“Everything was beautiful; the sky full of light, the green tender, everything mistyeyed. I felt Berlin, once again, as the hometown that I love: The castle, and behind it St. Mary’s Church. How long I’ve known all this — I saw it in 20 years of peace and in 4 years of war, and during the revolutionary period.”
Käthe Kollwitz, diaries, May 9, 1919
The Käthe Kollwitz Museum in Berlin was founded by the painter, art dealer, and collector Hans Pels-Leusden. The house opened in 1986 in Charlottenburg’s Fasanenstrasse, where it enjoyed 35 successful years in the neighborhood of the Literature House, galleries and auction houses. In September 2022, the Kollwitz Museum moved to the “Theaterbau” on Spandauer Damm, which offers larger and barrier-free spaces with opportunities for further development.
In 1993, the Neue Wache Unter den Linden was designated as the Central Memorial to the Victims of War and Tyranny of the Federal Republic of Germany following German reunification. “Woman with Dead Son”, a sculpture by Käthe Kollwitz from 1938, stands as a memorial and reminder in the building’s centre. “Kollwitz’s art attempted to save mankind’s image amidst an epoch of contempt for
humanity.” (Christoph Stölzl, 1993)
Karl and Käthe Kollwitz moved into an apartment at Weißenburger Straße 25 in Prenzlauer Berg as a young married couple in 1891. The artist’s workrooms and her husband’s medical practice were initially also housed there. Additional rooms in the house were later rented. In 1892 and 1896, their two sons Hans and Peter were born. For long periods of time, the Kollwitz couple provided for relatives and took in lodging guests. The house was destroyed by bombs in 1943.
Kollwitz initially worked at home for many years — it was not until 1912 that she rented a studio in the artist house Siegmundshof in the Hansa neighbourhood. In 1928, she was given two workrooms in the art academy at Hardenbergplatz, which she had to give up in 1934. Until 1940 she worked in the studio community Klosterstraße in Mitte before moving back to the apartment in Weißenburger Straße.
In 1919, Käthe Kollwitz became the first woman to be appointed to the Prussian Academy of Arts, which had its premises on Pariser Platz. For a long time, Kollwitz served on the Fine Arts Section’s exhibition commission, and she became director of the master class for graphic arts in 1928. The National-Socialists forced her to resign from the Academy in February 1933.
Several family members followed Karl and Käthe Kollwitz to Berlin, such as Karl’s sister Lisbeth, Käthe’s sister Lise, and her brother Konrad Schmidt. They visited each other frequently and went on trips to places such as Caputh and Werder in the countryside surrounding the city. They also visited the poet Gerhart Hauptmann, whom Kollwitz had known since 1886, in Erkner.
Friedrichsfelde Central Cemetery is home to the family tomb where Käthe Kollwitz’s brother, Konrad Schmidt, was laid to rest in 1932. After the death of her brother-inlaw Georg Stern, Kollwitz created the tomb relief “Rest in the Peace of His Hands” in 1936. In 1940, her husband Karl Kollwitz was buried here too. The ashes of Käthe Kollwitz, who died in Moritzburg in April 1945, were transferred here in the summer of 1945.
As early as 1947, Weißenburger Straße and the adjoining Wörther Platz were dedicated to Käthe Kollwitz. Her famous sculpture “Mother with Two Children” was initially placed in front of the ruins of her home. Today the group of figures can be found in Fröbelstraße. In 1958, the sculptor Gustav Seitz created a large Kollwitz monument for the square, a second version of which can be found in the Kollwitz
Museum.