
Berlin, 1918–1919: Käthe Kollwitz, Witness to History - lermontov
https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2018/10/15/kathe-kollwitz-witness-to-history/
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nabla9
If there would be time travel "Witness the history tours" Berlin at that time
would be a frequent destination.

Around that time so much fundamental stuff changed at once in the Europe.

In 1913 there was one square kilometer in Vienna where Freud, Jung, Hitler,
Trotsky, Stalin and Tito lived. Hitler and Trotsky were regulars in the the
same cafe. Then there was WWI. Albert Einstein was becoming famous, quantum
mechanics was being discovered. Einstein and Henri Bergson debated 1920 in
Paris.

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thrower123
One of the weird things about history compared to the present is just how few
people there were around. Population has more or less uniformly quadrupled
over the past 100 years, and doubled in the 100 years before that. Everything
is much more diffuse than it once was.

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SCAQTony
Käthe Kollwitz work is nothing short of being remarkable German expressionism.
IMO arguably more impressive that Egon Schiele and her work and prints are
still affordable. [https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/65625953_kathe-
kollwitz...](https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/65625953_kathe-
kollwitz-1867-1945-woodcut-proletariat)

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quakeguy
Check out Ernst Barlach for more awesome expressionism from that period, both
sculptural and drawn.

[https://duckduckgo.com/?q=ernst+barlach&t=iphone&ia=images&i...](https://duckduckgo.com/?q=ernst+barlach&t=iphone&ia=images&iax=images)

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erikpukinskis
I have a book of her prints. The way she is able to capture faces is
astonishing. They’re not highly detailed, but it just looks like the person is
in front of you. They have a photographic quality while almost looking like
charcoal sketches. Amazing.

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sdenton4
I recently read Jason Lutes' Berlin trilogy; they're beautiful graphic novels,
set in the early to mid thirties. Highly recommend as a portrait of a
precarious time.

One point that stood out to me was the low level street violence amongst the
various factions - communists and fascists - which meant that both sides had
readymade, active militias. And the unaffiliated ultimately siding with the
law and order group looking to make Germany great again.

Of course, had the communists won out, we may have seen another Stalinist type
country, as that was the popular strain of communism at the time...

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ramblerouser
I dont think there were fascists fighting the communist revolutionaies in
Germany in 1918-1919. The fascist parties arose in the 1920's in response to
the communists.

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cmrdporcupine
He was talking about a graphic novel set in the 30s.

There were definitely right-wing militias in the period you're talking about
though. Just not what we'd call NAZI or fascist.

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everybodyknows
"Fascism" as a political description originates with Benito Mussolini's
movement, around 1919:

[https://ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=fascism](https://ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=fascism)

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cmrdporcupine
Yes, but not recognized that way in Germany at the time.

It was nationalist right wing militias that killed Rosa Luxemburg and Karl
Liebknecht (Spartakusbund)

