The War Series

The Sacrifice, sheet 1 of the series »War«, 1921/1922, & The Parents, sheet 3 of the series »War«, 1921/1922

“These pictures should be shown everywhere and tell people: this is how it was in the war, that’s what we all had to bear throughout these inexpressibly difficult years.” –Käthe Kollwitz

The war series is a small series comprised of 7 mid-sized woodcuts, which were inspired from moments she faced when agreeing to allow her son to join the military and fight in the war, which fueled her growing pacifism. When he passed she felt completely responsible for his death; in her grief she states in her diary that “[t]hey offer themselves up with joy. They offer themselves like a pure, clear flame rising up to heaven.” A beautifully poetic statement from a mother’s perspective on those, specifically Peter, who offer themselves to serve in the war. She furthers this statement by adding in her thoughts on what affect her children had on her life; “What he gave me [. . .] was something the like of which I had never known before. The piety of these young souls, the pure clarity of their flames. My young sons, my beloved flames, who led us rather than we you. Born of us, yet growing beyond us and taking us with you.” Her reluctance was there from the beginning into letting Peter serve, he was underage, and like other mothers she didn’t want to lose her baby. She depicts this in the first and second images of The War series titled “The Sacrifice” and “The Volunteers”. “The Sacrifice” best depicts this by showing a mother offering her child up in her arms to an unseen force, the unknown, “neither the encircling arms nor the womb-like darkness of the cloak can fully enclose and shelter the two figures.”  “The Parents” inspired the sculptures “…now standing in Vladso cemetery, where [her son] is buried, has often been seen as central to the commemoration of the Great War…” Both works depict scenes of two beings of which have been shattered by the news of a loved one, their child, who has passed. No parent wants to go through the process of burying their child, yet it was something the war brought upon them. Like her other works these allow for an outsider to make a connection to the work through either the understanding or experience of loss and grief. Of which resonates with what was mentioned about the “ugly” in an earlier post about the loss of a child. Kollwitz’s ability to illustrate this began to feel so real as years went on; she caused us to understand/feel the gut-wrenching and sickening feelings of the death of someone who holds such an importance in our lives.

Ingrid Sharp. "Kääthe Kollwitz's Witness to War: Gender, Authority, and Reception." Women in German Yearbook 27 (2011): 87-107.

Both images are from: https://www.kollwitz.de/en/series-war-overview