Heartfield’s Contempt

JOHN HEARTFIELD’S ART WAS ferociously political, and his life a succession of subversive acts. Born Helmut Herzfelde in 1891, he anglicized his name in protest against Kaiser Wilhelm II’s bellicose, anti-English attitudes—choosing World War I when Germany was fighting England to do it. Briefly employed as a letter carrier in Berlin, he dumped mail in the sewers, hoping to assist demoralization among the folks back home and at the front. When the war was finally over, he joined the German Communist Party the first chance he had. Then, becoming progressively more angry and disillusioned, he went

print December 1975

Art of the Third Reich: Documents of Oppression

THE ART OF FASCIST GERMANY, assembled for the first time in 30 years, and by extreme left-wingers with pedagogic intentions: the result had to be both curious and controversial. And it was. I doubt that any art exhibition in West Germany has ever aroused such publicity and hostility. The apoplectic opening was over a year ago at the Kunstverein in Frankfurt on Main, and since then, the exhibition, entitled “Art of the Third Reich; Documents of Oppression,” toured West Germany, following record-breaking attendance in Frankfurt.

The Neo-Marxist work group responsible for the event consisted of Dr.