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Banners, 1925

Käthe Kollwitz, Banners, 1925, charcoal on Ingres paper, 465 x 603 mm, NT 1090, Kollwitz Museum Köln, Inv. Nr. 70200/84017.
Käthe Kollwitz, Banners, 1925, charcoal on Ingres paper, 465 x 603 mm, NT 1090, Kollwitz Museum Köln, Inv. Nr. 70200/84017.

This sheet is a design for the title page of »Gemischte Chöre« (mixed choirs), a collection of music compiled by Alfred Guttmann and published for the German Workers’ Choral Association in 1926.

After her journey to Russia in 1927, Käthe Kollwitz returned to this motif. She summarized her feelings in her diary: »We felt as if we were floating in the air, our soles pointing upwards«. A nude man – reminiscent of a guiding spirit – is seen flying above a parade of workers, their revolutionary red banners flapping in the wind.

Cover illustration of the brochure From the Collection of Mixed Choirs of the German Workers’ Singers’ Federation, edited by Alfred Guttmann, 1926, Kollwitz Museum Cologne, Library, Reproduction: Kollwitz Museum Cologne
Cover illustration of the brochure From the Collection of Mixed Choirs of the German Workers’ Singers’ Federation, edited by Alfred Guttmann, 1926, Kollwitz Museum Cologne, Library, Reproduction: Kollwitz Museum Cologne