Dada in the world war one Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Dada in the world war one - Essay Example With the future of Germany an uncertainty, many avant-garde artists, including George Ehrenfried Grosz, were inspired by the Russian Revolution and formed the Berlin Dada Club (McCloskey 45). They believed classic Marxism was the best solution to the turmoil in Germany (McCloskey 46). They thought the major social, economic, and political turmoil in Germany stemmed from the bourgeoisies oppression of the proletariat and dedicated their art to ending the war and revolutionary change. George Ehrenfried Grosz (1893-1959) was born in Berlin, Germany, and emerged as one of the leading German political artists between World War I. His artwork during the 1920s reflected the appalling conditions in Berlin that resulted from the German loss of World War I, which included: food shortages, staggering inflation, the sight of war cripples begging in the streets, rampant prostitution, and widespread violence. As the German military began to accept the loss of the war, Grosz became increasingly involved with left wing activities and publishing his revolutionarily motivated art. His sentiments were fueled by a close relationship he developed with two brothers, Weiland Herzfelde and John Herzfelde (or John Heartfield as he called himself). Grosz had met Heartfield while in the infantry and they both decided to Americanize their names as protest against the German military (George Groszs given name was Georg Gross) (McCloskey 20). The Herzfelde brothers had been influenced by th eir parents to have strong socialist views and revolutionary attitudes. Their father was a socialist writer and their mother a textile union organizer. Grosz and the Herzfelde brothers, the historian Beth Lewis pointed out, "shared a common conviction that the war was not only despicable, but that it was lost" (Lewis 42). Grosz also believed that the common soldier had an interest in not wanting the war to end. He reasoned that the accepted violence in the