Barlach | Kollwitz - Nie wieder Krieg

From June 23 to October 20, 2024, the Museumsquartier Osnabrück is presenting the exhibition "BARLACH | KOLLWITZ - Never Again War", featuring around 100 prints and sculptures by Ernst Barlach (1870-1938) and Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945) - two important artists who shaped the cultural memory of the 20th century. Their works tell of human suffering, but they also stand for the indelible hope for a better, more peaceful future.

The First World War, the mass death and suffering under a hitherto unknown technical and industrialized warfare were the reason for Ernst Barlach and Käthe Kollwitz to dedicate their artistic work intensively to the public dialogue for peace and justice.
 
A hundred years ago, Käthe Kollwitz created what is probably the best-known German anti-war poster as part of the peace movement of the time with the poster "Never again war" (1924). In the 1970s and 1980s, it served as an icon for the peace movements. Today, the call for peace seems more urgent than ever in a world characterized by ongoing wars and humanitarian catastrophes. 

Barlach and Kollwitz are often mentioned in the same breath. Their mutual respect and artistic inspiration are obvious. Both were members of the "Berliner Secession", and in 1919 both Barlach and Kollwitz joined the Prussian Academy of Arts. Under the Nazi dictatorship, they suffered the same fate: works were removed from public view as "degenerate" and both were forced to leave the academy in the 1930s.

Kollwitz concentrated her artistic work primarily on printmaking and drawing, developing an independent visual language of haunting immediacy. She repeatedly emphasized the influence of Ernst Barlach's work. His "Floating Angel" from 1927 unmistakably bears the facial features of Käthe Kollwitz: "The face of Käthe Kollwitz came to me in the angel without me having intended it. If I had wanted something like that, I would probably have failed." (Ernst Barlach, 1928)

Barlach called for a resolute pacifism with numerous works, but especially with his honorary paintings for Kiel, Magdeburg, Güstrow and Hamburg. In contradiction to the fascist ideology of "community", he turns to the existential loneliness of the individual. Grief, hardship and despair are at the center of his art.

The exhibition at the Museumsquartier Osnabrück is not only a reflection on the atrocities of past wars, but also a call for active commitment to peace and humanity. "BARLACH | KOLLWITZ - Never again war" is conceived as food for thought for a peaceful future and opposes all forms of violence, be it military, nationalistic, ideological or discriminatory. It reminds us that peace does not only mean the absence of war, but also requires an active commitment to justice, human rights and social responsibility.

"BARLACH | KOLLWITZ - Never Again War" at the Museumsquartier Osnabrück is a cooperation with the Ernst Barlach Museumsgesellschaft Hamburg and is supported by the ifa Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen Stuttgart, the Ernst Barlach Museums in Wedel and Ratzeburg as well as private lenders. The accompanying program is being developed in collaboration with the Kulturkirche St. Katharinen Osnabrück, among others, where three sculptures by Ernst Barlach - including the Güstrow memorial known as the "Floating Angel" - will be on display for the duration of the exhibition.

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