The New Objectivity (in german: Neue Sachlichkeit) was a movement in German art that arose during the 1920s as a reaction against

expressionism 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 ...

. The term was coined by

Gustav Friedrich Hartlaub Gustav Friedrich Hartlaub (12 March 1884 – 30 April 1963) was a German art historian, critic, and curator. He was born in Bremen into a merchant family. He studied with Franz Wickhoff in Vienna and Heinrich Wölfflin in Berlin, among others, unt ...

, the director of the ''

Kunsthalle A kunsthalle is a facility that mounts temporary art exhibitions, similar to an art gallery. It is distinct from an art museum by not having a permanent collection. In the German-speaking regions of Europe, ''Kunsthallen'' are often operated by ...

'' in

Mannheim Mannheim (; Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (german: Universitätsstadt Mannheim), is the second-largest city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg after the state capital of Stuttgart, and Germany's 2 ...

, who used it as the title of an art exhibition staged in 1925 to showcase artists who were working in a post-expressionist spirit. As these artists—who included

Max Beckmann Max Carl Friedrich Beckmann (February 12, 1884 – December 27, 1950) was a German painter, draftsman, printmaker, sculptor, and writer. Although he is classified as an Expressionist artist, he rejected both the term and the movement. In the 1920s ...

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,

Christian Schad Christian Schad (21 August 189425 February 1982) was a German painter and photographer. He was associated with the Dada and the New Objectivity movements. Considered as a group, Schad's portraits form an extraordinary record of life in Vienna a ...

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

Jeanne Mammen Jeanne Mammen (21 November 1890 – 22 April 1976) was a German painter and illustrator of the German art#Weimar period, Weimar period. Her work is associated with the New Objectivity and Symbolism (arts), Symbolism movements. She is best known ...

—rejected the self-involvement and romantic longings of the expressionists, Weimar intellectuals in general made a call to arms for public collaboration, engagement, and rejection of romantic idealism. Although principally describing a tendency in German painting, the term took a life of its own and came to characterize the attitude of public life in Weimar Germany as well as the art, literature, music, and architecture created to adapt to it. Rather than some goal of philosophical objectivity, it was meant to imply a turn towards practical engagement with the world—an all-business attitude, understood by Germans as intrinsically American. The movement essentially ended in 1933 with the end of the

Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is al ...

and the beginning of the

Nazi 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 ...

dictatorship.

Meaning

Although "New Objectivity" has been the most common translation of "Neue Sachlichkeit", other translations have included "New Matter-of-factness", "New Resignation", "New Sobriety", and "New Dispassion". The art historian Dennis Crockett says there is no direct English translation, and breaks down the meaning in the original German: In particular, Crockett argues against the view implied by the translation of "New Resignation", which he says is a popular misunderstanding of the attitude it describes. The idea that it conveys resignation comes from the notion that the age of great socialist revolutions was over and that the left-leaning intellectuals who were living in Germany at the time wanted to adapt themselves to the social order represented in the Weimar Republic. Crockett says the art of the ''Neue Sachlichkeit'' was meant to be more forward in political action than the modes of Expressionism it was turning against: "The ''Neue Sachlichkeit'' is Americanism, cult of the objective, the hard fact, the predilection for functional work, professional conscientiousness, and usefulness."Crockett p. 1

Background

Leading up to

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 ...

, much of the art world was under the influence of

Futurism Futurism ( it, Futurismo, link=no) was an artistic and social movement that originated in Italy, and to a lesser extent in other countries, in the early 20th century. It emphasized dynamism, speed, technology, youth, violence, and objects such ...

and

Expressionism 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 ...

, both of which abandoned any sense of order or commitment to objectivity or tradition. Expressionism was in particular the dominant form of art in Germany, and it was represented in many different facets of public life—in dance, in theater, in painting, in architecture, in poetry, and in literature. Expressionists abandoned nature and sought to express emotional experience, often centering their art around inner turmoil (angst), whether in reaction to the modern world, to alienation from society, or in the creation of personal identity. In concert with this evocation of angst and unease with bourgeois life, expressionists also echoed some of the same feelings of revolution as did Futurists. This is evidenced by a 1919 anthology of expressionist poetry titled '' Menschheitsdämmerung'', which translates to “Twilight of Humanity”—meant to suggest that humanity was in a twilight; that there was an imminent demise of some old way of being and beneath it the urgings of a new dawning.Midgley 2000, p. 15 Critics of expressionism came from many circles. From the left, a strong critique began with

Dadaism Dada () or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centres in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire (Zurich), Cabaret Voltaire (in 1916). New York Dada began c. 1915, and after 192 ...

. The early exponents of Dada had been drawn together in Switzerland, a neutral country in the war, and seeing their common cause, wanted to use their art as a form of moral and cultural protest—they saw shaking off the constraints of artistic language in the same way they saw their refusal of national boundaries. They wanted to use their art in order to express political outrage and encourage political action. Expressionism, to Dadaists, expressed all of the angst and anxieties of society, but was helpless to do anything about it.

Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a pl ...

, a German dramatist, launched another early critique of expressionism, referring to it as constrained and superficial. Just as in politics Germany had a new parliament but lacked parliamentarians, he argued, in literature there was an expression of delight in ideas, but no new ideas, and in theater a "will to drama", but no real drama. His early plays, ''Baal'' and ''Trommeln in der Nacht'' (Drums in the Night) express repudiations of fashionable interest in Expressionism. After the destruction of the war, more conservative critics gained force particularly in their critique of the style of expressionism. Throughout Europe a

return to order The return to order (French: ''retour à l'ordre'') was a European art movement that followed the First World War, rejecting the extreme avant-garde art of the years up to 1918 and taking its inspiration from classical art instead. The movement w ...

in the arts resulted in neoclassical works by modernists such as

Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

and Stravinsky, and a turn away from abstraction by many artists, for example

Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known prima ...

and Metzinger. The return to order was especially pervasive in Italy. Because of travel restrictions, German artists in 1919–1922 had little knowledge of contemporary trends in French art;

Henri Rousseau Henri Julien Félix Rousseau (; 21 May 1844 – 2 September 1910)
at the However, some of the Germans found important inspiration in the pages of the Italian magazine ''

Valori plastici ''Valori plastici'' (meaning ''Plastic Values'' in English) was an Italian magazine published in Rome in Italian and French. The magazines existed between 1918 and 1921. History and profile ''Valori plastici'' was established in Rome by the paint ...

'', which featured photographs of recent paintings by Italian classical realists.Crockett p. 15

Pictorial art

Verists and classicists

Alexander Kanoldt - Grosses Stilleben mit Krügen und roter Teedose - 2395 - Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe

Hartlaub first used the term in 1923 in a letter he sent to colleagues describing an exhibition he was planning.Roh et al. 1997, p. 285 In his subsequent article, "Introduction to 'New Objectivity': German Painting since Expressionism", Hartlaub explained, The New Objectivity was composed of two tendencies which Hartlaub characterized in terms of a left and right wing: on the left were the '' verists'', who "tear the objective form of the world of contemporary facts and represent current experience in its tempo and fevered temperature"; and on the right the ''classicists'', who "search more for the object of timeless ability to embody the external laws of existence in the artistic sphere". The verists' vehement form of

realism Realism, Realistic, or Realists may refer to: In the arts *Realism (arts), the general attempt to depict subjects truthfully in different forms of the arts Arts movements related to realism include: *Classical Realism *Literary realism, a move ...

emphasized the ugly and sordid. Their art was raw, provocative, and harshly satirical. George Grosz and

are considered the most important of the verists. The verists developed Dada's abandonment of any pictorial rules or artistic language into a “satirical hyperrealism”, as termed by

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 ...

, and of which the best known examples are the graphical works and photo-montages of

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 ...

. Use of collage in these works became a ''compositional'' principle to blend reality and art, as if to suggest that to record the facts of reality was to go beyond the most simple appearances of things. Artists such as Grosz, Dix,

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 ...

, and

painted satirical scenes that often depicted a madness behind what was happening, depicting the participants as cartoon-like. When painting portraits, they gave emphasis to particular features or objects that were seen as distinctive aspects of the person depicted. Other verists, like

, depicted reality with a clinical precision, which suggested both an empirical detachment and intimate knowledge of the subject. Schad's paintings are characterized by "an artistic perception so sharp that it seems to cut beneath the skin", according to the art critic Wieland Schmied. Often, psychological elements were introduced in his work, which suggested an underlying unconscious reality.

, who is sometimes called an expressionist although he never considered himself part of any movement, was considered by Hartlaub to be a veristSchmied 1978, p. 10 and the most important artist of ''Neue Sachlichkeit''. Compared to the verists, the classicists more clearly exemplify the "return to order" that arose in the arts throughout Europe. The classicists included Georg Schrimpf, Alexander Kanoldt,

Carlo Mense Carlo Mense (May 13, 1886 – August 11, 1965) was a German artist, associated at various times with the Düsseldorf school of painting, Rhenish Expressionism and New Objectivity. Mense was born in Rheine. He studied with Peter Janssen at th ...

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 ...

, and Wilhelm Heise. The sources of their inspiration included 19th-century art, the Italian metaphysical painters, the artists of

Novecento Italiano Novecento Italiano () was an Italian artistic movement founded in Milan in 1922 to create an art based on the rhetoric of the fascism of Mussolini. History Novecento Italiano was founded by Anselmo Bucci (1887–1955), Leonardo Dudreville (1885 ...

, and Henri Rousseau. The classicists are best understood by Franz Roh's term Magic Realism, though Roh originally intended "magical realism" to be synonymous with the ''Neue Sachlichkeit'' as a whole. For Roh, as a reaction to expressionism, the idea was to declare "

hat A hat is a head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorporate mecha ...

the autonomy of the objective world around us was once more to be enjoyed; the wonder of matter that could crystallize into objects was to be seen anew." With the term, he was emphasizing the "magic" of the normal world as it presents itself to us—how, when we really look at everyday objects, they can appear strange and fantastic.

Regional groups

Most of the artists of the New Objectivity did not travel widely, and stylistic tendencies were related to geography. While the classicists were based mostly in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

, the verists worked mainly in Berlin (Grosz, Dix, Schlichter, and Schad);

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

(Dix,

Hans Grundig Hans Grundig (February 19, 1901 – September 11, 1958) was a German painter and graphic artist associated with the New Objectivity movement. He was born in Dresden and, after an apprenticeship as an interior decorator, studied in 1920–1921 ...

Wilhelm Lachnit Wilhelm Lachnit (12 November 1899, , near Dresden — 14 November 1962, Dresden) was a German painter who was primarily active in Dresden. Life Lachnit was born in the small town of Gittersee; his family moved to Dresden in 1906. He studied at t ...

and others); and

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...

(

Karl Hubbuch Karl Hubbuch (21 November 1891 – 26 December 1979) was a German painter, printmaker, and draftsman associated with the New Objectivity. Life Hubbuch was born in Karlsruhe and baptised in the Roman Catholic church. From 1908 to 1912, he studie ...

, and Wilhelm Schnarrenberger). The works of the Karlsruhe artists emphasize a hard, precise style of drawing, as in Hubbuch's watercolor ''The Cologne Swimmer'' (1923). In

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

, a constructivist group led by

Franz Wilhelm Seiwert Franz Wilhelm Seiwert (March 9, 1894 – July 3, 1933) was a German painter and sculptor in a constructivist style. He was also politically active as a communist making significant contributions, both graphic and theoretical to ''Die Aktion' ...

and

Heinrich Hoerle Heinrich Hoerle (1 September 1895 – 7 July 1936) was a German constructivist artist of the New Objectivity movement. Hoerle was born in Cologne. He studied at the Cologne School of Arts and Crafts but was mostly self-taught as an artist. Afte ...

also included

Gerd Arntz Gerd Arntz (11 December 1900, in Remscheid – 4 December 1988, in The Hague) was a German Modernist artist renowned for his black and white woodcuts. A core member of the Cologne Progressives, he was also a council communist. The Cologne Progres ...

. Also from Cologne was

Anton Räderscheidt Anton Räderscheidt (October 11, 1892 – March 8, 1970) was a German painter who was a leading figure of the New Objectivity. Räderscheidt was born in Cologne. His father was a schoolmaster who also wrote poetry. From 1910 to 1914, Räderscheidt ...

, who after a brief constructivist phase became influenced by

Antonio Donghi Antonio Donghi (March 16, 1897 – July 16, 1963) was an Italian painter of scenes of popular life, landscapes, and still life. Biography Born in Rome, he studied painting at the Instituto di Belle Arti from 1908 to 1916.Gale, Oxford Art O ...

and the metaphysical artists. Artists active in

Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

, such as Grethe Jürgens, Hans Mertens,

Ernst Thoms Ernst Thoms (November 13, 1896 – May 11, 1983) was a German painter associated with the New Objectivity. Thoms was born in Nienburg. He apprenticed as a painter from 1911 to 1914.Michalski 1994, p. 218. At the start of World War I in 191 ...

, and Erich Wegner, depicted provincial subject matter with an often lyrical style.

Franz Radziwill Franz Radziwill (6 February 1895 – 12 August 1983) was a German painter known especially for his landscape paintings in a magic realist style. He was also associated with the New Objectivity movement. Radziwill was born in Strohausen. His fa ...

, who painted ominous landscapes, lived in relative isolation in Dangast, a small coastal town.

Carl Grossberg Carl Grossberg, originally Georg Carl Wilhelm Grandmontagne (6 September 1894 – 19 October 1940) was a German painter associated with the New Objectivity movement; best known for his urban and industrial scenes. Biography He received his pri ...

became a painter after studying architecture in Aachen and Darmstadt and is noted for his clinical rendering of industrial technology.

Photography

Albert Renger-Patzsch Albert Renger-Patzsch (June 22, 1897 – September 27, 1966) was a German photographer associated with the New Objectivity. Biography Renger-Patzsch was born in Würzburg and began making photographs by age twelve. After military service in the F ...

and

August Sander August Sander (17 November 1876 – 20 April 1964) was a German portrait and documentary photographer. His first book ''Face of our Time'' (German: ''Antlitz der Zeit'') was published in 1929. Sander has been described as "the most important Ger ...

are leading representatives of the "New

Photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed ...

" movement, which brought a sharply focused, documentary quality to the photographic art where previously the self-consciously poetic had held sway. Some other related projects as ''

Neues Sehen The ''Neues Sehen'', also known as New Vision or ''Neue Optik'', was a movement, not specifically restricted to photography, which was developed in the 1920s. The movement was directly related to the principles of the Bauhaus. ''Neues Sehen'' con ...

'', coexisted at the same moment.

Karl Blossfeldt Karl Blossfeldt (June 13, 1865December 9, 1932) was a German photographer and sculptor. He is best known for his close-up photographs of plants and living things, published in 1929 as ''Urformen der Kunst''. He was inspired, as was his father, b ...

's botanical photography is also often described as being a variation on New Objectivity.

Architecture

New Objectivity in architecture, as in painting and literature, describes German work of the transitional years of the early 1920s in the

Weimar culture Weimar culture was the emergence of the arts and sciences that happened in Germany during the Weimar Republic, the latter during that part of the interwar period between Germany's defeat in World War I in 1918 and Hitler's rise to power in 193 ...

, as a direct reaction to the stylistic excesses of

Expressionist architecture Expressionist architecture was an architectural movement in Europe during the first decades of the 20th century in parallel with the expressionist visual and performing arts that especially developed and dominated in Germany. Brick Expressionis ...

and the change in the national mood. Architects such as

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 ...

, Erich Mendelsohn and

Hans Poelzig Hans Poelzig (30 April 1869 – 14 June 1936) was a German architect, painter and set designer. Life Poelzig was born in Berlin in 1869 to Countess Clara Henrietta Maria Poelzig while she was married to George Acland Ames, an Englishman. Uncerta ...

turned to New Objectivity's straightforward, functionally minded, matter-of-fact approach to construction, which became known in Germany as ("New Building"). The movement, flourishing in the brief period between the adoption of the

Dawes plan The Dawes Plan (as proposed by the Dawes Committee, chaired by Charles G. Dawes) was a plan in 1924 that successfully resolved the issue of World War I reparations that Germany had to pay. It ended a crisis in European diplomacy following Wor ...

and the rise of the

s, encompassed public exhibitions like the

Weissenhof Estate The Weissenhof Estate (German: Weißenhofsiedlung) is a housing estate built for the 1927 Deutscher Werkbund exhibition in Stuttgart, Germany. It was an international showcase of modern architecture's aspiration to provide cheap, simple, effici ...

, the massive urban planning and public housing projects of Taut and

Ernst May Ernst May (27 July 1886 – 11 September 1970) was a List of German architects, German architect and :German urban planners, city planner. May successfully applied urban design techniques to the city of Frankfurt am Main during the Weimar R ...

, and the influential experiments at the

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 200 ...

Film

In film, New Objectivity reached its high point around 1929. As a cinematic style, it translated into realistic settings, straightforward camerawork and editing, a tendency to examine inanimate objects as a way to interpret characters and events, a lack of overt emotionalism, and social themes. The director most associated with the movement is

Georg Wilhelm Pabst Georg Wilhelm Pabst (25 August 1885 – 29 May 1967) was an Austrian film director and screenwriter. He started as an actor and theater director, before becoming one of the most influential German-language filmmakers during the Weimar Republic. ...

. Pabst's films of the 1920s concentrate on social issues such as

abortion Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pregn ...

prostitution Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in Sex work, sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, n ...

, labor disputes,

homosexuality Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to peop ...

, and

addiction Addiction is a neuropsychological disorder characterized by a persistent and intense urge to engage in certain behaviors, one of which is the usage of a drug, despite substantial harm and other negative consequences. Repetitive drug use o ...

. His cool and critical 1925 ''

Joyless Street ''Joyless Street'' (german: Die freudlose Gasse), also titled ''The Street of Sorrow'' or ''The Joyless Street'', is a 1925 German silent film directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst starring Greta Garbo and Asta Nielsen. It is based on a novel by Hugo ...

'' is a landmark of the objective style. Other directors included

Ernő Metzner Ernő Metzner (February 25, 1892 – September 25, 1953) was a film director and production designer. Metzner was born in Subotica (then Austria-Hungary). He studied art at the Budapest Academy of Fine Arts, then worked as a painter and graphic a ...

Berthold Viertel Berthold Viertel (28 June 1885 – 24 September 1953) was an Austrian screenwriter and film director, known for his work in Germany, the UK and the US. Early career Viertel was born in Vienna, the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but later ...

, and

Gerhard Lamprecht Gerhard Lamprecht (6 October 1897 – 4 May 1974) was a German film director, screenwriter and film historian. He directed 63 films between 1920 and 1958. He also wrote for 26 films between 1918 and 1958. Life and career Lamprecht was fasci ...

Literature

The primary characteristic of New Objective literature was its political perspective on reality. It renders anti-utopias, in a non-sentimental, emotionless reportage style, with precision of detail and veneration for "the fact". The works were seen to provide a rejection to humanism, a refusal to play the game of art as utopia, a negation of art as escapism, and a palpable cynicism about humanity. Authors associated with New Objectivity literature included Alfred Döblin,

Hans Fallada Hans Fallada (; born Rudolf Wilhelm Friedrich Ditzen; 21 July 18935 February 1947) was a German writer of the first half of the 20th century. Some of his better known novels include '' Little Man, What Now?'' (1932) and ''Every Man Dies Alone'' ...

and Erich Kästner.

Theater

, from his opposition to the focus on the individual in expressionist art, began a collaborative method to play production, starting with his

Man Equals Man ''Man Equals Man'' (german: Mann ist Mann), or A Man's a Man, is a play by the German people, German Modernism, modernist playwright Bertolt Brecht. One of Brecht's earlier works, it explores themes of war, human fungibility, and Personal identit ...

project. This approach to theater-craft began to be known as "Brechtian" and the collective of writers and actors who he worked with are known as the "Brechtian collective".

Music

New Objectivity in music, as in the visual arts, rejected the sentimentality of late

Romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...

and the emotional agitation of expressionism. Composer

Paul Hindemith Paul Hindemith (; 16 November 189528 December 1963) was a German composer, music theorist, teacher, violist and conductor. He founded the Amar Quartet in 1921, touring extensively in Europe. As a composer, he became a major advocate of the ''Ne ...

may be considered both a New Objectivist and an expressionist, depending on the composition, throughout the 1920s; for example, his

wind quintet A wind quintet, also known as a woodwind quintet, is a group of five wind players (most commonly flute, oboe, clarinet, French horn and bassoon). Unlike the string quartet (of 4 string instruments) with its homogeneous blend of sound color, the in ...

' Op. 24 No. 2 (1922) was designed as '; one may compare his operas ''

Sancta Susanna ''Sancta Susanna'' is an early opera by Paul Hindemith in one act, with a German libretto by August Stramm. Composed over a two-week period in January/February 1921, its premiere was on 26 March 1922, at the Oper Frankfurt. The work is his third ...

'' (part of an expressionist trilogy) and ' (a parody of modern life). His music typically harkens back to

baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

models and makes use of traditional forms and stable polyphonic structures, together with modern dissonance and

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

-inflected rhythms.

Ernst Toch Ernst Toch (; 7 December 1887 – 1 October 1964) was an Austrian composer of classical music and film scores. He sought throughout his life to introduce new approaches to music. Biography Toch was born in Leopoldstadt, Vienna, into the family ...

and

Kurt Weill Kurt Julian Weill (March 2, 1900April 3, 1950) was a German-born American composer active from the 1920s in his native country, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fru ...

also composed New Objectivist music during the 1920s. Though known late in life for his austere interpretations of the classics, in earlier years, conductor

Otto Klemperer Otto Nossan Klemperer (14 May 18856 July 1973) was a 20th-century conductor and composer, originally based in Germany, and then the US, Hungary and finally Britain. His early career was in opera houses, but he was later better known as a concer ...

was the most prominent to ally himself with this movement.

Legacy

The New Objectivity movement is usually considered to have ended with the

when the

National Socialists 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 ...

under

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

seized power in January 1933. The

authorities condemned much of the work of the New Objectivity as "

degenerate art Degenerate art (german: Entartete Kunst was a term adopted in the 1920s by the Nazi Party in Germany to describe modern art. During the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler, German modernist art, including many works of internationally renowned artists, ...

", so that works were seized and destroyed and many artists were forbidden to exhibit. A few, including

, Adolf Uzarski, and

Otto Nagel Otto Nagel (27 September 1894 – 12 July 1967) was a German painter, graphic designer and long-time head of the Academy of Arts, Berlin, Berlin Academy of Arts who was one of the most prolific artists of East Germany. Life Born at Wedding ( ...

, were among the artists entirely forbidden to paint. While some of the major figures of the movement went into

exile Exile is primarily penal expulsion from one's native country, and secondarily expatriation or prolonged absence from one's homeland under either the compulsion of circumstance or the rigors of some high purpose. Usually persons and peoples suf ...

, they did not carry on painting in the same manner. George Grosz emigrated to America and adopted a romantic style, and Max Beckmann's work by the time he left Germany in 1937 was, by Franz Roh's definitions, expressionism. The influence of New Objectivity outside of Germany can be seen in the work of artists like Balthus,

Salvador Dalí Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (; ; ; 11 May 190423 January 1989) was a Spanish Surrealism, surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, and the striking and bizarr ...

(in such early works as his ''Portrait of

Luis Buñuel Luis Buñuel Portolés (; 22 February 1900 – 29 July 1983) was a Spanish-Mexican filmmaker who worked in France, Mexico, and Spain. He has been widely considered by many film critics, historians, and directors to be one of the greatest and ...

'' of 1924),Roh et al. 1997, p. 291

Auguste Herbin Auguste Herbin (29 April 1882 – 31 January 1960) was a French painter of modern art. He is best known for his Cubist and abstract paintings consisting of colorful geometric figures. He co-founded the groups Abstraction-Création and Salon des ...

Maruja Mallo Maruja Mallo (born Ana María Gómez González; 5 January 1902 – 6 February 1995) was a Spanish surrealist painter. She is considered an artist of the Generation of 1927 within the Spanish avant-garde movement. Biography Mallo was the fourt ...

Cagnaccio di San Pietro Cagnaccio di San Pietro (January 14, 1897 – May 29, 1946), born Natale Bentivoglio Scarpa, was an Italian Magic realism, magic realist painter. He was born in Desenzano del Garda. His artistic training was at the Academy of Fine Art in Venice, ...

, Grant Wood,

Adamson-Eric Erich Carl Hugo Adamson (more commonly known as Adamson-Eric; 18 August 1902 – 2 December 1968) was an Estonian artist who worked mainly within the medium of painting in applied art. Life Erich Carl Hugo Adamson was born 18 August 1902 in Ta ...

, and Juhan Muks.

Notes

References

*Albright, Daniel, ed. (2004). ''Modernism and Music: an anthology of sources''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. *Becker, Sabina (2000). ''Neue Sachlichkeit''. Köln: Böhlau. Print. *Beaumont, M. (2010). ''A concise companion to realism''. Malden, Mass.: Wiley-Blackwell. * Crockett, Dennis (1999). ''German Post-Expressionism: the Art of the Great Disorder 1918-1924''. University Park, Pa.: Pennsylvania State University Press. *Grüttemeier, Ralf; Beekman, Klaus; Rebel, Ben, eds. (2013). ''Neue Sachlichkeit and Avant-Garde''. Avant-Garde Critical Studies 29. Amsterdam / New York: Rodopi. *Kaes, Anton; Jay, Martin; Dimendberg, Edward, eds (1994). ''The Weimar Republic Sourcebook''. Berkeley: University of California Press. *Lethen, Helmut (1970). ''Neue Sachlichkeit 1924-1932: Studien zur Literatur des "Weissen Sozialismus."'' Stuttgart: Metzler. *Lindner, Martin (1994). ''Leben in der Krise. Zeitromane der neuen Sachlichkeit und die intellektuelle Mentalität der klassischen Moderne''. Stuttgart: Metzler. *Michalski, Sergiusz (1994). ''New Objectivity''. Cologne: Benedikt Taschen. * *Roh, Franz, Juan Manuel Bonet, Miguel Blesa De La Parra, and Martin Chirino (1997). ''Realismo mágico: Franz Roh y la pintura europea 1917-1936 : xposiciónIvam Centre Julio Gonzalez, alencia 19 junio - 31 agosto 1997 : Fundación Caja de Madrid, Madrid, 17 septiembre - 9 noviembre 1997 : Centro Atlantico de Arte Moderno, ran Canaria 2 diciembre 1997 - 1 febrero 1998''. Valencia: Ivam, Institut Valencià d'Art Modern. (Spanish and English) *Schmied, Wieland (1978). ''Neue Sachlichkeit and German Realism of the Twenties''. London: Arts Council of Great Britain. *Stoehr, Ingo R. (2001). ''German Literature of the Twentieth Century: From Aestheticism to Postmodernism''. Rochester, NY: Camden House. * Willett, John (1978). ''The New Sobriety: art and politics in the Weimar Period, 1917-1933''. London: Thames & Hudson (Reissued by Da Capo Press, New York, 1996 as "Art and Politics in the Weimar Period" ) *Zamora, Lois Parkinson and Faris, Wendy B., eds. (1995). ''Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community''. Durham and London: Duke University Press.

External links

Fritz Schmalenbach essayTate modern definitionChaos and Classicism: Art in France, Italy, and Germany, 1918–1936.
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. October 1, 2010 – January 9, 2011.
Table of Contents book ''Neue Sachlichkeit and Avant-Garde''. Amsterdam / New York 2013. Brill/Rodopi
{{Authority control German art movements Modern art Modernism (music) 20th-century German literature Weimar culture

Meaning

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Verists and classicists

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Film

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