{"id":14939,"date":"2026-02-19T23:05:43","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T22:05:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kaethe-kollwitz.berlin\/?p=14939"},"modified":"2026-02-26T15:00:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T14:00:10","slug":"stage-4-staging-the-masses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kaethe-kollwitz.berlin\/en\/theater\/stage-4-staging-the-masses\/","title":{"rendered":"Stage 4: Staging the masses"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row type=”vc_default” gap=”35″][vc_column width=”1\/4″][vc_single_image image=”14980″ img_size=”full” css=””][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”3\/4″][vc_column_text css=””]In 1910, director Max Reinhardt (1873\u20131943) realized his innovative and Europe-wide sensational concept of mass staging in Berlin for the first time with a production of Sophocles’ ancient tragedy \u201cOedipus Rex\u201d adapted by Hugo von Hofmannsthal (1874\u20131929). The play was staged in the arena of the Schumann Circus, thereby recalling the original amphitheater as a venue.<\/p>\n

K\u00e4the Kollwitz attended the premiere and, as she recorded in her diary, was deeply moved by its impact. Reinhardt experimented with a theatrical device that had interested the artist as a pictorial motif since her Peasants’ War cycle: the staging of crowds.<\/p>\n

Looking at Kollwitz’s later works depicting mothers in the context of war\u2014and comparing them with Reinhardt’s choreography of the people and the chorus as counterparts to \u201cOedipus Rex\u201d\u2014it becomes evident that this production likely inspired aspects of her own work.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row type=”vc_default” full_width=”stretch_row” gap=”35″ content_placement=”middle” css=”.vc_custom_1770821468858{background-color: #80152A !important;}”][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”” el_class=”white-h3 white-p”]<\/p>\n

exhibited works:<\/strong><\/h3>\n

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