Kirchner, Ernst Ludwig (1880-1938)

Ernst Kirchner was born in Aschaffenburg in 1880. He studied architecture in the Technische Hochschule at Dresdon, and painting in Munich. In 1905, he and his colleagues founded the Die Brücke group. He was the leader among the German Expressionists at the time. His life took a new turn in 1911 when he moved to Berlin. Urban scenes attracted Kirchner’s attention and he devoted himself to capturing this imagery. During the Second World War, the Nazis confiscated 600 of Kircherner’s works. The Influences In 1911, Kirchner moved to Berlin and the complexity of Berlin’s urban panorama prompted him to capture it on canvas. Berlin’s social life, the women, the glamour and all of Berlin’s artificiality were captured by Kirchner’s “bold lines and clashing colors.” The First World War was soon to follow and it would deeply effect Kirchner’s concentration on his art. Kirchner participated in the field artillery of the First World War. He served in the 75th Artillery Regiment. However, in October 1915, he was discharged because of lung disease and because of several nervous breakdowns. His self-portrait as a soldier--“Selbstbildnis als Soldat,” which was painted upon his return to Berlin from the fields, is a good representation of the mental scars the war had left on him. He painted himself in the uniform he wore while in service; in the painting his hand has been mutilated and he can no longer hold a paintbrush to continue painting the model that appears in the foreground. This painting reveals that “[Kirchner] feels as if he has been maimed, his right hand cut off, owing to the impossibility of pain. His face is screwed up in a tense grimace, with a cigarette dangling from his lips; this is an expression of the brutalization of the human relation of people and the loss of human relationships…” Although this mutilation was just a symbolic one, the artist, in fact, would never recover from the persecutions of the Nazis. Later in the Second World War, the Nazis condemned him as a degenerate artist and confiscated 600 of his works. Kirchner was unable to handle so much hatred and he committed suicide on June 15, 1938