BERLIN.- Democracy and diversity. When the First World War ended and the Emperor abdicated, the doors were thrown wide open to freedom and justice in Germany. Things were not easy for the fledgling democracy. The Novembergruppe, an association of artists formed in Berlin during the revolution of November 1918, grew rapidly to become a strong, innovative player in the world of art and the public arena of the Weimar Republic. With its pluralist concept, the association benefited from the government’s liberal policy on promoting the arts. Open to any style in the visual arts, as well as to architects, writers, composers and film-makers, the Novembergruppe was a platform for freedom, democracy and diversity. Artists did not have to join in order to take part. A bold commitment to modernism was enough.

Between 1919 and 1932 the Novembergruppe staged almost 40 exhibitions (some outside Berlin and even in other European countries), published numerous magazines and books and regularly organised concerts, readings, parties and fancy-dress balls. In this way the Novembergruppe became a prominent vehicle for modernist art, providing visibility and plenty to talk or argue about, not least among its own members. Radical aesthetics and the fun of experimentation were intended to broaden public perception, liberate art from its privileged milieus and support the new social order – but here the disruptive association seriously upset conservatives. When the Nazis took power, the Novembergruppe was finished. Not until 1969 were the achievements of the Novembergruppe rediscovered thanks to a book by the art historian Helga Kliemann. The group archives are still missing. The exhibition now on view at the Berlinische Galerie is founded on painstaking research in posthumous papers and publications of the time by the curator team Dr Janina Nentwig and Dr Ralf Burmeister.

With 119 works by 69 artists, including 48 paintings, 14 sculptures, 12 architect’s models and drawings, 27 prints and 5 films, the Berlinische Galerie is celebrating the centenary of this best-known of unknown creative communities and its response to dramatic times. This is the first-ever comprehensive retrospective devoted to this unconventional association of artists. Light is cast on the role it played in the Weimar Republic and how it engaged with democratic transformation within a deeply divided society. The exhibits (with a few exceptions) were either shown at Novembergruppe exhibitions or reproduced in its magazines. Alongside stellar avant-garde figures – Rudolf Belling, Otto Dix, Otto Freundlich, Walter Gropius, Georg Grosz, Hannah Höch, Paul Klee, El Lissitzky, Erich Mendelsohn, Piet Mondrian, Mies van der Rohe, Max Pechstein, Georg Scholz, Kurt Schwitters and others – Berlin’s museum of modern art, photography and architecture has plenty of discoveries and rediscoveries in store, among them Max Dungert, Walter Dexel, Paul Goesch, Hans Siebert von Heister, Oswald Herzog, Issai Kulvianski, Emy Roeder, Georg Tappert, Karl Völker and Ines Wetzel. Many of the works on show have been chosen from the holdings of the Berlinische Galerie, which boasts the world’s largest collection on the Novembergruppe.

Background to the birth of the Novembergruppe: “We stand on the fertile soil of the revolution. Our motto is: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity!” declared the first few lines in a manifesto drafted by the Novembergruppe just after its foundation in the heady days of insurgency. The association owed its name to the epochal events of that November, while its slogan was borrowed from the French Revolution, invoked as history’s crown witness to endorse the political upheaval in Germany. “The miracle was that, with few exceptions, everyone felt part of one community, morally committed to believing that there is good in people and to creating the best of all possible worlds” wrote the art historian Will Grohmann about the collective will to start afresh after the imperial monarchy collapsed. These painters, sculptors and architects wished to see the “closest possible mingling of the people and art” – and they threw their weight behind this task in numerous exhibitions. Although the group guidelines drawn up in early January 1919 did not call for reforms to the social fabric in general, the association did lay claim to an influence and involvement in public affairs wherever the arts were concerned, in particular the award of building contracts, the allocation of exhibition space and reforms to the colleges and museums and to art legislation. These demands were aimed at democratising the public world of art and dismantling traditional privileges, such as those granted under the Kaiser to the Prussian Academy of Arts, which had been placed in charge of managing official exhibitions under the Empire. Over time, the Novembergruppe did not sustain its pursuit of these cultural policy demands, especially as reforming the arts in the young republic remained firmly in the hands of civil servants and politicians. The practical activities undertaken by the association unfolded without party-political affiliations, and throughout its existence it refused to be exploited for such ends. In the period until 1932, the Novembergruppe presented some 3,000 works by more than 480 artists, including about 200 members.

The liberating energies of the new art – The Novembergruppe’s first exhibitions reflected the euphoria of new beginnings, dominated by a mix of styles that had already emerged before the war: Cubism, Futurism and Expressionism. The provocative potential of this new art was reflected in, for example, physical attacks on exhibits by members of the public.

Dada and scandal – In 1920 Dadaist works incurred the displeasure of the press and political chain of command. The next year disputable works, including by Otto Dix, were removed from the Novembergruppe section. This prompted accusations within the association that it was tolerating censorship and betraying revolutionary aims. Despite resignations, the association emerged stronger from this crisis.

Abstraction and objectivity – From the outset the association sought to revive contacts with the European avant-garde that had been stifled by the war. From 1923 onwards its exhibitions placed a clear emphasis on the latest abstract trends and on ground-breaking figurative styles – long before the celebrated exhibition at the Kunsthalle in Mannheim in 1925 where such works entered the canon as ‘New Objectivity’.

New architecture – In 1924 the architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe took over the chair of the Novembergruppe. In the next few years architects held sway in the association, presenting visionary projects and pioneering buildings in the new international style known in Germany as ‘Neues Bauen’.

An enforced ending – From 1930 the Novembergruppe crumbled. In 1932, at the last exhibition before the Nazis seized power, only four artists took part. Most former members were later discredited as “degenerate” and their works removed from public collections. Many were persecuted and forced into exile, a few joined the Nazi party, some retreated into the solitude of ‘inner emigration’.