Der Fels ( en, The Rock) was group of

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

Expressionist Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

artists that existed from around 1920 to 1927.

History

The group's origins lay in the meeting of Franz Bronstert, Fritz Fuhrken and

Georg Philipp Wörlen Georg Philipp Wörlen (5 May 1886, Dillingen an der Donau, Bavarian Swabia – 18 April 1954) was a German painter, particularly associated with Passau, Bavaria, Germany. Life Wörlen was born in Dillingen an der Donau. After completing his ...

in a

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of wa ...

camp in

Ripon Ripon () is a cathedral city in the Borough of Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England. The city is located at the confluence of two tributaries of the River Ure, the Laver and Skell. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, the city ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. Other members of the group were Reinhard Hilker and the

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

Carry Hauser Carry Hauser, born Carl Maria Hauser (16 February 1895 – 28 October 1985), was an Austrian painter, stage set designer and poet. Life Carry Hauser was born in Vienna as Carl Maria Hauser into the family of a civil servant. He was educate ...

. Wörlen, who was significantly older than the other members, was the driving force. At their last joint exhibition Fritz Stuckenberg also took part. All the group's artists were later condemned by the

National Socialist Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

government as '' entartet'' ("degenerate"). ''Der Fels'' published a series of eight portfolios of prints (Verlag Krieg,

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

). The first one also contained a

manifesto A manifesto is a published declaration of the intentions, motives, or views of the issuer, be it an individual, group, political party or government. A manifesto usually accepts a previously published opinion or public consensus or promotes a ...

by Heinz Klapproth:

"Do you see things as they are? Form is disguise, deception. Things are not as you think you see them! Therefore become still and simple, because you are looking with your eyes and seeing only the surface. The artist fights titanic battles to win the souls of things, to penetrate to their depths, to vanquish the surface. The result of this is EXPRESSION - and this is what unites the people of the ''Fels''."''Seht Ihr die Dinge wie sie sind? Form ist Verkleidung, Augentrug. Die Dinge sind nicht,wie Ihr sie zu sehen glaubt! Drum werdet still und einfach, denn Ihr schaut aus Euren Augen und schaut nur die Oberfläche. Der Künstler kämpft Titanenkampf, den Dingen die Seele abzugewinnen, in ihre Tiefe zu dringen, die Oberfläche zu überwinden. So wird AUSDRUCK. - Und solches eint die Felsleute.'' As cited by Franz X. Hofer: ''Woran „Der Fels“ zerbrach'', Essay in ''Der Fels, Künstlergemeinschaft 1921–1927'' (see below)

Selection of group exhibitions

* 1921:

Hagen Hagen () is the Largest cities in Germany, 41st-largest List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany. The municipality is located in the States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is located on the south eastern edge of the R ...

Museum Folkwang Museum Folkwang is a major collection of 19th- and 20th-century art in Essen, Germany. The museum was established in 1922 by merging the Essener Kunstmuseum, which was founded in 1906, and the private Folkwang Museum of the collector and patr ...

* 1921:

, Kunst-Kabinett Kollock * 1921: Landesmuseum

Münster Münster (; nds, Mönster) is an independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a state distr ...

* 1922:

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state consis ...

, Graphisches Kabinett Fedelhören * 1922:

Kunsthalle Düsseldorf Kunsthalle Düsseldorf is an exhibition hall for contemporary art in Düsseldorf. Building The present art centre was built in 1967 in Brutalist architecture by the architects Konrad Beckmann and Brockes. They used commercially available precas ...

* 1922: Kunsthalle

Bremerhaven Bremerhaven (, , Low German: ''Bremerhoben'') is a city at the seaport of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, a state of the Federal Republic of Germany. It forms a semi-enclave in the state of Lower Saxony and is located at the mouth of the Riv ...

* 1922:

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

, Kunstsalon Maria Kunde (Graphik) * 1922:

Salzburg Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label=Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian) is the List of cities and towns in Austria, fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872. The town is on the site of the ...

, Moderne Galerie (Staatsgalerie) * 1922: Pfalzgalerie

Kaiserslautern Kaiserslautern (; Palatinate German: ''Lautre'') is a city in southwest Germany, located in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate at the edge of the Palatinate Forest. The historic centre dates to the 9th century. It is from Paris, from Frankfur ...

* 1922:

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, Kunstsalon Heller * 1923: Werkbundhaus Essen * 1923: Barmer Ruhmeshalle * 1923:

Oldenburg Oldenburg may also refer to: Places *Mount Oldenburg, Ellsworth Land, Antarctica *Oldenburg (city), an independent city in Lower Saxony, Germany **Oldenburg (district), a district historically in Oldenburg Free State and now in Lower Saxony *Olde ...

, Kunstsalon Lappan * 1923:

Ulm Ulm () is a city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Danube on the border with Bavaria. The city, which has an estimated population of more than 126,000 (2018), forms an urban district of its own (german: link=no, ...

, Hermelin-Verlag * 1923: Kunsthalle

Kiel Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021). Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the J ...

* 1923: Kunsthalle

Barmen Barmen is a former industrial metropolis of the region of Bergisches Land, Germany, which merged with four other towns in 1929 to form the city of Wuppertal. Barmen, together with the neighbouring town of Elberfeld founded the first electric ...

* 1924: Landesmuseum Münster * 1924: Städtisches Museum

Elberfeld Elberfeld is a municipal subdivision of the German city of Wuppertal; it was an independent town until 1929. History The first official mentioning of the geographic area on the banks of today's Wupper River as "''elverfelde''" was in a docu ...

(

Von der Heydt-Museum The Von der Heydt Museum is a museum in Wuppertal, Germany. The Von der Heydt Museum includes works by artists from the 17th century to the present time. History The museum is housed in the former city hall of Elberfeld, which in 1902 became a ...

) * 1925: Städtisches Museum

Gelsenkirchen Gelsenkirchen (, , ; wep, Gelsenkiärken) is the 25th most populous city of Germany and the 11th most populous in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia with 262,528 (2016) inhabitants. On the Emscher River (a tributary of the Rhine), it lies ...

( Kunstmuseum Gelsenkirchen) * 1926:

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, Kunstsalon Würthle * 1926:

Eisenach Eisenach () is a town in Thuringia, Germany with 42,000 inhabitants, located west of Erfurt, southeast of Kassel and northeast of Frankfurt. It is the main urban centre of western Thuringia and bordering northeastern Hessian regions, situat ...

, Kunstsalon Messing * 1927: Städtische Gemäldegalerie

Bochum Bochum ( , also , ; wep, Baukem) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia. With a population of 364,920 (2016), is the sixth largest city (after Cologne, Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Essen and Duisburg) of the most populous Germany, German federal state o ...

( Museum Bochum – Kunstsammlung) * 1991:

Passau Passau (; bar, label=Central Bavarian, Båssa) is a city in Lower Bavaria, Germany, also known as the Dreiflüssestadt ("City of Three Rivers") as the river Danube is joined by the Inn from the south and the Ilz from the north. Passau's popu ...

, Museum Moderner Kunst (retrospective)

Sources

* Otto Breicha, Franz X. Hofer and

Franz Theodor Csokor Franz Theodor Csokor (6 September 1885–5 January 1969) was an Austrian author and dramatist, particularly well known for his Expressionist dramas. His most successful and best-known piece is ''3. November 1918'', about the downfall of the A ...

: ''Der Fels, Künstlergemeinschaft, 1921–1927'', Stiftung Wörlen, Passau 1991, (Museumskatalog, ''Landstrich; Nr. 15'')

References

German artist groups and collectives German Expressionism 1920s establishments in Germany 1927 disestablishments in Germany {{modern-art-stub