Max Beckmann's Ideologues: Some Forgotten Faces

Abstract

Scholars have long concluded that Max Beckmann's lithograph, The Ideologues, from the Hell portfolio of 1919 presents only a disdainful view of contemporary politics. An examination of the print in context suggests a somewhat different understanding of Beckmann's response to the revolution in Germany. The print seems to depict such well-known activist writers as Carl Einstein, Max Herrmann-Neisse, Annette Kolb, Heinrich Mann, and Carl Sternheim, all of whom were closely associated with two leading journals of German pacifism, Die Aktion and Die weiβen Blätter. The backgrounds and views of these persons — all outspoken opponents of the War, critics of the Prussian order, champions of the creative spirit or Geist, and initial supporters of revolution — help us understand why Beckmann represented them. His caricatural mode expresses the profound disillusionment all felt after the final failure of the German revolution in spring 1919. The skepticism seen in the print is not simply skepticism about politics — all of these persons distrusted politics — but skepticism about such persons' ability to deal with the country's real problems.

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Notes on contributors

Barbara C. Buenger

Barbara C. Buenger received her Ph.D. degree from Columbia University in 1979. She is at work on a two-volume monograph of Beckmann's art, and on an anthology of the painter's writings and statements. [Department of Art History, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706]