Soon, the German decade: Art in Germany

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ANALYSIS, Frankfurt — Art (or kunst in Deutsch) is a window into mens souls.

German art is a window into the Saxons, Prussians, Bavarians and other Germanic tribes.

People forget that the German nation is a modern construct, stitched together by Bismarck as a Greater Prussia. Prior to this, Germany was a collection of largely independent kingdoms.

Accordingly, major German regions and cities with links to art and design throughout European history are hardly surprising.

I find much to like in the art of Saxony, including Leipzig, and the so-called Leipzig School (an early indicator of a trend of the return to the figurative.)

Also, the inspirational Weimar, seed of the Bauhaus and watering hole for Goethe.

Art in Frankfurt: who are we Germans?

As I wrote this earlier this year I sat in the Stadel Museum in Frankfurt, a repository of much great German art, including extensive print and drawing holdings.

What strikes me most about German art from the rise of a German nation is a search for identity. Who are we Germans? Their art seems to say.

There is a sense of questioning. This is a positive trend for any nation, it is a sign of a creative period ahead, it is America in the earlier half of the twentieth century, or an expansive 19th century Britain.

Conversely, when a nation knows with it’s heart ‘what it is’, the nation ceases to create afresh and anew. A state of becoming is always more creative.

German Symbols

The cult of naturalism and fascination the viscerally muscular and mechanically physical also permeate German art.

Cult of nature works are particularly noteworthy in the pre-Hitler phase of the twentieth century.

German expressionist works in the first half of the twentieth century are the most interesting. There is a harshness to their treatment of humans, that is oddly prescient.

It’s as if this Germany, the Germany of its art, has not one identity, but a series of regional identities. Germany, not Prussia, was really an identity forged in war, and divided afterwards.

Leipzig and Weimar and that region of modern Germany,Die Auswahl der Startblätter poker eine so große Rolle, dass Geduld die vielleicht wichtigste Eigenschaft beim Spiel ist. with ties to Prussia, Bohemia (now Czechs) and Berlin, predate Germany. Leipzig was important in the Enlightenment, Goethe and others were involved in much development there.

Leipzig ranked equal 5th as an Innovation City in the Global Innovation Review 2007.

Frankfurt, too, is an older Germany.

So this old and new Germany, one driven by a sense of avoiding the decades recently past and strong materialism, still seeks its soul.

This modern Germany still appropriates others cultures, beyond the redoubtable engineering and design triumphs of the Germans, their fine art lacks something.

The French are French, the British the British - although Scotland has its own unique identity. But the Germans they are not their past - not Communism, not fascism, they cannot be.

So, there is a sense this is a Germany of the becoming.

I like this Germany.

The Germany of inquiry.

Christopher Hire:

Author of the Global Innovation Review, and Chief Editor of this journal. Focussed on innovation, innovation cities and positive social change globally.

ANALYSIS, Arts & Culture, Europe: North & West, Features, Fine Arts, Fashion & Cult, Frankfurt, Germany, [English], global cities, innovation, innovation cities
art, Expressionism, Frankfurt, german culture, German Society, Germany, kunst, Leipzig, Leipzig School, modern art, Weimar