The November Group (german: Novembergruppe) was a group of German

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 and

architects An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

. Formed on 3 December 1918, they took their name from the month of the German Revolution. The group was led by

Max Pechstein Hermann Max Pechstein (31 December 1881 – 29 June 1955) was a German expressionist painter and printmaker and a member of the Die Brücke group. He fought on the Western Front during World War I and his art was classified as Degenerate Ar ...

and César Klein. Linked less by their styles of art than by shared

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

values, the group campaigned for radical artists to have a greater say in such issues as the organisation of art schools, and new laws around the arts. The group merged in December 1918 with ''

Arbeitsrat für Kunst The Arbeitsrat für Kunst (German: 'Workers council for art' or 'Art Soviet') was a union of architects, painters, sculptors and art writers, who were based in Berlin from 1918 to 1921. It developed as a response to the Workers and Soldiers councils ...

'' ( Workers Council of the arts – or 'The Art Soviet').

Weimar Republic

Bundesarchiv Bild 183-S29554, Berliner Kunstausstellung, Vorbereitung

The artists of the November group described themselves as radical and revolutionary. Their work, like that of the similar ''

'', aimed to support a socialist revolution in Germany. A key objective of the group was the union of art and the people. Furthermore, the group tried to influence public and cultural aspects of society. In 1921, artists from the left wing of the November Group called for an end to the "bourgeois development" of the artists. The declaration was signed by

Otto Dix Wilhelm Heinrich Otto Dix (; 2 December 1891 – 25 July 1969) was a German painter and printmaker, noted for his ruthless and harshly realistic depictions of German society during the Weimar Republic and the brutality of war. Along with George ...

, George Grosz,

Raoul Hausmann Raoul Hausmann (July 12, 1886 – February 1, 1971) was an Austrian artist and writer. One of the key figures in Berlin Dada, his experimental photographic collages, sound poetry, and institutional critiques would have a profound influence on ...

John Heartfield John Heartfield (born Helmut Herzfeld; 19 June 1891 – 26 April 1968) was a 20th century German visual artist who pioneered the use of art as a political weapon. Some of his most famous photomontages were anti-Nazi and anti-fascist statements. ...

Hannah Höch Hannah Höch (; 1 November 1889 – 31 May 1978) was a German Dada artist. She is best known for her work of the Weimar period, when she was one of the originators of photomontage. Photomontage, or fotomontage, is a type of collage in which the p ...

Rudolf Schlichter Rudolf Schlichter (or Rudolph Schlichter) (December 6, 1890 – May 3, 1955) was a German painter and one of the most important representatives of the ''Neue Sachlichkeit'' (New Objectivity) movement. Schlichter was born in Calw, Württemberg. A ...

and

Georg Scholz Georg Scholz (October 10, 1890 – November 27, 1945) was a German painter, member of the New Objectivity movement. Scholz was born in Wolfenbüttel and had his artistic training at the Karlsruhe Academy, where his teachers included Hans ...

. In 1922, the decentralised November Group restructured away from a conglomeration of local groups and became part of the "Cartel of advanced artistic groups in Germany" (''Kartell fortschrittlicher Künstlergruppen in Deutschland''). A synthesis of styles is a characteristic of the group, often referred to as cubo-futo-expressionism (''Kubofutoexpressionismus''), but really the group had quite disparate output which makes classification rather problematic. As well as painters, there were many artists from other disciplines such as architecture and music. The musicians became one of the driving forces under their leader Max Butting (later replaced by

Hans Heinz Stuckenschmidt Hans Heinz Stuckenschmidt (1 November 1901 – 15 August 1988) was a German composer, musicologist, and historian and critic of music. Life Stuckenschmidt was born in Strasbourg. At as early an age as 19, he was the Berlin-based music criti ...

). The November Group held regular art festivals, costume parties, studio visits, literary and musical events.

Founding members

The group was initially founded mainly by painters

Georg Tappert Georg Tappert (20 October 1880, in Berlin – 16 November 1957, in Berlin) was a German expressionist painter. Tappert underwent an apprenticeship as a tailor, before gaining employment at various tailoring businesses for two years. However he a ...

, César Klein,

Moriz Melzer Moriz is a masculine given name which may refer to: * Moriz Haupt (1808–1874), German philologist * Moriz Heider (1816–1866), Austrian dentist * Moriz Henneberger (1878–1959), Swiss chess master * Moriz von Kuffner (1854–1939), Jewish-A ...

and

Heinrich Richter Heinrich Richter (1884–1981) was a German painter and art director.Soister p.122 He designed the sets for more than a hundred films during his career. Selected filmography * ''The Confessions of the Green Mask'' (1916) * ''The Sensational Tr ...

. At the first meeting on 3 December 1918 they were joined by

Karl Jakob Hirsch Karl may refer to: People * Karl (given name), including a list of people and characters with the name * Karl der Große, commonly known in English as Charlemagne * Karl Marx, German philosopher and political writer * Karl of Austria, last Austri ...

Bernhard Hasler Bernhard is both a given name and a surname. Notable people with the name include: Given name *Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar (1604–1639), Duke of Saxe-Weimar * Bernhard, Prince of Saxe-Meiningen (1901–1984), head of the House of Saxe-Meiningen 194 ...

Richard Janthur Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'stron ...

, Rudolf Bauer,

Bruno Krauskopf Bruno may refer to: People and fictional characters *Bruno (name), including lists of people and fictional characters with either the given name or surname * Bruno, Duke of Saxony (died 880) * Bruno the Great (925–965), Archbishop of Cologne, ...

Otto Freundlich Otto Freundlich (10 July 1878 – 9 March 1943) was a German painter and sculptor of Jewish origin. A part of the first generation of abstract painters in Western art, Freundlich was a great admirer of cubism. Life Freundlich was born in ...

, Wilhelm Schmid, the sculptor

Rudolf Belling Rudolf Belling (26 August 1886 – 9 June 1972) was a German sculptor. His work was part of the sculpture event in the art competition at the 1932 Summer Olympics. Artistic theories At the very beginning of the 20th century Rudolf Bel ...

and the architect Erich Mendelsohn. From this group the first working committee were drawn.

Members

A definitive list of all the members of the group is difficult to establish due to a lack of early documentation. However, one of the exhibition catalogues, which was published in 1925, shows the following list of names: *

Lou Albert-Lasard Lou Albert-Lasard (1885 in Metz – July 1969 in Paris) was an Expressionist painter. She was born in 1885 in Metz (then part of Germany) to a Jewish banking family. From 1908 until 1914, she studied art in Munich, where she and her sister, ...

George Antheil George Johann Carl Antheil (; July 8, 1900 – February 12, 1959) was an American avant-garde composer, pianist, author, and inventor whose modernist musical compositions explored the modern sounds – musical, industrial, and mechanical – of t ...

* * *

* * Max Butting *

Carel Willink Albert Carel Willink (; 7 March 1900 – 19 October 1983) was a Dutch painter who called his style of Magic realism "imaginary realism". Life and career Albert Carel Willink was born on 7 March 1900 in Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

Heinrich Maria Davringhausen Heinrich Maria Davringhausen (21 October 1894 – 13 December 1970) was a German painter associated with the New Objectivity. Davringhausen was born in Aachen. Mostly self-taught as a painter, he began as a sculptor, studying briefly a ...

* Walter Dexel *Christof Drexel *

Hanns Eisler Hanns Eisler (6 July 1898 – 6 September 1962) was an Austrian composer (his father was Austrian, and Eisler fought in a Hungarian regiment in World War I). He is best known for composing the national anthem of East Germany, for his long artisti ...

Viking Eggeling Viking Eggeling (21 October 1880, Lund – 19 May 1925, Berlin) was a Swedish avant-garde artist and filmmaker connected to dadaism, Constructivism, and abstract art and was one of the pioneers in absolute film and visual music. His 1 ...

Conrad Felixmüller Conrad Felixmüller (21 May 1897 – 24 March 1977) was a German Expressionism, expressionist painter and printmaker. Born in Dresden as Conrad Felix Müller, he chose Felixmüller as his ''Art-name, nom d'artiste''. Early life and career He a ...

Lyonel Feininger Lyonel Charles Feininger (July 17, 1871January 13, 1956) was a German-American painter, and a leading exponent of Expressionism. He also worked as a caricaturist and comic strip artist. He was born and grew up in New York City, traveling to Germa ...

* Paul Gösch *

Otto Griebel Otto Griebel (31 March 1895 – 7 March 1972) was a German painter. In 1933, he was arrested by the Gestapo and his paintings were branded as degenerate art. His painting "Child at a Table" was one of the artworks found in the 2012 Munich ar ...

Gustav Havemann Gustav Havemann (15 March 1882 – 2 January 1960) was a German violinist and from 1933 to 1935 head of the "Reichsmusikerschaft" in the Reichsmusikkammer. Life Born in Güstrow, Havemann first learned to play the violin from his father, the mil ...

* *Wilhelm Heckrot * * *

* * Jascha Horenstein *

Philipp Jarnach Philipp Jarnach (26 July 1892 17 December 1982 in Börnsen) was a German composer of modern music ("Neue Musik"), pianist, teacher, and conductor. Jarnach was born in Noisy-le-Sec, France, the son of a Spanish sculptor and a Flemish mother. Besi ...

* *

Wassily Kandinsky Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (; rus, Василий Васильевич Кандинский, Vasiliy Vasilyevich Kandinskiy, vɐˈsʲilʲɪj vɐˈsʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ kɐnʲˈdʲinskʲɪj; – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter a ...

*Bernhard Klein * César Klein *Fritz Klein *Issai Kulvianski *

Otto Lange Otto Lange (29 October 1879, Dresden – 19 December 1944, Dresden) was a German Expressionist painter and graphic artist. After an apprenticeship as a decorator, he became a pupil of the Kunstgewerbeschule in Dresden and then studied at the ...

El Lissitzky Lazar Markovich Lissitzky (russian: link=no, Ла́зарь Ма́ркович Лиси́цкий, ; – 30 December 1941), better known as El Lissitzky (russian: link=no, Эль Лиси́цкий; yi, על ליסיצקי), was a Russian artist ...

* *

Thilo Maatsch Thilo Friedrich Maatsch (born 13 August 1900 in Braunschweig; died 20 March 1983 in Königslutter) was a German artist and an exponent of abstract art, constructivism and concrete art. Life Whilst visiting exhibitions in his youth he came in ...

* Ewald Mataré * * Carlo Mense *

Hilla von Rebay Hildegard Anna Augusta Elisabeth Freiin Rebay von Ehrenwiesen, known as Baroness Hilla von Rebay or simply Hilla Rebay (31 May 1890 – 27 September 1967), was an abstract art, abstract artist in the early 20th century and co-founder and first di ...

* Ludwig Mies van der Rohe * * *

Georg Muche Georg Muche (8 May 1895 – 26 March 1987) was a German painter, printmaker, architect, author, and teacher. Early life and education Georg Muche was born on 8 May 1895 in Querfurt, in the Prussian Province of Saxony, and grew up in the Rhön ...

* *

Laszlo Peri Peter Laszlo Peri (born László Weisz; 13 June 1899 – 19 January 1967) was an artist and sculptor. Name changes László Weisz was born on 13 June 1899 in Budapest, Hungary. His family Magyarized their family name to "''Péri''". When he mo ...

Felix Petyrek Felix Petyrek (14 May 1892 in Brno 1 December 1951 in Vienna) was an Austrian composer. He wrote stage works, songs, piano music (including duos and duets) in a Romantic style. Petyrek was a pupil of Franz Schreker and Guido Adler in Vienna. Du ...

* Enrico Prampolini *Kurt Hermann Rosenberg *

Hans Scharoun Bernhard Hans Henry Scharoun (20 September 1893 – 25 November 1972) was a German architect best known for designing the Berliner Philharmonie (home to the Berlin Philharmonic) and the Schminke House in Löbau, Saxony. He was an important ...

* * Arthur Segal *

* Wilhelm Schmid * Heinrich Stegemann *

Bruno Taut Bruno Julius Florian Taut (4 May 1880 – 24 December 1938) was a renowned German architect, urban planner and author of Prussian Lithuanian heritage ("taut" means "nation" in Lithuanian). He was active during the Weimar period and is know ...

Heinz Tiessen Richard Gustav Heinz Tiessen (10 April 1887 – 29 November 1971) was a German composer. Biography Tiessen was born at Königsberg, where he studied with composer Erwin Kroll before moving to Berlin. There, he enrolled at Humboldt University a ...

Wladimir Rudolfowitsch Vogel Wladimir Rudolfowitsch Vogel (17 February/29 February 1896 – 19 June 1984) was a Swiss composer of German and Russian descent. Life Born in Moscow, Vogel first studied composition in Moscow with Alexander Scriabin, then between 1918 and 1924 w ...

* Kurt Weill *

Gert Wollheim Gert Heinrich Wollheim (11 September 1894 – 22 April 1974) was a German expressionist painter later associated with the New Objectivity, who fled nazi Germany and worked in the United States after 1947. Life and work Gert Heinrich Wollheim wa ...

* Stefan Wolpe *Niko Wassiliew *

Walter Spies Walter Spies (15 September 1895 – 19 January 1942) was a Russian-born German primitivist painter, composer, musicologist, and curator. In 1923 he moved to Java, Indonesia. He lived in Yogyakarta and then in Ubud, Bali starting from 1927, whe ...

. *

Irma Stern Irma Stern (2 October 1894 – 23 August 1966) was a major South African artist who achieved national and international recognition in her lifetime. Life Stern was born in Schweizer-Reneke, a small town in the Transvaal, of German-Jewish pa ...

Citations

References

* Helga Kliemann: ''Die Novembergruppe.'' Gebr. Mann, Berlin 1969. *

Galerie Nierendorf The Galerie Nierendorf is a commercial art gallery based in Berlin founded by Karl and Josef Nierendorf in 1920, and reopened in 1955 as the Galerie Meta Nierendorf by Florian and Inga Karsch. Founding and early years The brothers Karl (1889– ...

: ''Künstler der Novembergruppe.'' Ausstellungskatalog Galerie Nierendorf,Berlin 1985. * Galerie Bodo Niemann: ''Die Novembergruppe.'' Ausstellungskatalog Galerie Niemann, Berlin 1993. * Will Grohmann (Hrsg.): ''10 Jahre Novembergruppe.'' Sonderheft der ''Kunst der Zeit.'' Klinkhardt&Biermann, Berlin 3.1928, 1-3. * Paul Bekker: ''Wesensformen der Musik.'' Veröffentlichung der Novembergruppe. B. Lachmann, Berlin 1925. * Max Butting: ''Musikgeschichte, die ich miterlebte.'' Henschel, Berlin 1955. * Christoph Wilhelmi: ''Künstlergruppen in Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz seit 1900. Ein Handbuch'', Stuttgart 1996 * Irene Below: ''Between Africa and Europe'' in Irma Stern: Expressions of a Journey, Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg, 2003

External links

* Manifesto of the "November Group" translated into Austrian

Sign Language Sign languages (also known as signed languages) are languages that use the visual-manual modality to convey meaning, instead of spoken words. Sign languages are expressed through manual articulation in combination with non-manual markers. Sign l ...

by Horst Dittric
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{{Authority control German Expressionism Expressionist architecture Expressionist architects Architecture groups German art movements German artist groups and collectives German Revolution of 1918–1919 Weimar culture December 1918 events