Wieland Herzfelde ( Herzfeld; 11 April 1896 – 23 November 1988) was a German publisher and writer. He is particularly known for his links with German

avant-garde art In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable t ...

and

Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

thought, and was the brother of the photo montage artist

John Heartfield John Heartfield (born Helmut Herzfeld; 19 June 1891 – 26 April 1968) was a 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. Heartfield a ...

, with whom he often worked.

Life

Herzfelde was born in

Weggis Weggis is a municipality in the district of Lucerne in the canton of Lucerne in Switzerland. It forms part of the northern shore of Lake Lucerne. The official language is German. History In about 800 the monastery of Pfäfers acquired the court ...

. His parents were

Franz Held Franz Held (born 6 May 1948) is a German Rowing (sport), rower who competed for West Germany in the 1968 Summer Olympics and in the 1972 Summer Olympics. Held was born in Passau. In 1968, Held and his partner, Günther Karl, finished twelfth i ...

(whose surname was an abbreviation of his original name Herzfeld), an

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...

writer, and political activist Alice Stolzenberg. Orphaned since 1899, in 1914 he followed his older brother Helmut, later known as John Heartfield, to

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

. In 1916, he founded the artistic journal '' Neue Jugend'', and the following year started the publishing house Malik-Verlag, known for its works on art and Marxism. Towards the end of

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, he briefly worked on propaganda films for the German government.Zervigón, Andrés Mario. "A 'Political Struwwelpeter'? John Heartfield's Early Film Animation and the Crisis of Photographic Representation." ''New German Critique'', Summer 2009, Issue 107, p5-51 After the war, he continued his publishing activities and also founded an art gallery, ''Grosz-Galerie'', and a bookshop, as well as helping to organize the

First International Dada Fair The First International Dada Fair took place in Berlin at the gallery of Dr. Burchard, from 30 June to 25 August 1920. It was to become the most famous of all Berlin Dada's exploits. It featured almost 200 works by artists including Hans Arp, Max Er ...

in 1920, which included works by

Hans Arp Hans Peter Wilhelm Arp (; ; 16 September 1886 – 7 June 1966), better known as Jean Arp in English, was a German-French sculptor, painter and poet. He was known as a Dadaist and an abstract artist. Early life Arp was born Hans Peter Wilhelm Ar ...

Max Ernst Max Ernst (; 2 April 1891 – 1 April 1976) was a German-born painter, sculptor, printmaker, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and surrealism in Europe. He had no formal artistic trai ...

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

Johannes Theodor Baargeld Johannes Theodor Baargeld was a pseudonym of Alfred Emanuel Ferdinand Grünwald (9 October 1892 – 16 or 17 August 1927), a German painter and poet who, together with Max Ernst, founded the Cologne Dada group. He also used the name Zentroda ...

, and

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

. Following

Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

's rise to power, he fled to

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

in 1933, later moving to London, and in 1939 to the USA where he published works by exiled German writers. In 1949 he returned to what was by then

East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

, becoming a professor of literature at the

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 December 1409 by Frederick I, Electo ...

; he also wrote poetry and fiction, and worked as a translator. He died in 1988 and was buried in the Dorotheenstadt cemetery in Berlin.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Herzfelde, Wieland 1896 births 1988 deaths People from Lucerne-Land District 20th-century German poets 20th-century German publishers (people) Dada 20th-century German translators German male poets Academic staff of Leipzig University Recipients of the National Prize of East Germany 20th-century German male writers German male non-fiction writers