LOS ANGELES, CA.- The end of World War I did not bring immediate peace to Germany. Dissatisfaction with the government and the military, along with the declaration of a German republic in November 1918, threw the nation into a state of civil war. Virtually overnight, factions formed across the political spectrum, all vying to determine the shape of the new republic. The radical leftist Spartacists, who founded a branch of the Communist Party in Germany in late 1918, made two attempts to overthrow the government and install leadership that would advocate chiefly for workers’ rights. Both uprisings, which began peacefully, erupted into street fighting that ended violently at the hands of state police. The unrest did not subside until the summer of 1919, when a coalition of parties, led by the Social Democrats, established the constitutional democracy known as the Weimar Republic, which would rule until the rise of the Third Reich in 1933.

The works on view demonstrate that battles fought on the street also raged in the world of images. Political organizations commissioned large-scale posters advocating their positions, while magazines printed woodcuts and lithographs, including many by wellknown Expressionists, alongside urgent political tracts. After the failed revolution, artists also took up the task of memorializing its martyrs and the socialist ideals that had perished with them. Their forceful prints immortalize the political fervor of the long winter of 1918–19 and offer compelling testimony of art’s unparalleled capacity to telegraph the energy and urgency of its time.

Political Posters
In the early months of the German republic, political factions vying for power launched extensive propaganda campaigns, plastering the streets of major cities with graphically arresting posters. Artists, politicians, and radicals alike believed in the power of images to persuade the public, and Expressionism, which remained the dominant artistic style at the end of World War I, proved an especially apt vehicle for vital messages about the fate of the nation.

A number of the posters on view were commissioned by the government agency known as the Werbedienst, or Publicity Office. Originally part of the Military Department of the Foreign Office, the agency later fell under the control of the Council of People’s Representatives and was run by Expressionist writer Paul Zech (1881–1946). The posters printed by the Werbedienst call for order and democratic process in direct response to Communist propaganda; Max Pechstein’s poster extolling the virtues of the democratically elected National Assembly counts among them. Many posters sponsored by the Werbedienst also appeal specifically to women—not just as sympathetic mothers, but also as newly enfranchised voters who could sway the outcome of national elections.

Die Aktion
Franz Pfemfert (1879–1954) founded the magazine Die Aktion (The Action) in 1911 to promote leftist politics as well as Expressionism in literature and visual art. Pfemfert published predominantly Expressionist writing before the outbreak of World War I, but his dedication to the artistic movement waned after the war, and the focus of the magazine shifted to politics. Around the time of the Spartacist uprising in 1919, the magazine even adopted a new subtitle—“Weekly Periodical for Revolutionary Socialism”—that made Pfemfert’s motivations clear. Despite his changing allegiances, Pfemfert continued to print original woodcuts (and mechanically reproduced lithographs) alongside polemical texts, remaining true to his conviction that art is a necessary complement to powerful ideas. Many of the images in Die Aktion are executed in an Expressionist style, with sharp lines accentuated by stark black-and-white printing, while others are crudely drawn political cartoons or more painterly lithographs.

Das Plakat
Published by the Verein der Plakatfreunde (Association of Friends of the Poster) and edited by Hans Sachs (1881–1974), the magazine Das Plakat (The Poster) featured richly illustrated articles on all manner of graphic design, from commercial advertising to book covers. Ideologically motivated design was a frequent subject. The July 1919 issue, for example, contains a lengthy editorial section on political posters, which coincided with the publication of the separate volume Das politische Plakat (The Political Poster). The book documented the flood of propaganda that appeared during World War I and the Communist revolution that followed. As the cover design by Cesar Klein illustrates, Das politische Plakat, which contained a forceful essay by art critic Adolf Behne (1885–1948), also advocated for the power of the poster to provoke group action and inspire political change.