Photos

Here I show you an artwork of the famous German sculptor Ernst Barlach (1870 -1938). He was an expressionist sculptor, printmaker and writer. Although he was a supporter of the war in the years leading to World War I, his participation in the war made him change his position, and he is mostly known for his sculptures protesting against the war.
Barlach's fame increased after the war, and he received many awards and became a member in the prestigious Prussian Art Academy in 1919 and the Munich Art Academy in 1925.
From 1928 onward Barlach generated many anti-war sculptures based on his experiences in the war. This pacifist position went against the political trend during the rise of Nazism, and it created many conflicts during the rise of the Nazi Party, when most of his works were confiscated as degenerate art.

For example, the Magdeburger Ehrenmal (Magdeburg cenotaph) was ordered by the city of Magdeburg to be a memorial of World War I, and it was expected to show heroic German soldiers fighting for their glorious country. Barlach, in 1929 however, created a sculpture with a French, German, and Russian soldier showing the horror, pain and desperation of the war. This naturally created a controversy with the pro-war population, and the sculpture was removed. Friends of Barlach were able to hide the sculpture until after the war, when it was returned in 1955 to the Magdeburg Cathedral.

For me it is one of the most impressive pacifistic works of art and there are always a lot of candles burning in front of it ...