Biography

            Who is Kathe Kollwitz and how did she become the artist we discuss and learn about in Modern Art History today? Dating back to the 19^th Century, Kathe Schmidt was born on July 8, 1867 in Konigsberg, Germany. She grew up in a large family, and as any child’s dream her father recognized her interest, in art. He later encouraged her to expand her knowledge and skill in her artistic ability. Her father supported her by sending her to study with a “local engraver and Berlin (1884), and Munich (1888) to study at women’s art schools.” *¹ As she experimented with different mediums, she realized she favored drawing and the graphic arts.

At the age of 17 she found a noble man named Karl Kollwitz they were engaged and later married in 1891. Kathe Kollwitz became a mother of two sons Hans (1892), and Peter (1896), she remained a devoted wife, mother, and while being productively successful as an artist. *² Soon after, hard times were to come for Kollwitz family and their society. World War I came to sweep away the men and young men to fight. For wife’s and mother’s, this was a wrenching experience for them to hear the death reports, including Kollwitz son Peter in 1914.  This led Kollwitz to work entirely from her distressing experiences during her lifetime. As, “The German expressionist Kathe Kollwitz (1867-1945) dedicated her graphic work and sculpture to humanity, documenting historic rebellions against social injustice and creating memorable images of Berlin’s working-class women, mothers and children, and the victims of modern warfare.” *¹ Kollwitz created powerful images in etchings, lithographs, woodcuts, pencil, charcoal drawings, clay, along with assorted graphic techniques. *² Kollwitz understood the sufferings of humanity through her own tragedies and captured these elements in her work and it is still relevant today.

*¹"Käthe Kollwitz." In Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2nd ed., 79-81. Vol. 9. Detroit, MI:        Gale, 2004. Gale eBooks (accessed May 1, 2020). https://link-gale-                com.proxy.tamuc.edu/apps/doc/CX3404703612/GVRL?u=txshracd2565&sid=GVRL&xi            d=db3b25e1., 79.

*² Kollwitz, 80.