Special exhibition from 21 February to 3 May 2026

The Käthe Kollwitz Museum Berlin is opening a new perspective on the life and work of one of Germany’s most important artists in the former Theater building of Charlottenburg Palace. The special exhibition ‘Käthe Kollwitz and Theater’ focuses on a topic that has received little attention to date – Käthe Kollwitz and her family’s affinity for the theater.

Theater as part of everyday family life
Diary entries and letters to her son Hans document how visiting the theatre was a natural part of everyday family life – just like political discussions and artistic work. Käthe Kollwitz and her family experienced the most fruitful period in Berlin’s theater history at first hand and attended numerous innovative productions by the great directors of their time, including Otto Brahm, Max Reinhardt and Leopold Jessner. From the naturalism of the late 19th century to the expressionist theater of the 1920s, they followed the stage closely. Dance, concerts, film and cabaret were also part of this rich cultural cosmos.

Theater as a resonance chamber for artistic work
The exhibition examines the influence these intense visual experiences had on Käthe Kollwitz’s artistic work. Although she did not work directly for the theater, her oeuvre reflects a wide range of references to literary material, scenic situations and dramatic condensations. Theater is thus visible less as a concrete motif than as an intellectual resonance chamber for her work.

Highlights of the exhibition
A large number of loans from public and private collections, newly catalogued and digitised archive material, and interdisciplinary perspectives clearly show how closely the life of the Kollwitz family was interwoven with one of the most productive phases in Berlin’s theater history. In addition to works by Käthe Kollwitz, works by Ernst Barlach, Lovis Corinth, Georg Kolbe, August Macke, Max Liebermann, Ernst Oppler and Emil Orlik are also on display.

Extensive loans and research work
The exhibition comprises over 100 exhibits from 17 lenders, including the Alte Nationalgalerie SMB, Kupferstichkabinett SMB, Stiftung Stadtmuseum Berlin, Ernst Barlach Haus Hamburg, John Neumeier Stiftung Hamburg, Kollwitz Museum Cologne, and Tanzarchiv und Theaterwissenschaftliche Sammlung Cologne. It concludes three years of research by Kollwitz specialist Annette Seeler, which was carried out in collaboration with the museum.

Design and accompanying publication
The young Berlin-based design team Jason Kittner and Meret Schmiese are responsible for the architectural and graphic design of the exhibition. An accompanying catalogue with over 200 illustrations and approx. 240 pages will be published by Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg, which will deepen the dialogue between visual arts and performing arts.

Funding and support
The exhibition, catalog and educational programme have been made possible by the generous support of the Ernst von Siemens Art Foundation, the Rudolf-August Oetker Foundation and the Richard Stury Foundation.

Educational programmes for the special exhibition
FOR SCHOOL CLASSES
School project day for the special exhibition
Bookable from 21 February to 3 May 2026

FOR ADULTS
Slow Art tour
Thursday, 30 April 2026, 5 p.m.
Registration required.

FOR ADULTS
Guided tours with guest curator Dr Annette Seeler
Tuesday, 31 March, 14 and 28 April 2026, 4 p.m. each day
Participation is included in the museum admission price.
No registration required.

FOR ADULTS
Tour in German Sign Language (DGS)
Sunday, April 12, 2026, 3:00 p.m.
Participation is included in the museum admission fee.
Registration required: bildung@kaethe-kollwitz.de

Events related to the special exhibition
Lecture by Dr Norbert Jaron
Max Reinhardt and the theater of the early 20th century
Thursday, 12 March 2026, 7 p.m.
Admission €8.00 | concessions €5.00
No registration required.

Selected Works from the Ute Kahl Collection

The Käthe Kollwitz Museum in Berlin is delighted to be able to show 40 selected drawings and rare prints from the important private collection of Ute Kahl. The special exhibition Silent Strength focuses on the sensitive side of Käthe Kollwitz’s work—the aspect that continues to lend her works a special emotional depth and appeal to this day.

Silent Strength – Empathy in the Work of Käthe Kollwitz

The special exhibition is devoted to a theme that runs through Käthe Kollwitz’s work like a quiet but steady stream: the sensitivity of the gaze, the humanity in expression, the quiet inner strength.

Well-known works such as the graphic cycle A Weaver’s Revolt (1898), the Peasants’ War series (after 1900), the forceful poster Never Again War (1924), and the sculpture Pietà (1938), which today stands enlarged in the Neue Wache in Berlin as a memorial, are an integral part of the art-historical canon. But behind these iconic images lies an often overlooked aspect: Käthe Kollwitz’s ability to detach strong emotions such as worry, grief, despair, or quiet resignation from any specific historical context and translate them into a universal visual language.

Female figures as a reflection of the soul

Individual female figures often appear in Käthe Kollwitz’s works as bearers of human emotions. They appear without narrative embellishment, reduced to gestures and postures that appear all the more intense. This focus on the essential gives the prints a timelessness that has lost none of its emotional power even after more than a hundred years.

A passionate collector – Ute Kahl
Cologne-based collector Ute Kahl discovered Käthe Kollwitz’s art through the print Mütter (Mothers, 1919). This work left a lasting impression on her and marked the beginning of a collection that now encompasses all phases of the artist’s work and is of museum quality. Convinced that art of such significance must be accessible to the public, she generously makes loans available – as she has done for this exhibition in Berlin.

Kollwitz today – Intimacy through emotion
How can art that is often rendered in black and white and dates from a period of labor unrest around 1900 still resonate with contemporary viewers?
The answer lies in the emotional directness of her works. Younger people in particular react spontaneously to the expressiveness of the figures – to their grief, their strength, their quiet perseverance. This immediacy builds bridges between generations and shows that Käthe Kollwitz’s themes – humanity, suffering, courage, and compassion – are still relevant today.

From movement to stillness – from pain to strength
Following the exhibition Mit Händen sprechen (2020, Speaking with Hands), which focused on the expression of hands in the work of Käthe Kollwitz, Silent Strength turns its attention to moments of pause: situations in which pain gives rise to new strength, or in which the gaze turns inward – contemplative, observant, resigned.

In the drawings and state prints on display, we experience Käthe Kollwitz as a seriously inquiring, self-critical, and deeply human artist. Her many revisions and variations are evidence of a persistent struggle for expression and truthfulness – and today they provide fascinating insights into her artistic practice.

Fotos: © Sammlung Ute Kahl, Köln 

Thanks to the collector
It is thanks to the generosity of Ute Kahl that these precious sheets are not hidden away in private art collections, but can unfold their effect in the dimmed light of the museum. Her contribution makes it possible to rediscover Käthe Kollwitz’s work—as a timeless language of compassion, dignity, and humanity.

An accompanying publication will be released to accompany the exhibition.

The great-grandson of Käthe Kollwitz as a guest at the Käthe Kollwitz Museum Berlin

The Käthe Kollwitz Museum Berlin is celebrating the opening of its new exhibition rooms on the first floor of the theatre building with a special highlight. As its first special exhibition, the museum is showing works by the renowned ceramics master Jan Kollwitz. The artist was already a guest at the museum’s former location in Fasanenstraße, and now, as the great-grandson of our namesake, he has the honour of inaugurating the new exhibition rooms in the theatre building.

From July 5 to July 13, 2025, the exhibition presents expressive ceramics by the artist, accompanied by photographs taken in his workshop in the Holstein monastery village of Cismar on the Baltic Sea. These show him at work and offer insights into his creative world.

The presentation provides fascinating insights into traditional Japanese ceramic production techniques. Jan Kollwitz will be present in person for the entire duration of the exhibition and will be available for discussions – a great opportunity to get to know the artist.

Jan Kollwitz has been producing timeless ceramics in his studio in Cismar since 1988. The colours and glaze on the ceramics are created during the four-day firing in the Anagama wood kiln at temperatures above 1250 degrees Celsius.

The artist is one of the few German ceramicists who create a link between European ceramic art and Far Eastern traditions through transcultural approaches and the preservation of authentic firing techniques.

Jan Kollwitz first came into contact with Japanese works during his three-year apprenticeship with the well-known ceramist Horst Kerstan in Kandern in the Black Forest. It was here that the desire to learn this completely different approach from scratch matured. His path led him to Echizen, one of Japan’s traditional pottery towns, where he spent two years as an apprentice to master potter Yutaka Nakamura, which has had a formative influence on his artistic work to this day.

His works are represented internationally in important museum collections, including the Fine Arts Museum in Boston, the British Museum in London, the Grassi Museum in Leipzig and the Museo Nacional de Cerámica in Valencia.

Further information on the work of Jan Kollwitz: https://www.jankollwitz.de

On Sunday, July 13, 2025, at 11:00, the finissage will take place with a lecture by Jan Kollwitz. He will talk about the background to his work, the fascinating world of Japanese ceramics and his artistic passion.

With this special exhibition, we are also celebrating the birthdays of Käthe Kollwitz (8 July) and Jan Kollwitz (4 July).

“There are three things important to me in my life: that I have had children, that I have had such a faithful life companion, and my work.”

Käthe Kollwitz to her son, January 1926

from April 1, 2022 until the end of June 2022

The last months at the Fasanen­strasse 24 location have begun and the museum is saying good­bye with works by Käthe Kollwitz on all three ex­hibition floors. In addition to the chrono­logically presented show on the life and work of Käthe Kollwitz, which shows the four large print cycles of the artist on the first and third floors, a differentiated view of Kollwitz’s art is possible on the second floor.

With study sheets, pre­liminary drawings, and proofs, the museum provides an in­sight into the artist’s work­shop using the example of the “Gedenk­blatt für Karl Liebknecht” (In Memoriam Karl Liebknecht) and shows her intensive involve­ment with the technique of wood­cutting, which was new to her at the time.

The years after the First World War were marked by politi­cal conflicts and up­heavals. The need among the popu­lation was great and hunger was omni­present, especially in working-class families. Käthe Kollwitz began to get more in­volved in actions against hunger, war and poverty in the 1920s. She produced numerous posters and leaf­lets, in­cluding “Deutschlands Kinder hungern!” (Germany’s Children are Starving!) in 1923 as an appeal for donations for the Inter­nationale Arbeiter­hilfe Berlin (Inter­national Workers’ Aid Berlin) and the anti-war poster “Die Überlebenden” (The Survivors), published by the Inter­national Trade Union Confederation Amsterdam.

The artist had to pain­fully work out her clear stance against the war. At the out­break of war in the summer of 1914, she persuaded her hus­band to allow their younger son Peter, who was not yet of age, to become a war volun­teer. Many artists and intellec­tuals of the time joined in this war euphoria. For example, the gallery owner Paul Cassirer published a graphic magazine, “Kriegs­zeit – Künstler­flug­blätter”. Initially appearing weekly, the paper published literary texts and litho­graphs on the events of the war, which completely followed the official pronounce­ments on the war and its course. Renowned artists of the Berlin Secession such as Max Liebermann, August Gaul and Ernst Barlach contributed to the publi­cation. Käthe Kollwitz also contributed a litho­graph and thematized the female view of the events of the war. Her work “Das Bangen” depicts the sorrows of women who had to let sons, husbands and brothers go to war. The print was published in the 10th issue on October 28, 1914, a few days later Käthe and Karl Kollwitz were informed of the death of their son Peter.
In the studio exhibition, the museum shows a small selection of the artistic works for the “war time”, in­cluding Liebermann, Gaul and Barlach, as well as fellow artists Dora Hitz and Hedwig Weiß

In the graphics of this period, Käthe Kollwitz addressed the precarious economic situation of many women and mothers who tried to keep their heads above water by working from home or were even dependent on urban shelter.

In addition to the often worry­ing motifs, the artist was also inter­ested in the natural con­nection bet­ween mother and child – in loving together­ness, in every­day situations or while breast­feeding. Kollwitz brought the mother-child motif out of the two-dimensional drawing into the plastic, first in smaller groups of figures such as “Mother with Child over Her Shoulder” or “Woman with Child in Her Lap”, and finally in the large plastic group “Mother with Two Children”.

Family plays a major role in Käthe Kollwitz’s work, but portraits of her own family are less common. The artist’s works of her hus­band and siblings in her later years, which the museum presents together in the studio ex­hibition, are all the more im­pressive.

The artist repeatedly por­trayed herself, so that there are a large number of self-portraits in a wide variety of graphic techniques and from all phases of her life. In addition, Käthe Kollwitz also inspired other artists to deal with her physio­gnomy. On the occasion of the fare­well to Fasanenstrasse, the museum is showing portraits of the artist from its own collection, which others worked on of her. Among them is an im­pressive bust of Kollwitz by the sculptor Hans Breker, donated last summer by the artist’s daughter.

Film afternoon at the Kollwitz Museum

“The Adventures of Prince Achmed”
Saturday, March 19, 2022
at 16:30

Film screening is included in the admission price.
Limited number of participants – advance registration is requested.
(e-mail to info@kaethe-kollwitz.de or by phone 030 882 52 10
or you can conveniently book a time slot ticket via our homepage).

Film length: 66 minutes
The screening is subject to 3G regulations plus FFP2 mask obligation.

Postcard by Heinrich Zille, 1918, photograph © Stiftung Stadtmuseum Berlin

Special exhibition from November 6, 2021 till January 9, 2022

Though popular to this day, “Father Zille” still has a hard time proving that he deserves his place among serious artists. The joke-sheet illustrator and surveyor of milieus cultivated a reputation as an entertainer; this hurt the illustrator of Simplicissimus and the Lustige Blätter in the 1920s. Zille, creator of extraordinary sketches, had sunk into such obscurity that his appointment to the Academy of Arts in 1924 caused surprise and that a retrospective exhibition for his 70th birthday in 1928 introduced an unknown artist to most visitors.

Heinrich Zille first came to public attention as a freelance artist around 1900 when he participated in Berlin Secession exhibitions. His unsparing depictions of social misery closely hugged reality, and his drawings’ unusual style and composition immediately attracted the attention of critics. Prints and graphic editions published by Zille himself as well as his gallerist Fritz Gurlitt found their way to art lovers. However, Zille’s success with the general public, which continues to have an impact to this day, was achieved through witty drawings that dissolved his otherwise precise observations of social misery into many different stereotypical characters.

The exhibition thus focuses on subjects that closely resemble those in Käthe Kollwitz’s work: the marginalized and those who lost out from industrialization and urbanization. Themes such as prostitution, alcoholism, unemployment, child poverty, and precarious housing conditions drove both artists in equal measure. Unlike Kollwitz’s work, the tragedy of Zille’s depictions often threatens to fade among his laconic and humorous captions. The Käthe Kollwitz Museum Berlin would like to use this exhibition to bring this “duo of great skechers” (as Fritz Stahl coined them in 1928) into greater awareness.

Sheets depicting the milieu in great detail are accompanied by his restrained colored works, which amply demonstrate Zille’s technical refinement. The quick sketches, on the other hand, show his skill in grasping form and movement.

At the end of the 1920s, Käthe Kollwitz wrote: “There is more than one Zille: one of them made illustrations for joke-sheets, and the other — I favor this one — is neither a humorist nor a satirist, but entirely an artist.”

On display are more than 50 works from a private collection in Berlin, including early, elaborately reworked prints, color etchings, color drawings, and pencil sketches.

Berlin’s Käthe Kollwitz Museum will move into its new location at Charlottenburg Palace in early summer 2022. Heinrich Zille once lived across from its theater building, on Sophie-Charlotten-Strasse, from 1892 until his death in 1929. This exhibition is therefore also our first step towards our new location.