Children play an important role in the work of Käthe Kollwitz. Being a mother was one of her central life experiences. The artist discussed her difficulties in reconciling her professional activities with her family life with the writer Lou Andreas-Salomé. She said that marriage and children had priority and an artist who did not enjoy both would wither away – both as a human being and an artist. In a conversation with her son Hans she summarises in 1926 as follows:
There are three things that have been of importance in my life – having had children, a faithful life-long companion and my work.«
Looking at the order in which she mentions these things, it does not come as a surprise that her work comprises many depictions of her children and grandchildren. Käthe Kollwitz also addressed the fundamental experience of being a mother, which includes the fear of losing her children or leaving them behind after her own death.
