Käthe Kollwitz

* 8TH JULY 1867 IN KÖNIGSBERG IN PREUßEN
† 22ND APRIL 1945 IN MORITZBURG, NEAR DRESDEN (GER)

Käthe Kollwitz is one of the most well known German artists of the 20th Century. Her lithographs, etchings, woodcuts, and sculptural works are characterized by a timeless style through a combination of references to the themes of her own time and the universal humanity of her motifs. She studied in Munich after which she moved with her husband, Karl Kollwitz, to Berlin. After the untimely death of her son during the war she became involved with pacifism and socialism. She was a member of the artistic group the Berliner Secession, worked for the Internationale Arbeiterhilfe (IAH), and in 1919 she became the first female professor at the Prussian Academy of Art, a role she was forced to give up in 1933 under pressure from the National Socialist Party. In 1936 he works was banned from being exhibited. From 1944 until her death in 1945 she lived in the Rüdenhof in Moritzburg. In Dresden, Berlin and Cologne whole museums are dedicated to her œuvre. The Käthe-Kollwitz-Prize is named in her honor. In 1908 she received the Villa Romana Prize.