barlach’s woodcuts. 1920-26: Kollwitz produced numerous political posters (see esp. Fritsch, 2004, pp. 26, 386-420), including ‘Heraus mit unsern Gefangenen’ (1920, a plea to release supporters of the revolutionary Spartacus League), ‘Helft Russland’ (1921), ‘Brot!’ (1923), ‘Deutschlands Kinder hungern!’ (1924) , ‘Nie wieder Krieg’ (1924). 1927: visited the USSR on the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution; her work was exhibited in Moscow and Kazan. 1928: became head of the Academy’s master studio for graphic arts. The same year she signed a manifesto denouncing the use of public money for armaments. 1929: awarded Ordre pour le Mérite. 1932: created a memorial sculpture to her dead son in the military cemetery at Roggefelde, near Dixmuiden, Belgium (moved in 1955 to Vladsloo-Praetbosch).

Käthe Kollwitz’s sympathies with the proletariat were uncompromising and led to her work being suppressed at least once, and a prize vetoed, during the Kaiser’s reign; in 1933, days after Hitler had become Chancellor, she and her husband signed an appeal to leftist party candidates and workers to unify against the Nazis and, as a result, she was forced out of the Prussian Academy of Arts, with Heinrich Mann, in February. Although now internationally famed, her work was unofficially suppressed during the NS period. A report of September 1935 to the Reichskammer der bildenden Künste read: ‘Since the National Socialist assumption of power, Volksgenossin [fellow citizen] K. has not endeavored in any way (not even for the sake of appearances) to accommodate National Socialist interests. She seems so influenced by communist ideas that a sincere conversion is out of the question. In the case of Volksgenossin K. there is no guarantee whatsoever that she will declare full allegiance to the National Socialist state… ’. (Fecht, 1988) In 1936 her sculptures were removed from the exhibition Berlin Sculptors – from Schlüter to the Present and, in the same year, during Gestapo interviews she was threatened with removal to a concentration camp. However, her work was not included in the infamous 1937 ‘Degenerate Art’ (Entartete Kunst) exhibition in Munich, unlike that of her friend the sculptor Ernst Barlach.

Erich Cohn, German émigré and New York businessman, ‘tried to secure Kollwitz safe passage to America, but she, fearing Nazi reprisals against her family, gratefully refused the offer.’ (Hildegard Bachert, in Käthe Kollwitz [exh. cat ., Washington, D.C. National Gallery of Art], New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1992, p. 129)

In September 1942 her grandson Peter died in the war. In August of 1943 she moved to the house of the sculptor Margarete Böning in Nordhausen to escape the Berlin bombings. On 23 November 1943 – she was then aged 76 – her Berlin apartment (at Weissenburger Strasse 25), in which she had lived for 50 years and by 1943 had also become her studio, was destroyed in a bombing raid. Soon after, Ernst Heinrich, Prince of Saxony, offered her rooms in the Rüdenhof, a small house near Moritzburg Castle outside Dresden. She died there on 22 April 1945, days before the arrival of the Russian army and the ending of World War II. Her ashes are interred at Berlin’s Zentralfriedhof Lichtenberg (Central Cemetery) under a relief which she herself had designed.

‘She is the artistic spokesperson of German socialism from 1890 to 1945.’ (Willi Schrein, Bildende Kunst, May 1947, p. 5)

‘More than any of her contemporaries, she was, as individual and as artist, truly the conscience of her age.’ (Elizabeth Prelinger in Dictionary of Women Artists, 1997; see below)

‘Käthe Kollwitz, this spiritual sister of Barlach, is an example of the hard truth that suffering can bring to life – when life is love.’ (Gerhard Marcks, in Marcks und Bildhauer seiner Zeit (exh. cat.), 1989, tr. SM)

There is a Käthe Kollwitz Museum in Berlin: Fasanenstrasse 24, 10719 Berlin. E-mail: ‘ ’. However, its ‘archive cannot be viewed by the public… .The Kupferstichkabinett (Graphic Collection), Matth ikirchplatz 8, 10785 Berlin many works…’.

A Käthe Kollwitz Prize is awarded by the Akademie der Künste, Berlin.

A photograph of the artist appears in Unsere Zeit in 77 Frauenbildnissen, Niels Kampmann Verlag, c. 1930.

A caricature of Käthe Kollwitz by Willy Key appears in Prismen, 1928, p. 69; a drawing, c. 1930, appears in Erich Ohser – e.o. plauen. Der Zeichner 1903-44 (exh. cat.), Stuttgart: Staatsgalerie, 1987.

Writings by

  • Käthe Kollwitz – Tagebuchblätter und Briefe (Hans Kollwitz, ed.), Berlin: Gebr. Mann, 1949 (The diary and letters of Kaethe Kollwitz) [Richard and Clara Winston, tr.], Evanston, IL: Northwestern University, 1988, first published by Regnery, 1955 (the 1949 German edition appeared subsequently in illustrated editions
  • the English edition contains over 50 illustrations. Includes Jutta Kollwitz, ‘The last days of Kaethe Kollwitz’)
  • Briefe der Freundschaft (H. Kollwitz, ed.), Munich: List, 1966
  • Die Tagebücher (Jutta Bohnke-Kollwitz, ed.), Berlin, 1989 (2nd ed. 1999)
  • Die Tagebücher, Berlin: Siedler, 1991
  • Jutta Bohnke-Kollwitz , ed., Briefe an den Sohn Hans 1904-45, Berlin: Siedler, 1992
  • Handzeichnungen, Druckgraphik, Skulpturen, Munich: Schirmer/Mosel, 1993
  • Ich sah die Welt mit liebevollen Blicken/Käthe Kollwitz, Ein Leben in Selbstzeugnissen, (H. Kollwitz, ed .
  • extracts from KK’s Ich will Wirken in dieser Zeit) Hannover: Fackelträger, 1996 (also published by Fackelträger, 1968, and Wiesbaden: Fourier, 197-?
  • chonology and bibliographical references).

Writings about

  • select bibliography)
  • There are numerous books and articles about Käthe Kollwitz. Particularly comprehensive references are the catalogs raisonné: Klipstein, 1955, and von dem Knesebeck, 2002
  • Nagel, 1972
  • Seeler, 1999
  • Fritsch, 2004 (for these see below).
    • 1903-29: Max Lehrs, ‘Käthe Kollwitz’, Die Graphischen Künste, xxvi, Vienna, 1903, pp. 55-67 (includes details of prints 1890-1902)
  • rejected(?) work for poster, Das Plakat, April 1912, pp. 84, 86, 125
  • Johannes Sievers, Die Radierungen und Steindrucke von Käthe Kollwitz, 1890-1912, Dresden: Holst, 1913
  • Die Frau im Buchgewerbe und in der Graphik, Leipzig: Deutschen Buchgewerbevereins, 1914 (list of exhibited works in Bugra exh.)
  • Julius Elias, ‘Käthe Kollwitz’, Kunst und Künstler, August 1917, pp. 540-49
  • includes lithograph of son Hans) (article repr. in Schmidt, 1988 – see below)
  • Alfred Kuhn, Käthe Kollwitz, Berlin: Neue Kunsthandlung, 1921 (in ‘Graphiker der Gegenwart’ series
  • the series was incorporated into one volume as Graphik der Gegenwart, Berlin: Die Buchgemeinde, 1928)
  • Adolf Heilborn, Die Zeichner des Volks: Käthe Kollwitz, Heinrich Zille, Berlin: Rembrandt, 1925
  • Arthur Bonus, Das Käthe Kollwitz Werk, Dresden: Reissner, 1925 (lim. ed.)
  • A. Wagner, Die Radierungen, Holzschnitte und Lithographien von Käthe Kollwitz, Dresden, 1927
  • Louise Diel, Käthe Kollwitz Ein Ruf ertönt, Berlin: Furche, 1927
  • ‘Käthe-Kollwitz-Ausstellung in Moskau’, Der Cicerone, 1928, p. 208
  • ‘Die Mutter erhebt sich’, in Erich Knauf, Empörung und Gestaltung. Künstlerprofile von Daumier bis Kollwitz, Berlin: Büchergilde Gutenberg, 1928 (esp. pp. 207-16, 222)
    • 1930-54: Leopold Zahn, ‘Käthe Kollwitz’ (obituary), Das Kunstwerk, 1946/7, v. 1, p. 38
  • Willi Schreip, ‘Käthe Kollwitz’, Bildende Kunst, May 1947, pp. 4-7
  • B. Bonus-Jeep, 6o Jahre Freundschaft mit Käthe Kollwitz, Boppard, 1948
    • Agnes Smedley, ‘Käthe Kollwitz Eimfluss in China’, Bildende Kunst, 1949, 2, p. 61 (repr.from Ost und West, 1948, v. 12) Kurt Magritz, ‘Käthe Kollwitz. Eine Studie’, Bildende Kunst, 1949, 9, pp. 271-5 Hilde Herrmann, ‘Käthe Kollwitz als Bildhauerin’ (as sculptor), Das Kunstwerk, 1951, v. 2, pp. 26-7
  • 1955-9: August Klipstein, Käthe Kollwitz/Verzeichnis des graphischen Werkes, Bern/New York: Klipstein, 1955, and Käthe Kollwitz: The Graphic Work, 1955 (repr ., St Paul’s Bibliographies 1995)
    • Herbert Tucholski, ‘Vom Werden eines Werkes. Über die Arbeitsweise von Käthe Kollwitz’ (KK’s Death of Liebknecht), Bildende Kunst, 1955, 2, pp. 101-5 Sella Hasse, ‘Begegnung mit Käthe Kollwitz’, Bildende Kunst, 1955, 2, pp. 105-7 Li Tschün, ‘Käthe Kollwitz und die revolutionäre chinesische Grafik’, Bildende Kunst, 1956, 3, pp. 169-70 Heinrich Mock, ‘Käthe-Kollwitz-Ausstellung in Berlin zu ehren ihres 90. Geburtstages (exh.), Bildende Kunst, 1957, 11, p. 787 Kurt Schnifner, ‘Mütter in Aufruhr’, Bildende Kunst, 1958, 4, pp. 269-70 plan for a public memorial in Berlin, Bildende Kunst, 1958, 6, p. 433
  • Käthe Kollwitz: Bauernkrieg, Dresden: VEB Verlag der Kunst, 1958
    • Richard Süden, ‘Käthe Kollwitz und die Revolution’, Bildende Kunst, 1959, 2, pp. 98-102
    • 1960-64: Eva Mieke, ‘Die antimilitaristische Tendenz in der Darstellung des Krieges im grafischen Zyklus der zwanziger Jahre’, Bildende Kunst, 1960, 8, pp. 535-40 Gerhard Strauss, ‘Käthe Kollwitz’, Bildende Kunst, 1961, 2, pp. 89-97 Ursula Horn, ‘Die Darstellung des Kindes im Kampf gegen Imperialismus und Krieg’, Bildende Kunst, 1961, 6, pp. 396-404
  • Beate Bonus-Jeep, Sechzig Jahre Freundschaft mit Käthe Kollwitz, Bremen, 1963
    • Günter Feist, ‘Käthe Kollwitz – Weltanschauung und Künstlertum’, Bildende Kunst, 1963, 7, pp. 377-80
  • Käthe Kollwitz. Brot den Armen aller Welt (Coll. H. Goedeckemeyer), exh. cat ., Frankfurt a.M.: Hause des Kunstgeschichtlichen Instituts, 1964 (includes articles by F. Gerke and J. Sievers)
  • 1965-9: Otto Nagel, Die Selbstbildnisse der Käthe Kollwitz, Berlin: Henschel, 1965
    • Ilse Rauhut, ‘Die “grosse Arbeit” gegen den Krieg’ (memorials for the war dead), Bildende Kunst, 1965, 4, pp. 186-90 I. Rauhut, ‘Grab- und Gedenkmäler von Käthe Kollwitz’ (war memorials), Bildende Kunst, 1966, 2, pp. 79-83 I. Rauhut, ‘Liebe und Verantwortung der Mütter’ (KK’s sculpture), Bildende Kunst, 1966, 5, pp. 250-55
  • note on O. Nagel, Die Selbstbildnisse…, in Marginalien, June 1966, p. 67
  • Käthe Kollwitz/Das plastische Werk (H. Kollwitz, ed.), Hamburg, 1967
  • G.H. Hamilton, Painting and Sculpture in Europe 1880 to 1940, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1967, pp. 119-21
    • Wolfgang Hütt, ‘Demonstration – Waffe des Proletariats’, Bildende Kunst, 1967, 5, pp. 255-9 Heinz Lüdecke, ‘Unbekannte Werke von Käthe Kollwitz’ (unfamiliar works), Bildende Kunst, 1967, 7, pp. 346-51 Sella Hasse, and others, ‘Begegnungen mit Käthe Kollwitz’ (encounters with KK), Bildende Kunst, 1967, 7, pp. 377-9
  • Die Zeichnerin Käthe Kollwitz (100th birthday, exh. cat.), Stuttgart: Cantz’sche, 1967
  • Erhard Frommhold, Kunst im Widerstand, Dresden: VEB Verlag der Kunst, 1968
    • Heinz Lüdecke, ‘Nachfrage nach Käthe-Kollwitz-Grafik wächst’ (Hamburg auction prices), Bildende Kunst, 1968, 1, pp. 52-3 Gabriele Wittrin, ‘Ein unbekannter Kollwitz-Brief’ (letter to Agnes Smedley), Bildende Kunst, 1968, 2, p. 109 (see Smedley, 1949)
  • Wolfgang Hütt, Deutsche Malerei und Graphik im 20. Jahrhundert, Berlin: Henschelverlag, 1969, esp. pp. 56-60, 210-24, 277-80
    • 1970-74: Werner Timm, ‘Käthe Kollwitz, Anregungen aus der Literatur, Arbeiten für das Buch’, Marginalien, 1971, v. 41, pp. 58-66, 106 Hans Stern, ‘Schutzumschläge von Käthe Kollwitz und Otto Nagel/Ein Nachtrag’, Marginalien, 1971, v. 44, p. 59
  • Otto Nagel and Sibylle Schallenberg-Nagel, Käthe Kollwitz/Die Handzeichnungen, Berlin: Henschel, 1972 (repr. Stuttgart, 1980)
  • Mina C. Klein and H. Arthur Klein, Käthe Kollwitz: Life in Art, New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1972
    • 1975-9: M. C. Klein and H.A. Klein, ‘Käthe Kollwitz of Berlin – and the World’, Aus dem Antiquariat, 1975, 1, pp. A43-52 (in English, based on the authors’ 1972 book) Elmar Jansen, ‘Rücksichtslose aufrichtige Menschlichkeit’, Marginalien, no. 58, 1975, pp. 25-39
  • Hellmut Rademacher (intro.), Plakat Kunst im Klassen Kampf, Zentralantiquariat der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik, 1976 (posters of the Weimar Republic, 1924-32)
  • Friedhelm Röttger, Käthe Kollwitz (exh. cat.), Esslingen: Verlag Kunstgalerie Esslingen, 1979
  • 1980-84: Renate Hinz (ed.), Käthe Kollwitz 1867-1945/Druckgraphik, Plakate, Zeichnungen, Berlin, 1980 (English ed.: London: Writers and Readers, 1981)
    • Wen Di, ‘Käthe Kollwitz noch immer eine Grösse in China’, Graphische Kunst, 15/2, 1980, p. 60
  • Käthe Kollwitz, Bekenntnisse, Leipzig: Reclam., 1981
    • Ursula Perucchi-Petri, ‘Käthe Kollwitz, die Zeichnerin’, Die Kunst und das schöne Heim 3, 1981
  • Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945): The Graphic Works (exh. cat.)
  • Cambridge (England): Kettle’s Yard, 1981
  • Uwe M. Schneede, Käthe Kollwitz: Das zeichnerische Werk, Munich, 1981
  • Brigitte Birnbaum, Tintarolo (children’s book about KK with illust. by KK), W. Berlin: Elefanten Press, 1981
  • Kate Steinitz/Art and collection/Avant-garde art in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s (exh. cat.), The Art Gallery, San Bernardino State College, 1982, pp. 80-83
    • F. Hammer, ‘Erinnerung an Käthe Kollwitz’, Marginalien, 1983, no. 90, pp. 7-9
  • 1985-9: Hannelore Fischer (ed.), Käthe Kollwitz. Meisterwerke der Zeichnung (exh. cat.), Bonn: DuMont Buchverlag, 1985 (excellent bibliography)
  • Volker Frank, ‘Ovation für Käthe Kollwitz’, Bildende Kunst, Oct. 1987, pp. 434-7 and inside front cover
  • Andreas Hüneke, ‘Rückblick auf eine Ausstellung vor 50 Jahren’, Bildende Kunst, Nov. 1987, pp. 490-93
  • Bildende Kunst, Dec. 1987, p. 527 (inc. KK at easel)
  • Harri Mündel, ‘Akademie der Künste erwarb Ölstudie von Käthe Kollwitz’, Bildende Kunst, Aug. 1988, pp. 379-81
  • Tom Fecht (ed) ., Käthe Kollwitz: Works in Color, New York: Schocken/Random House, 1988
  • Werner Schmidt (ed.), Die Kollwitz-Sammlung des Dresdner Kupferstich-Kabinettes. Graphik und Zeichnungen 1890-1912, Cologne: Käthe-Kollwitz-Museum and DuMont, 1988 (includes photos of KK, and family)
  • A. Backhaus and others, Käthe Kollwitz: Katalog der Nandzeichnungen, Cologne: Käthe Kollwitz Museum, 1989
  • Elmar Jansen, Barlach Kollwitz, Berlin: Mann, 1989 (photo of Schmidt/Kollwitz family grave, ill. 40)
  • 1990-94: Fritz Schmalenbach, Käthe Kollwitz, Königstein: Karl Robert Langewiesche, 1990
  • Käthe Kollwitz. Druckgraphik. Handzeichnungen. Plastik. , Stuttgart: Guratzsch, 1990
  • SP, 1991
  • Elizabeth Prelinger (with essays by Alessandra Comini and Hildegard Bachert), Käthe Kollwitz (exh. cat.), Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, and New Haven/London: Yale University Press, 1992 (pb)
  • MGD, 1992 (with extensive bibliography)
    • J.O. Schaefer, ‘Kollwitz in America: A study of reception, 1900-1960’, Woman’s Art Journal, 1, Spring-Summer 1994, pp. 29-34
  • Ateliergemeinschaft Klosterstrasse Berlin 1933-45. Künstler in der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus, Berlin: Akademie der Künste, 1994
  • 1995-9: J.O. Schaefer, ‘The Kollwitz Konnection’, Women’s Art Magazine, Jan./Feb. 1995, pp. 10-16
  • Hannelore Fischer, Käthe Kollwitz: Meisterwerke der Zeichnung, Cologne: Käthe Kollwitz Museum/DuMont, 1995
  • Der Schulerkatalog vom Käthe-Kollwitz-Museum, Berlin (Grafisches Arbiter - wie functionary das?), Berlin: Käthe Kollwitz Museum, 1995
  • Kollwitz
  • Käthe Kollwitz. Schmerz und Schuld, Berlin: Käthe Kollwitz Museum, 1995
  • E. Prelinger, Käthe Kollwitz, Munich: Schirmer/Mosel, 1996
  • Delia Gaze (ed.), Dictionary of Women Artists, London/Chicago: Fitzroy Dearbon, 1997 (entry includes lists of sel. writings, bibliography, exhs.)
  • K. von Berswordt-Wallrabe, Käthe Kollwitz, Radierungen, Lithographien und Holzschnitte (exh. cat.), Schwerin, 1997 (2007: p/b)
  • Penny McCracken, Women Artists and Designers in Europe since 1800 (annotated bibliography), New York: Hall, 1998
  • Alexandra von dem Knesebeck, Käthe Kollwitz. Die prägenden Jahre, Petersburg: Imhof, 1998
  • Jörg Traeger, Bilder vom Elend. Käthe Kollwitz im Simpicissimus, Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1998, v. 3
  • Jutta Hülsweg-Johnen (ed.) and others, Käthe Kollwitz. Das Bild der Frau, Bielefeld: Kerber, 1999, 2001 (includes biography)
  • Annette Seeler and Werner Timm (with others), Käthe Kollwitz: Zeichnung, Grafik, Plastik (Käthe Kollwitz Museum, Berlin), Leipzig: Seemann, 1999 (includes bibliographical references
  • see Fritsch, 2004, for 2nd ed.)
    • 2000-04: Dorothea Körner, ‘“Man schweigt in sich hinein”. Käthe Kollwitz und die Akademie der Künste, 1933-45’, Berlinische Monatsschrift, no. 9, 2000, pp. 157-66 (also to be found at www.berlinische-monatsschrift.de/bms)
  • Roswitha Mair, Käthe Kollwitz – Leidenschaft des Lebens, Freiburg/Basle/Vienna, 2000
    • R. Mair, ‘Käthe Kollwitz: Ich will wirken in dieser Zeit’, Graphische Kunst, 1/2001, pp. 27-31
  • A. von dem Knesebeck, Käthe Kollwitz (catalogue raisonné, vol. 1: 1890-1913, vol. 2: 1914-42), Bern: Kornfeld, 2002
  • Brenda Rix, Jay A. Clarke (and others), Käthe Kollwitz. The art of compassion (exh. cat.), Toronto: Art Gallery, 2003 (including Gunther Thiem, ‘The Stuttgart Kollwitz Collection. A personal recollection’)
  • Martin Fritsch (ed., with A. Seeler, W. Timm), Käthe Kollwitz: Zeichnung, Grafik, Plastik, Leipzig: Seeman, 2004 (includes bibliography, biography, technical terms, KK collection in the KK Museum, Berlin, and other useful information
  • see 1999 for 1st ed.)
  • 2005-present: M. Fritsch (ed.), Homage to Käthe Kollwitz, Leipzig: Seeman, 2005 (in English and German
  • other contributors: A. Seeler, G. Fritsch
  • Martin Fritsch (ed.), Ernst Barlach und Käthe Kollwitz im Zwiegespräch (exh. cat.), Leipzig: Seeman, 2006
  • Benezit, 2006 (includes auction records)
  • Arthur Bräuer, ‘Käthe Kollwitz und ihr Exlibris Hans Kollwitz’ (book label of 1908), Exlibriskunst und Gebrauchsgraphik, 1950-. Yearbook of the Deutsche Exlibris Gesselschaft [DEG]., 1952, pp. 76-8
  • Hellmut Rademacher, Das deutsche Plakat. Von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart, Dresden: VEB Verlag der Kunst, 1965., 1965, pp. 136, 137, 172-4, 196 (posters)
  • Hellmut Rademacher, Deutsche Plakatkunst und ihre Meister, Hanau: Verlag Werner Dausien, 1965., 1965, p. 27 and illust.
  • Deutsche Biographische Enzyklopädie, Munich, London, New Providence: K.G. Saur 1995- (from 1997: Munich only)., 1997

Exhibitions

  • Das Haus der Frau, Bugra, Leipzig, 1914
  • Akademie der Künste, Berlin, 1927
  • Moscow and Kazan, 1927
  • Museum der Schonen Künste/Staatsakademie der Kunstwissenschaften, Moscow, 1928
  • Boston, 1932
  • Moscow, 1932
  • Zeitlin Gallery, Los Angeles, 1937
  • New Burlington Galleries, London, 1938
  • Musée Boymans, Rotterdam, 1947
  • Deutschen Akademie der Künste, Berlin, 1951
  • Staatliche Kunsthandel, Berlin, 1957
  • Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden, 1961
  • National Museum, Stockholm, 1967
  • Bethnal Green (London), 1967
  • Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart, 1967
  • Israel Museum, Jerusalem, 1971
  • Florence, 1975
  • County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, 1976
  • Schloss Charlottenburg, Berlin, 1977
  • Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge (England), 1981
  • Käthe Kollwitz Museum, Cologne, 1985
  • Mitte, Berlin, 1988
  • Käthe Kollwitz Museum, Berlin, Nov. 1989-January 1990
  • Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, 1992
  • National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1992
  • Das Museum in Schwerin (Germany), 1997
  • Kunsthalle, Bielefeld, and Stiftung Museum Schloss Moyland, 1999
  • Kunstmuseum, Winterthur, 2000
  • Art Gallery, Toronto, 2003
  • Kunstmuseum, Bern, 2003
  • Käthe-Kollwitz-Museum, Berlin, 2006 (with Barlach ) .

Collections

  • Most major museums, particularly the Käthe-Kollwitz-Museum, Berlin
  • Stiftung Archiv, Kunstsammlung, Akademie der Künste, Berlin
  • Käthe Kollwitz Museum, Cologne
  • Käthe Kollwitz Museum, Moritzburg. These can be seen on the Internet.