Splendor and Misery in the Weimar Republic. From Otto Dix to Jeanne Mammen

The Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt is presenting German art from 1918 to 1933 in a major thematic exhibition. The Weimar Republic is characterized by social tensions, political struggles, social upheavals, as well as artistic revolutions and innovations. Many artists were moved by the problems of the age to mirror reality and everyday life in their search for a new realism or “naturalism.” Direct, ironic, angry, accusatory, and often even prophetic works demonstrate the struggle for democracy and paint a picture of a society in the midst of crisis and transition. Splendor and Misery in the Weimar Republic. From Otto Dix to Jeanne Mammen focuses on the unease of the era, which was reflected not only in the motifs and content, but also in a broad spectrum of styles. Arranged in thematic groups, the exhibition assembles portrayals and scenes from Berlin, Dresden, Leipzig, Rostock, Stuttgart, Karlsruhe, Munich, and Hannover that have hitherto frequently been regarded separately and can be assigned more to the “verist” wing of New Objectivity.

“With Splendor and Misery in the Weimar Republic the Schirn is presenting a counterbalance to the exhibitions that have already been shown on many occasions on the Roaring Twenties. It takes a look at the unvarnished facts of life during the Weimar Republic. The presented artists mercilessly hold a mirror to the society of the time. We see an era that clung to democracy by the skin of its teeth and in some respects is closer to us than we would like to believe,” remarks Dr. Philipp Demandt, Director of the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, about the exhibition.

The Schirn was able to arrange 190 important works by 62 artists from numerous museums as well as public and private collections in Germany and abroad. Famous artists and others who have been largely neglected to date are part of the exhibition, including Max Beckmann, Kate Diehn-Bitt, Otto Dix, Dodo, Conrad Felixmüller, George Grosz, Carl Grossberg, Hans and Lea Grundig, Karl Hubbuch, Lotte Laserstein, Alice Lex-Nerlinger, Elfriede Lohse-Wächtler, Jeanne Mammen, Oskar Nerlinger, Franz Radziwill, Christian Schad, Rudolf Schlichter, Georg Scholz, Karl Völker and Richard Ziegler. These artists captured the stories of their contemporaries with an individual signature: the processing of World War I with depictions of maimed soldiers and “war profiteers,” public figures, the big city with its entertainment industry and increasing prostitution, political unrest and economic chasms, as well as the role model of the New Woman, the debates about paragraphs 175 and 218 (regarding punishability of homosexuality and abortion), the social changes resulting from industrialization, and the growing enthusiasm for sports. Splendor and Misery in the Weimar Republic provides an impressive panorama of a period that even today, 100 years after its advent, has lost nothing of its relevance and potential for discussion.

The curator of the exhibition, Dr. Ingrid Pfeiffer, explains: “We often read the history of the Weimar Republic from the end backwards—from its transition to National Socialism and World War II. In spite of the negative sociopolitical developments that the artists succinctly describe in their works, it was during the Weimar Republic that ‘modernism’ evolved. The Weimar Republic was a progressive era in which many pioneering ideas were formed—not only in art, architecture, and design. The direction in which the Republic should develop was energetically discussed on all levels, the role of women, the length of the working week, and the paragraphs relating to abortion and homosexuality. Besides the manifest misery, it is these tendencies that for me distinguish the splendor of the Weimar Republic.”

The exhibition Splendor and Misery in the Weimar Republic is supported by the Gemeinnützige Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain GmbH.

A catalog edited by Ingrid Pfeiffer is accompanying the exhibition, with a foreword by Philipp Demandt, essays by Andreas Braune, Karoline Hille, Annelie Lütgens, Stéphanie Moeller, Olaf Peters, Dorothy Price, as well as Martina Weinland and Ingrid Pfeiffer, and artists’ biographies and a chronology of the Weimar Republic. A free digital tutorial guide, the digitorial, is available online here.

Director: Dr. Philipp Demandt
Curator: Dr. Ingrid Pfeiffer
Press contact: Pamela Rohde (Head of Press/Public Relations):
presse [​at​] schirn.de / T (+49 69) 29 98 82 148
Press material: www.schirn.de (texts, images, and films for download under PRESS)