Art in Socialist Germany

**Art movements in the Free Socialist Republic of Germany** have been profoundly influenced by the 1919 socialist revolution. The primary government-sponsored institution for the arts, the *Gewerkschaft Kunst und Schrifttum* (Union of Art and Literature Workers), originated as the *Arbeitsrat für Kunst* (Workers' Council for Art), which was founded in 1918 in Berlin. The other primary institution is the Bauhaus, an art school sponsored by the government and administered under the auspices of the *Gewerkschaft Kunst und Schrifttum*.

## Historical Institutions

### Deutscher Werkbund

The **Deutscher Werkbund** (German Association of Craftsmen) was a German association of artists, architects, designers, and industrialists, established in 1907. Its initial purpose was to establish a partnership of product manufacturers and design professionals to improve the competitiveness of German companies in global markets. The Werkbund was less an artistic movement than a state-sponsored effort to integrate traditional crafts and industrial mass production techniques, to put Germany on a competitive footing with England and the United States. However, it became an important element in the development of modern architecture and industrial design, and much of its membership now belongs to the *Gewerkschaft Kunst und Schrifttum*, which it merged with in 1922.

### Novembergruppe

The **Novembergruppe** (November Group) was a group of German expressionist artists and architects, formed on 3 December 1918. They were named after the November Revolution, and the original group was composed of 170 members. Led by Max Pechstein and César Klein, the group was linked less by their styles of art than by common socialist politics. Describing themselves as radical and revolutionary, they advocated for control of the arts by artists, including the organisation of art schools and laws addressing the arts, as well as a broader socialist revolution and the union of art and the people. It fully merged into the *Gewerkschaft Kunst und Schrifttum* in 1922.

### Arbeitsrat für Kunst

The **Arbeitsrat für Kunst** (Workers' Council for Art) was founded in December 1918 by a group of radical architects, painters, sculptors, and writers in Berlin. It was developed in response to the workers' and soldiers' councils which would later form the backbone of the German Revolution. There were 134 signatories of the first manifesto, led by Bruno Taut, Walter Gropius, César Klein, and Adolf Behne.

The Arbeitsrat's stated aim, as stated in a March 1919 flyer, was that:

*Art and the people must form an entity. Art shall no longer be a luxury of the few but should be enjoyed and experienced by the broad masses. The aim is an alliance of the arts under the wing of great architecture.*
It also laid out a programme that demanded, among other things, that a council consisting of architects and radical-minded laymen should decide on the distribution of resources to architectural projects, and that *Volkshaus* (people's houses) be established in open land connected to cities and towns in order to bring art to the people.

With the onset of the German Civil War in May 1919, the Arbeitsrat declared support for the socialists, and advocated for a union of itself with other groups (such as the Novembergruppe) forming a council that would determine artistic and architectural policy. It participated in the first Congresses of Workers' and Soldiers' Councils after the revolution. In 1921, it was reconstituted to include the membership of other artists' groups and institutions, and became known as the *Gewerkschaft Kunst und Schrifttum*.

## Modern Institutions

### Gewerkschaft Kunst und Schrifttum

The **Gewerkschaft Kunst und Schrifttum** (Union of Art and Literature Workers) is the primary association of artists in Germany. Although officially a trade union, the *Gewerkschaft Kunst und Schrifttum* is unique in that it heavily influences government cultural policy through its relations to the Ministry of Culture. It participates in the annual Congress of Federal Trade Unions.

### Bauhaus

The **Staatliches Bauhaus** is an art school that was founded on 12 April 1921 by Walter Gropius. It was the foremost avant-garde art school in Germany, combining crafts and fine arts. It was founded with the idea of creating a "total" work of art (*Gesamtkunstwerk*) in which all arts, including architecture, would eventually be brought together. It has become the greatest centre of modern design and modernist architecture, influencing art movements not only in Germany, but also in Russia, France, and the United Kingdom, despite strict regulations on travel and flow of information between the socialist and capitalist blocs.

Its manifesto, written by Gropius at the Bauhaus's founding, declares:

*The ultimate goal of all art is the building! The ornamentation of the building was once the main purpose of the visual arts, and they were considered indispensable parts of the great building. Today, they exist in complacent isolation.... Architects, painters and sculptors must learn a new way of seeing and understanding the composite character of the building, both as a totality and in terms of its parts. .... Architects, sculptors, painters—we all must return to craftsmanship! For there is no such thing as “art by profession”. There is no essential difference between the artist and the artisan. The artist is an exalted artisan.*
Since 1921, it has been affiliated with the *Gewerkschaft Kunst und Schrifttum*.