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Lot Essay
This work is sold with a photo-certificate from Ralph Jentsch.
George Groszs reputation as a great draughtsman and one of the worlds most brilliant if also bitter satirists is founded on drawings such as this one, made at a time when the artist was actively seeking to use his art as a weapon at the service of world revolution.
A stunningly complete world in itself, Deutschland, Deutschland, über alles is a work made at the height of Groszs political engagement against the powers-that-be in post First World War Germany. These were the formerly ruling powers of the German Reich, whom Grosz, at this time, witnessed slowly reestablishing their grip on a country ravaged by war in the wake of their defeat, the abdication of the Kaiser and the brief period of revolution that had followed.
Here, as the contentious old national anthem of the Reich, 'Deutschland, Deutschland, über alles', blares out of a gramophone, a fat, triple-chinned and toad-like profiteer, complete with monocle and diamond tie-pin, sits at a well-stocked dining table drinking champagne and smoking cigars. Seated in front of an official looking building complete with armed guards, it is clear that both he and his wealth are backed by all the power the Establishment can provide. At the same time, all around him, the victims of the war that has made him rich - wounded veterans and cripples are compelled to beg from him. As he grimacingly hands a 50 pfenning note into the old army cap of one he is heard to complain, these war-cripples are getting to be a positive pest!. This, at least was the caption under which a second, far less detailed version of this drawing appeared in Groszs 1923 portfolio of 57 drawings entitled Abrechnung folgt! (The Day of Reckoning!). It is also this title Diese Kriegsverletzten wachsen sich nachgerade zur Landplage aus! under which the present drawing has, also, on occasion been illustrated.
Presenting a view of post-war Germany as a divided society split into two polarized groups, the haves, and the have-nots, Deutschland, Deutschland, über alles... is a graphic echo of one of the artists largest and most famous works: his 1919 painting Deutschland, ein Wintermärchen (Germany, a Winter's Tale). With its similar depiction of a fat German Burger, seated comfortably at a table while all around him the world descended into chaos, this painting formed the centerpiece of the International Dada Fair that Grosz helped to organize in Berlin in May, 1920. This legendary exhibition was subsequently closed down by the authorities and Grosz found himself facing the first of what would become a sequence of charges when a portfolio of drawings similar to this one, (Gott mit uns) was seized and indicted for being defamatory to the German military.
George Groszs reputation as a great draughtsman and one of the worlds most brilliant if also bitter satirists is founded on drawings such as this one, made at a time when the artist was actively seeking to use his art as a weapon at the service of world revolution.
A stunningly complete world in itself, Deutschland, Deutschland, über alles is a work made at the height of Groszs political engagement against the powers-that-be in post First World War Germany. These were the formerly ruling powers of the German Reich, whom Grosz, at this time, witnessed slowly reestablishing their grip on a country ravaged by war in the wake of their defeat, the abdication of the Kaiser and the brief period of revolution that had followed.
Here, as the contentious old national anthem of the Reich, 'Deutschland, Deutschland, über alles', blares out of a gramophone, a fat, triple-chinned and toad-like profiteer, complete with monocle and diamond tie-pin, sits at a well-stocked dining table drinking champagne and smoking cigars. Seated in front of an official looking building complete with armed guards, it is clear that both he and his wealth are backed by all the power the Establishment can provide. At the same time, all around him, the victims of the war that has made him rich - wounded veterans and cripples are compelled to beg from him. As he grimacingly hands a 50 pfenning note into the old army cap of one he is heard to complain, these war-cripples are getting to be a positive pest!. This, at least was the caption under which a second, far less detailed version of this drawing appeared in Groszs 1923 portfolio of 57 drawings entitled Abrechnung folgt! (The Day of Reckoning!). It is also this title Diese Kriegsverletzten wachsen sich nachgerade zur Landplage aus! under which the present drawing has, also, on occasion been illustrated.
Presenting a view of post-war Germany as a divided society split into two polarized groups, the haves, and the have-nots, Deutschland, Deutschland, über alles... is a graphic echo of one of the artists largest and most famous works: his 1919 painting Deutschland, ein Wintermärchen (Germany, a Winter's Tale). With its similar depiction of a fat German Burger, seated comfortably at a table while all around him the world descended into chaos, this painting formed the centerpiece of the International Dada Fair that Grosz helped to organize in Berlin in May, 1920. This legendary exhibition was subsequently closed down by the authorities and Grosz found himself facing the first of what would become a sequence of charges when a portfolio of drawings similar to this one, (Gott mit uns) was seized and indicted for being defamatory to the German military.