Fascination and misunderstanding. Käthe Kollwitz and Russia

Abstract

The article examines the phenomenon of enthusiasm about Russia and Russian culture in the life of the German artist Käthe Kollwitz. Speaking about the reasons for “Russian phenomenon” in the biography of Kollwitz, the author emphasizes the role of social and historical factors, such as: the impact of Protestantism, Julius Rupp and Free Evangelical community of Königsberg on Kollwitz; her sympathy to the ideals of social-democratic movement, the growth of revolutionary sentiment in Russia and Germany at the turn of 19th–20th centuries; the First World War and the October Revolution which provoked a worldwide wave of interest in the new Soviet Russia and its path. On the material of diaries and letters the evolution of Kollwitz’s relationship to the Russian mentality and socio-philosophical thought and in particular to the work of Gorky and the teachings of Leo Tolstoy is traced. The article shows a detailed view of Kollwitz’s dispute with Russian thinkers on ethics, faith and the meaning of life, perception of death, and the need for revolution. A side story is told about the contact of Kollwitz art with the world of Russian art and it is seen through the prism of the antinomies of Russian and German national aesthetics (soft and hard, formlessness and form, musicality and severity, and etc.). The author formulates the problem of mutual understanding between the two nations — Russian and German, alluding to the fact that charm is always accompanied by a misunderstanding. The latter is clearly evidenced by the history of the reception of the work of Kollwitz in the USSR, where she has long played the role of representative of «realism». However, according to the author, her work is more appropriate to consider in the context of the “austere style”. Refs 12.