Deutscher Künstlerbund

The Deutscher Kuenstlerbund (Association of German Artists) was founded at the beginning of the last century on the initiative of Count Harry Kessler, promoter of arts and artists, Alfred Lichtwark, director of the Hamburg Art Gallery and the famous painters Lovis Corinth, Max Klinger and Max Liebermann among others. Thus a supraregional association which surpassed the existing secessions came into existence for the first time. Its founders were determined to get rid of the restrictions imposed by the national cultural authorities. Their aim was to ensure the freedom of art, to offer a public forum for different artistic trends and to support young artists.

These intentions were taken into account at annual exhibitions which took place in various German cities and sometimes in foreign countries. In the year 1905 the Deutscher Künstlerbund organized its first exhibition inaugurating at the same time its showrooms in the new exhibition building, "an extensive general view of the existing modern forces in Germany", as a contemporary reviewer put it.

In 1936 the exhibition in Hamburg was closed by the National Socialists and the Deutscher Künstlerbund was closed at the same time. Until then the general public had been offered a remarkable spectrum of 20 exhibitions on a high artistic level. Nearly all German artists who occupied a high rank in the artistic world within the first three decades of the last century were members of the Deutscher Künstlerbund and they made use of the platform to display their artistic ideas undisturbed by any governmental interference. The boost and the breakthrough of modern art is closely connected to the history of the Deutscher Künstlerbund.

In 1905 Max Klinger acquired the Villa Romana in Florence on behalf of the Deutscher Künstlerbund as a place for cultural exchange which testifies to the high politico-cultural commitment of the Deutscher Künstlerbund.

In 1950 some former members of the Deutscher Künstlerbund – Karl Hofer, Willi Baumeister, Karl Hartung and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff – re-established it. They picked up the thread of the interrupted tradition of modern art, remembered the resolutions of the founding years and advocated again the freedom of art. They influenced the cultural and political life of post-war Germany by resuming the annual exhibitions and by taking numerous political initiatives. And this holds true today, too.

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