Return to Gallery
Memorial Sheet for Karl LiebknechtMemorial Sheet for Karl Liebknecht Photo © Snark/Licensed by SCALA/Art Resource, NY © 2013 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ProLitteris, Zurich

Memorial Sheet for Karl Liebknecht

Käthe Kollwitz. 1919–1920 C.E. Woodcut.

Curator Note

"A woodcut print commemorating the assassinated Communist leader Karl Liebknecht. Kollwitz was not a communist, but a socialist pacifist who championed the working class. She uses the woodcut technique to create a raw, stark image of grief, modeled on the traditional "Lamentation of Christ." It focuses on the mourners—the workers—rather than the martyr."

Form

  • Woodcut print (black and white).
  • High contrast, graphic style.
  • Horizontal composition dividing the dead from the living.
  • Focus on faces and hands.
  • Rough, gouged lines appropriate for the medium.

Function

  • To mourn the death of a political leader.
  • To honor the working class.
  • To create affordable political art (prints).
  • To express universal grief.
  • To protest political violence.

Content

  • Karl Liebknecht: the dead figure (Christ-like).
  • The Workers: pressing in to say goodbye.
  • Woman with child: implies the future generation.
  • Three horizontal zones: The dead, the mourners, the void above.
  • Silence and reverence.

Context

  • Liebknecht was murdered during the Spartacist Uprising in Berlin.
  • Kollwitz lost her son in WWI, fueling her pacifism.
  • Woodcuts were associated with German medieval tradition (Dürer) and revolution.
  • Weimar Republic chaos.
  • Socialist Realism roots.