Käthe Kollwitz Museum Köln
Neumarkt 18-24 / Neumarkt Passage
50667 Köln
+49 (0)221 227 2899
+49 (0)221 227 2602
museum@dd7c49f936fc40469acd5ed0cd1e7d70kollwitz.de
Tue - Sun
11 am – 6 pm
Public holidays
First Thu each month
11 am – 8 pm
Mon
closed
The Käthe Kollwitz Museum's exhibition rooms are temporarily closed due to extensive renovation work.
Charcoal and ink on laid paper, NT 464
A version of this drawing was published in Simplicissimus on 28 December 1908. It shows a nocturnal scene with two drunk men asleep on a bench and a woman whose look and posture emphasises the bleakness of the situation. The publishers added the title »New Year’s Eve« and the caustic caption »I don’t want to wake up my husband to say Happy New Year. He’s sleeping like a baby.« Unemployment is a central theme in the works she created for Simplicissimus. The impoverishment of the proletariat had resulted in many people living on the streets. Parks and squares with benches were popular with rough sleepers.In the big cities, these people were often victims of petty crime, which Käthe Kollwitz addressed in anecdotal fashion in a drawing showing a pair of thieving rogues. The man keeps watch while the woman steals from a sleeping man.
Käthe Kollwitz, Man, standing, and seated Couple, 1909, charcoal, blotted, on Ingres paper, NT 497