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Known for his modern approach to music, Arnold Schönberg was one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. His greatest contributions to music include the twelve tone technique and atonality. Schönberg had a strong influence on the composers that followed him, especially Alban Berg and Anton Webern. 1913 was a pivotal year in Schönberg's career, as his work was featured in the infamous Skandalkonzert.

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Arguably the most influential author of the 20th century, Franz Kafka is well known for his writing, which explored the themes of alienation, guilt, and modern life.

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On March 31, 1913, the Skandalkonzert took place at the Great Hall of the Musikverein in Vienna. The concert featured work by composers from the Second Viennese school, a school led by Schönberg. This concert is notorious for the audience's reaction to the music, as they did not take well to Schönberg's experimental approach. According to The Year Before the Storm, Schönberg stopped the orchestra, warning the audience that "he will have any trouble-makers removed by force." Pandemonium ensued, as one conductor was "challenged to a duel," and the police had to turn the lights off in order to stop the fighting (Illies, 76).

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The Skandalkonzert (“scandal concert”) was a concert conducted by Arnold Schoenberg, held on 31 March 1913. The concert was held by the Vienna Concert Society in the Great Hall of the Musikverein in Vienna. The concert consisted of music by composers of the Second Viennese School.

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Here is a picture that I drew of Gregor Samsa, based on a close reading of The Metamorphosis.

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Although it was published in 1915, Kafka began working on The Metamorphosis in 1912. The Metamorphosis tells the story of Gregor Samsa, a traveling salesman who wakes up and finds himself in the form of a giant insect. Samsa's transformation reflects his alienation from society and his family. The themes Kafka presents in The Metamorphosis represent broader feelings of the time, as Germany was in a period of rapid industrialization. Many German citizens experienced the same feelings of helplessness that Samsa endures in the story.

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Published in 1913, The Judgment details the story of Georg Bendemann, a young man struggling with an overcontrolling father. The story ends in a tragic scene, where Georg's father calls him a "devilish human being" and sentences him to "death by drowning." The main theme of the story, paternal authority, reflects Kafka's personal struggles in his relationship with his own father. The themes presented in The Judgment reflect broader concerns of the time, as people began to question traditional hierarchies and authority in the early 20th century.

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A man’s discussion with his father about a letter to his friend in Russia erupts into a confrontation about their father-son relationship.

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In 1913, Kafka was involved in a long-distance relationship with Felice Bauer. In writing to Bauer, Kafka expressed his feelings of inadequacy and guilt, common themes in his writing. According to 1913: The Year Before the Storm, "Once when there hadn't been a word from Felice for a few days, after waking from unsettled dreams, in desperation he [Kafka] desperately started work on Metamorphosis" (Illies, 8). This relationship had a strong influence on Kafka's writing and motivated him to produce some of his most famous stories throughout 1913, including The Judgment. The linked PDF is my first response paper from the beginning of the semester, which compares and contrasts The Judgment and Dearest Father, both written by Kafka.

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Kafka's works are essential to German culture, and he has deeply influenced German authors and philosophers. His writings foreshadowed the dehumanization of the Nazi regime. In Kafka's The Trial, the main character is wrongfully persecuted for a crime he is not aware of. This unfair treatment by the government mirrors the Nazi's actions against the Jewish population during the Holocaust. Beyond Germany, Kafka's work continues to inspire writers to this day. The linked paper examines Kafka's influence on Albert Camus' The Outsider.

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The Absurdity of Existence: Franz Kafka and Albert Camus - Yale University Press

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Absurdist literature is notoriously difficult to read. Take, for example, Kafka’s short story, “The Metamorphosis,” in which the main character turns into a giant cockroach. Critics have produced countless different... READ MORE

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Composed between the years of 1930 and 1932, Moses Und Aron is widely considered one of Schönberg's greatest works.

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From 1903 to 1925, Schönberg lived and taught at The Second Viennese School. Here, Schönberg deviated from the original tonal system and music, developing the atonal system. Atonal music has no central key, which gives composers more freedom to express a wide range of emotions. Schönberg's most notable students, Alban Berg and Anton Webern, also made significant contributions to music.

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What came after Mozart? Learn about the Second Viennese School and how this new way of thinking shaped composers for years to come.

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For part of our classwork, we were tasked with listening to two concerts featuring Schönberg's music. I have attached my response paper to these concerts, where I describe the difference between the musical pieces performed in the concerts and the difference between the two orchestras. In this paper, I also reflect on the Skandalkonzert and explore the role technology plays in my experience of attending the concert. This experience made me more knowledgeable of Schönberg's style of music and helped me understand why his work was so influential.

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Pablo Picasso was a highly influential Spanish painter throughout the early 20th century. As co founder of the Cubist movement, Picasso constantly evolved his art style, challenging traditional techniques. In February of 1913, Picasso's art was featured in New York's Armory Show, introducing modern art to a large audience.

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Berhnard Kellermann was a well known German author during the early 1900s. In April of 1913, he published his most famous novel, Der Tunnel.

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Co-founded by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, the Cubist movement took place during the early 20th century. Cubism involves depicting objects from multiple perspectives rather than a single viewpoint. The ideas and techniques of Cubism laid the foundation for many other modernist art movements, including: constructivism, futurism, and neo-plasticism.

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Kellermann's Der Tunnel tells the story of Mac Allan, an engineer with the idea of constructing a tunnel from Europe to New York. 1913: The Year Before the Storm describes the story as "science fiction mixed with with realism, social criticism with engineering romanticism, capitalist belief in progress with wearily apocalyptic fantasy" (Illies, 96). In 1915, Der Tunnel, a silent drama film inspired by the book, was released, and it remains one of the best films produced in the early 1900s. According to 1913: The Year Before the Storm, 10,000 copies of the book were sold within 4 weeks, and 100,000 after just six months, which is extremely impressive considering the time period. The success of Der Tunnel is a testament to Kellermann's understanding of "the passion for progress that characterizes the era he lives in" (Illies, 96).

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On February 17th, 1913, the Armory Show, "one of the most important art exhibitions of the century" opened. According to The Year Before the Storm, it led to the global "supremacy of modern art" (Illies, 39). The Armory Show officially introduced modern art to an American audience, and marked the beginning of the acceptance of modern art in the U.S. Many of Picasso's Cubist works were featured in the show, including Woman With Mustard Pot.

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LES Collection is a new concept gallery showcasing a curated and eclectic selection of contemporary and vintage art and design from around the world.

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The Cornerstone Imprint of Kandinsky
in the History of Abstract Art

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Within Germany and worldwide, Picasso has a profound legacy. Picasso's influence on German artists can be observed in the work of Wassily Kandinsky, a prominent figure in the Bauhaus movement. According to Dr. Samah Nassar, Kandinsky was "inspired by Picasso’s style and the creative treatment of geometrical shapes and forms" (Nassar, 4). Globally, Picasso's impact has extended far beyond his lifetime. His revolutionary ideas have inspired countless contemporary artists, like David Hockney and Andy Warhol.

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Published in 1920, Der 9 November was Kellermann's most controversial book. Kellermann's writing was inspired by the events of WWI and the November Revolution of 1918. He was highly critical of the German soldiers and officials behavior against the people, which resulted in the book's public burning and banning by the Nazis.

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Books by Bernhard Kellermann on Google Play

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Bernhard Kellermann (1879-1951) was a German author and poet. Beginning in 1904 he built a reputation as a novelist with early works such as “Yester and Li,” “The Fool,” and “Ingeborg,” which reached extraordinary success. After journeys in the United States and Japan, he wrote “Das Meer” (The Sea), made into film by Peter Paul Felner. His main work was “Der Tunnel” in 1913, which became one of the most successful books of the first half of the 20th Century and was translated into 25 languages. The book has been adapted to film four times. His critical novel “The Ninth November,” about the behavior of soldiers and officers in relation to the people, was banned and burned publicly by the Nazis. Kellermann’s commitment in the postwar years to East Germany caused a boycott of West German booksellers. Shortly before his death in 1951 he rallied the writers of both German states to push for unified deliberations.

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Founder of the Expressionist Movement and leader of Die Brucke, Ernst Lüdwig Kirchner is one of the most significant artists in German history.

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Kellermann's significance extends beyond his success in science fiction writing. Kellermann's criticism of German officials was very brave, especially considering the time period he lived in. Despite being pressured into serving the Third Reich after Der 9 November was banned, Kellermann would maintain his morals, refusing to write racist brochures. Though there is much existing research on Kellermann, it is safe to say he was one of the most important German authors of the 20th century.

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Bernhard Kellermann was a German novelist particularly known for his book Der Tunnel (The Tunnel). He was also a war correspondent and journalist during World War I.

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Painted in 1911, "Sleeping Milly" remains one of Kirchner's most controversial works. Much of Kirchner's work in the early 1900s featured nude women as models. In the case of "Sleeping Milly", Kirchner's portrayal of the model is very objectifying. Art from this time period didn't normally feature Black women, especially not in this way which contains racist stereotypes. Over time, paintings like "Sleeping Milly" have had a major impact on the way we view Kirchner and his work.

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In 1905, Kirchner formed a group of four German artists named Die Brücke. The formation of Die Brücke marks the beginning of the Expressionist Movement. Expressionist art intended to convey emotional experiences, rather than physical reality. Although Expressionism died down after 1920, it was officially put to an end in 1933, when the Nazi's deemed the art "degenerate", banning the publication of Expressionist art. The linked article explores pushback against the Expressionist movement in greater detail.

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The first quarter of the 20th century is marked by the greatness of German art. Even before the outbreak of the First World War, Expressionism was born in Germany, with its main notion of a subjective and emotional approach to reality expressed in works of art full of high formal tension. The chaos of the interwar period and Hitler's ascent to power, however, turned avant-garde artists into a major enemy of supporters of the Nazi vision of art, pure in terms of race and culture. That hostility resulted in a 1937 propaganda exhibition entitled Degenerate Art.

In the early 20th century, Berlin eclipsed Paris, which had previously been the centre of European artistic life, becoming a new dynamic centre of modern art. The art-focused periodical Der Sturm was published and exhibitions organised featuring German artists setting new trends in visual arts as well as Italian Futurists or French Cubists. The first quarter of the 20th century was when German Expressionism was born, a current in art, literature and the cinema which was the most emotional manifestation of the unrest of the day.

The atmosphere of decadence accompanying the turn of the centuries was soon to morph into a sense of a civilisation in crisis and anxiety related to the unstable political situation which was ultimately to lead to the First World War. As a result of such a great transformation, artists began to create in a much more expressive fashion - hence the current's name - more intimately and directly. In 1905, a group called The Bridge (Die Brücke) was founded in Dresden with such members as Erich Heckel and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, the leading representatives of German Expressionism in painting. A few years later, in 1911, a group called The Blue Rider (Der Blaue Reiter) was formed in the Munich milieu around Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc.

The atmosphere of decadence accompanying the turn of the centuries was soon to morph into a sense of a civilisation in crisis and anxiety related to the unstable political situation which was ultimately to lead to the First World War.

Both championed art renewal and radically rejected the 'too correct' bourgeois aesthetics. According to the Expressionists, the form of the work was not meant to please the beholder but shake them and awake deep emotions. The Expressionist painting is not a representation of reality but its subjective vision filtered through the artist's sensitivity. From the world and one's environment, one should highlight what is most true and important, thus instead of polishing the contours of reality the Expressionists applied thick, dynamic lines, replaced mild transitions between light and shadow with intensive, contrasting hues, and idealisation with brutal deformation. The more the work of art struck with rattling colour compositions and the ugliness of glaring forms, the better it reflected the strength and suggestive nature of the creator, which mattered most.

The thematic spectrum of Expressionist works was broad, from explosive energetic outdoor nudes by Heckel and Schmidt-Rottluff, through dark portraits of Berlin streets painted by Kirchner to Kandinsky's landscapes and vedute full of tension. The liberation of line and colour gave a new expressive face to the reality of the early 20th century.

Still, the avant-garde creations of the Expressionists failed to meet with much approval by the public. Quite the opposite, in the Weimar Republic torn by crisis and mounting political tensions, it found many critics, including the leaders of the National Socialist Party. Once Hitler came to power in 1933, Expressionism was already openly branded as an art hostile to the nation, opposing the Nazi notion of pure race and too far removed from the style of Neoclassicism considered a form of perfection (e.g. Arno Breker's sculptures). Consequently, Expressionism was seen as a distorted art, thus joining other avant-garde currents condemned by the Nazis for deforming reality and destroying classic models of beauty. The 'black list' of the authorities also featured Dadaism, Fauvism, Cubism and certain variations of Futurism.

The first attempts at fighting with the experimenting artists had already taken place in Germany in 1927 when the Militant Association for German Culture (Kampfbund für deutsche Kultur) was set up in Munich headed by Alfred Rozenberg, the leading ideologue of the NSDAP. However, the height of the Nazis' hatred towards modern art came a decade later. In 1937, also in Munich, a propaganda exhibition was staged as ordered by Joseph Goebbels, revealingly entitled Degenerate Art (Entartete Kunst), featuring works by over a hundred modern artists, mainly of Jewish origin and leftist views. The showing of their art in such an unambiguous context was intended as a means of humiliation and a branding of avant-garde artists as well as manipulating society by fanning anti-Semitic sentiments and aggression towards the groups responsible for the 'decomposition of German culture.' The organisational committee led by Adolf Ziegler, Hitler's favourite painter, confiscated over 17,000 works of art from public collections, only a small percentage of which were ultimately reinstated, with the rest destroyed or sold off abroad. That was a planned action by the authorities aimed at 'purifying' German museums of degenerate art. The artists were persecuted and had no right to exhibit or even create and were threatened with serious consequences.

Interestingly, in parallel with that 1937 exhibition, another one was staged in Munich, called The First Great Exhibition of German Art, intended as a manifestation of the superiority of Nazi art over the unnatural avant-garde creations. Yet it was Degenerate Art that drew a much larger audience and after its closure some of the exhibits were shown in several other German and Austrian towns (it remained in circulation until 1941). The action of the Nazi authorities paradoxically increased the visibility of Expressionism and other modern currents they condemned. After 1945, artistic avant-garde regained the place it deserves in art history as well as in German museums.

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Expressionism and the 1937 Degenerate Art Exhibition: Nazism vs Modern Art - Hi-Story Lessons

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In the early 20th century, Berlin eclipsed Paris, which had previously been the centre of European artistic life, becoming a new dynamic centre of modern art. T

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According to 1913: The Year Before the Storm, Die Brücke dissolved "once and for all" in May, 1913. The formal letter of dissolution received signatures from all four group members except for Kirchner (Illies, 114). Ultimately, the group split up because Kirchner depicted himself as the leader of Die Brücke in one of his works, which the other members felt was egocentric. Despite ending on bad terms, Die Brücke was essential to the success of the Expressionist Movement. The linked website contains some of the most important work produced by the group.

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Summary of Die Brücke

Progenitors of the movement later known as German Expressionism, Die Brücke formed in Dresden in 1905 as a bohemian collective of artists in staunch opposition to the older, established bourgeois social order of Germany. Their art confronted feelings of alienation from the modern world by reaching back to pre-academic forms of expression including woodcut prints, carved wooden sculptures, and "primitive" modes of painting. This quest for authentic emotion led to an expressive style characterized by heightened color and a direct, simplified approach to form.

Key Ideas & Accomplishments

Die Brücke is typically seen as the fountainhead of German Expressionism, chronologically the first of two groups (the other being Der Blaue Reiter) that pushed German modern art onto the international avant-garde scene.

None of the four founding members of Die Brücke, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Fritz Bleyl, Erich Heckel, and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, had received any formal education in the visual arts. They stressed the value of youth and intuition in escaping the intellectual cul-de-sac of academic thought focused on copying earlier models.

The name Die Brücke was chosen to indicate the group's desire to "bridge" the past and present. From the past, they chose to reassert Germany's rich artistic history, taking inspiration from the print and painting techniques of Albrecht Dürer, Matthias Grünewald, and Lucas Cranach the Elder. Developing the modern example of expressive colorists like Vincent van Gogh, Edvard Munch, and Henri Matisse, sharp and sometimes violently clashing colors are often used in Die Brücke painting to jolt the viewer into the experience of a particular emotion.

For the artists of Die Brücke, escaping the academy was part of a larger mission to escape the strictures of modern middle-class life. Nudity and explorations of free sexuality in their work (in domestic interiors and in nature) are often contrasted with images of the city, where human interaction is uncomfortably negotiated through prescribed social attitudes.

Overview of Die Brücke

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Progenitors of the movement later known as German Expressionism, Die Brücke formed in Dresden in 1905 as a bohemian collective of artists in staunch opposition to the older, established bourgeois social order of Germany. Their art confronted feelings of alienation from the modern world by reaching back to pre-academic forms of expression including woodcut prints, carved wooden sculptures, and "primitive" modes of painting.

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Kirchner will always be remembered as a pioneer of the Expressionist movement. In recent time, however, many people have come to view Kirchner as both sexist and racist. This is primarily due to the way he has objectified women in many of his works, as we observed in "Sleeping Milly". The linked article further explores the impacts of the Expressionist Movement.

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* 27 / 02 / 2019

Beginning in the early 20th century, the German Expressionist movement had a significant and enduring influence on art and culture. Expressionism, which was defined by its audacious, intense artwork, rejected the limitations of realism and aimed to communicate unfiltered, subjective experiences. We will examine the impact of the German Expressionist movement on a range of artistic mediums and cultural phenomena in this blog.
German Expressionism's beginnings
German Expressionism emerged in the early 1900s as a reaction to the turbulent social, political, and cultural shifts that Germany was experiencing at the time. The goal of expressionist art was to reject conventional conventions and artistic styles in favor of raw, honest communication of inner feelings and thoughts.
Important Features of German Expressionism
Vibrant, non-naturalistic colors and distorted shapes were employed by expressionist painters to elicit a strong reaction from the audience and communicate emotional intensity.

Subjectivity and Emotion: Expressionist art frequently emphasized personal experience and an uneasy feeling by reflecting the inner thoughts, feelings, and worries of the artists.

Rejecting Realism: Expressionism chose to depict reality in a distorted, stylized, and highly subjective manner rather than accurately replicating the outside world.

Social and Political Commentary: A lot of Expressionist art tackled important social and political themes of the day, frequently emphasizing the chaos, hopelessness, and alienation that pervaded society.
Impact on Art
Visual Arts: Painting and sculpture were significantly influenced by the German Expressionist movement. Egon Schiele, Wassily Kandinsky, and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner were among the artists who created emotionally charged, arresting works that went against the conventions of traditional art.

Woodcuts and Graphics: The popularization of linocuts, woodcuts, and other graphic techniques was greatly aided by expressionism. Artists were able to focus on contrast and emotional depth while producing strong, bold images thanks to these graphic forms.
Impact on Literary Works
Expressionist Poetry: Expressionism had a significant impact on literature, especially poetry. Expressionist poets such as Georg Trakl and Gottfried Benn portrayed the disorder and confusion of contemporary life by using language to elicit strong emotions.

Drama and Theater: Productions that were abstract, surreal, and highly emotive were hallmarks of Expressionist theater. Dramatic devices and experimental staging were frequently employed by playwrights such as Georg Kaiser and Ernst Toller to explore themes of alienation and social critique.
Impact on Cinema
German Expressionist Film: The influence of German Expressionism on film is arguably one of its most recognizable aftereffects. German Expressionist cinema, which is distinguished by its use of stark lighting, distorted sets, and intense visual storytelling, was influenced by this movement.

Iconic Films: Two notable works of German Expressionist film are F.W. Murnau's "Nosferatu" (1922), a vampire horror classic, and Robert Wiene's "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" (1920), praised for its twisted sets and psychological horror.
Impact on Cultural
Commentary on Society and Politics: German Expressionism was not limited to the fields of art and culture. As artists and intellectuals shared their opinions on the turbulent times, which included World War I and the Weimar Republic, it also had a big impact on social and political commentary.

Effect on Subsequent Movements: The Expressionist movement cleared the path for later artistic and cultural movements like Theater of the Absurd and Abstract Expressionism.
In summary
Despite its brief existence, the German Expressionist movement had a profound impact on art and society, encouraging a new generation of creators and intellectuals to delve deeply into the realms of social criticism, subjective experience, and human emotion. Its influence extends beyond the visual arts.

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The Influence of the German Expressionist Movement on Art and Culture | UNIABROAD

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UNIABROAD is a technology driven overseas education company for all Overseas Education Requirements managed by international education experts. We at UNIABROAD believe in ambitions & dreams of every student and function to turn them into a reality.

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One of the most influential figures in the field of psychology, Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist born in 1856. Freud is well known for founding psychoanalysis, which explores the relationship between the conscious and unconscious mind.

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Experimenting with hypnosis, Freud created a new type of psychological treatment in the late 1890's. He would have patients talk about whatever was on the mind uncensored, including: memories, dreams, thoughts, emotions, and more. Freud would analyze this information in order to treat the patients. Freud also went on to conduct a self-analysis on his own mind, allowing him to further develop his psychoanalytical theory. The linked article provides a deeper look at psychoanalytical theory, exploring the concepts of Rorschach inkblots, Freudian Slip, Free Association, and Transference Analysis.

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3) Free Association

A key part of learning to conduct psychoanalytic psychotherapy involves developing skills and techniques aimed at accessing and understanding unconscious processes.

This includes facilitating the client's free association, where the client expresses whatever thoughts or feelings come to mind without censorship. As unconscious ideas and emotions emerge, the therapist helps the client explore and make meaning of them.

Free association is a psychoanalytic term used to describe the free association of ideas that can give an insight into the unconscious mind of the patient.

In free association, the patient is encouraged to speak freely and to verbalize anything that comes to mind. In this way the patient may be able to bring content to the surface that has previously been censored by the ego.

This technique involves a therapist giving a word or idea, and the patient immediately responds in an unconstrained way with the first word that comes to mind. The analyst then offers an interpretation of the relationship observed.

It is hoped that fragments of repressed memories will emerge in the course of free association, giving an insight into the unconscious mind.

Free association may not prove useful if the client shows resistance, and is reluctant to say what he or she is thinking.

On the other hand, the presence of resistance (e.g., an excessively long pause) often provides a strong clue that the client is getting close to some important repressed idea in his or her thinking, and that further probing by the therapist is called for.

Freud reported that his free-associating patients occasionally experienced such an emotionally intense and vivid memory that they almost relived the experience. This is like a "flashback" from a war or a rape experience.

Such a stressful memory, so real it feels like it is happening again, is called an abreaction. If such a disturbing memory occurred in therapy or with a supportive friend and one felt better-relieved or cleansed-later, it would be called a catharsis.

Frequently, these intensely emotional experiences provided Freud a valuable insight into the patient's problems.

4) Dream Analysis

According to Freud, the analysis of dreams is "the royal road to the unconscious." He argued that the conscious mind is like a censor, but it is less vigilant when we are asleep.

In dream analysis, the analyst attempts to unravel and interpret the symbolic nature of the patient's dreams. The true concerns of the patient are often disguised in their dreams and may be experienced symbolically, i.e. they dream about something that represents their concern, rather than dreaming directly about the concern itself. The true concerns of the patient are often disguised in this symbolic form to protect the conscious mind from developing full awareness of the underlying concern.

As a result, repressed ideas come to the surface - though what we remember may well have been altered during the dream process.

As a result, we need to distinguish between the manifest content and the latent content of a dream. The former is what we actually remember.

The latter is what it really means. Freud believed that very often the real meaning of a dream had a sexual significance and in his theory of sexual symbolism, he speculates on the underlying meaning of common dream themes.

5) Transference Analysis

Another core technique is examining transference, which refers to how the client relates to the therapist in ways that unconsciously reflect early important relationships, and countertransference, the therapist's own unconscious reactions to the client that can give insight into the therapeutic relationship dynamics.

So, trainees learn to attend carefully to the emotional interchanges within the therapy relationship as a source of insight into both parties' unconscious relational patterns stemming from their developmental histories.

Of key importance in psychoanalytic therapy is transference. Freud had originally noticed that his patients sometimes felt and acted toward him as if he were an important person from the patient's past.

Sometimes, these feelings were positive, but sometimes they were negative and hostile. Freud assumed these were relics of attitudes held toward these important persons in the patient's past.

Freud felt that this transference was an inevitable aspect of psychoanalysis, and used it to explain to patients the childhood origins of many of the concerns and fears.

In psychoanalysis, transference is seen as essential to a complete cure. Analysts use the fact that transference is developing as a sign that an important repressed conflict is nearing the surface.

Countertransference

In psychoanalysis, countertransference refers to the emotional reactions and unconscious biases a therapist might have towards a patient, often influenced by the therapist's own past experiences or unresolved feelings.

It's the therapist's emotional response to the patient's transference.

Clinical Applications

Psychoanalysis (along with Rogerian humanistic counseling) is an example of a global therapy (Comer, 1995, p. 143) which has the aim of helping clients bring about a major change in their whole perspective on life.

This rests on the assumption that the current maladaptive perspective is tied to deep-seated personality factors. Global therapies stand in contrast to approaches which focus mainly on a reduction of symptoms, such as cognitive and behavioral approaches, so-called problem-based therapies.

Psychoanalytic therapy has been seen as appropriate mainly for the neurotic disorders (e.g. anxiety and eating disorders) rather than for psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia. It is also used for depression although its effectiveness in this area is more questionable because of the apathetic nature of the depressive patients.

A related problem is the greater likelihood of transference in depressive patients undergoing psychoanalysis. They are likely to show extreme dependency upon important people in their life (including their therapist) and more likely to develop transference (Comer, 1995).

Anxiety disorders such as phobias, panic attacks, obsessive-compulsive disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder are obvious areas where psychoanalysis might be assumed to work.

The aim is to assist the client in coming to terms with their own id impulses or to recognize the origin of their current anxiety in childhood relationships that are being relived in adulthood. Svartberg and Stiles (1991) and Prochaska and DiClemente (1984) point out that the evidence for its effectiveness is equivocal.

Salzman (1980) suggests that psychodynamic therapies generally are of little help to clients with specific anxiety disorders such as phobias or OCDs but may be of more help with general anxiety disorders.

Salzman (1980) expresses concerns that psychoanalysis may increase the symptoms of OCDs because of the tendency of such clients to be overly concerned with their actions and to ruminate on their plight (Noonan, 1971).

Comer also suggests that psychoanalysis may not be appropriate for patients suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder in that it may inadvertently increase their tendency to over-interpret events in their life.

Depression may be treated with a psychoanalytic approach to some extent. Psychoanalysts relate depression back to the loss every child experiences when realizing our separateness from our parents early in childhood. An inability to come to terms with this may leave the person prone to depression or depressive episodes in later life.

Treatment then involves encouraging the client to recall that early experience and to untangle the fixations that have built up around it. Particular care is taken with transference when working with depressed clients due to their overwhelming need to be dependent on others.

The aim is for clients to become less dependent and to develop a more functional way of understanding and accepting loss/rejection/change in their lives.

Shapiro and Emde (1991) report that psychodynamic therapies have been successful only occasionally. One reason might be that depressed people may be too inactive or unmotivated to participate in the session. In such cases a more directive, challenging approach might be beneficial.

Another reason might be that depressives may expect a quick cure and as psychoanalysis does not offer this, the client may leave or become overly involved in devising strategies to maintain a dependent transference relationship with the analyst.

Critical Evaluation

Therapy is very time-consuming and is unlikely to provide answers quickly.

People must be prepared to invest a lot of time and money into the therapy; they must be motivated.

They might discover some painful and unpleasant memories that had been repressed, which causes them more distress.

This type of therapy does not work for all people and all types of disorders.

The nature of Psychoanalysis creates a power imbalance between therapist and client that could raise ethical issues.

There has been criticism in recent years that if psychoanalysis is of benefit to people, it is only of benefit to those who possess certain qualities. The acronym YAVIS has been used to indicate that patients who are young, attractive, verbal, intelligent, and successful would be the ones most likely to benefit from psychoanalysis.

Few studies appear to support the first three of these suggestions, although as well as the latter two suggestions there is evidence that psychoanalysis also works best with those clients who are highly motivated and have a positive attitude towards therapy.

Eysenck (1952) delivered the most damaging indictment of psychoanalysis when he reviewed studies of therapeutic outcomes for neurotic patients. He found that about half recovered within two years. What was so damning for psychoanalysis was that for similar patients who received no treatment at all (waiting list controls), the figure was about two thirds.

Critics of Eysenck's findings discovered that he had made a number of arbitrary judgements about 'recoveries' that were unfavorable to the groups that received psychoanalytic treatments.

Bergin (1971) found that by selecting different outcome criteria, improvement in the psychoanalytically treated group rose to 83% whilst the percentage of control group patients showing significant improvement dropped to 30%.

Fisher and Greenberg (1977), in a review of the literature, conclude that psychoanalytic theory cannot be accepted or rejected as a package, "it is a complete structure consisting of many parts, some of which should be accepted, others rejected and the others at least partially reshaped."

Eysenck's claims against the effectiveness of psychoanalysis showed the difficulties of evaluation in this area. Individual differences in patients and therapists, and the relationship between them, might confound attempts to measure the effectiveness of a particular type of treatment. Measuring the outcome of treatment may also present problems in defining what is meant by 'cure'.

Corsini and Wedding (1995, 2013) claim that, depending on the criteria involved, estimates of 'cure' as a result of psychoanalysis range from 30% to 60%.

Although changes in the occurrence of symptoms might be a suitable way of measuring the effectiveness of behaviorist techniques, the effectiveness of psychoanalytic therapy, which typically spans several years, is more subjective, measurable only by the extent to which the clients themselves feel that their condition has improved .

Fonagy (1981) questions whether attempts to validate Freud's approach through laboratory tests have any validity themselves.

Freud's theory questions the very basis of a rationalist, scientific approach and could well be seen as a critique of science, rather than science rejecting psychoanalysis because it is not susceptible to refutation.

The case study method is criticized as it is doubtful that generalizations can be valid since the method is open to many kinds of bias (e.g., Little Hans).

However, psychoanalysis is concerned with offering interpretations to the current client, rather than devising abstract dehumanized principles.

Anthony Storr (1987), the well-known psychoanalyst appearing on TV and Radio 4's "All in the Mind", holds the view that whilst a great many psychoanalysts have a wealth of "data" at their fingertips from cases, these observations are bound to be contaminated with subjective personal opinion and should not be considered scientific.

Neo Freudians

Subsequent psychoanalytic theorists built upon but also challenged Freud's drive theory.

Object relations theory shifted focus to relationships and attachment, with key figures like Melanie Klein, Donald Winnicott, and John Bowlby emphasizing how internal working models of self/other based on early caretaker relationships shape personality and relational patterns.

Harry Stack Sullivan and interpersonal psychoanalysis highlighted social and cultural factors influencing mental health. Heinz Kohut's self-psychology focused on empathy, attunement, and disorders of the self like narcissism.

Intersubjective and relational psychoanalysis theories view the client's and therapist's subjectivities as co-created in an intersubjective field, with attention to enactments and dissociated self states, especially for trauma survivors.

Attachment Theory vs Psychoanalysis

Attachment theory, developed by John Bowlby, and psychoanalytic theory, developed by Sigmund Freud, offer complementary perspectives on human development and relationships.

While attachment theory reacted against some psychoanalytic views, like drive theory, the two approaches converge on many topics. Both see early childhood experiences as shaping internal models that influence adult relationships and behavior.

Attachment research provides empirical evidence that unresolved issues from childhood perpetuate across generations, a key psychoanalytic claim. Concepts like internal working models and secure base align with psychoanalytic ideas like transference and the therapeutic relationship fostering insight.

However, attachment theory more strongly emphasizes the impact of actual childhood events, whereas psychoanalysis highlights inner reality and fantasy.

Both offer useful frameworks for understanding how relational patterns persist or change across the lifespan. Their differences can spark productive dialogue on the roles of inner and outer reality in development.

Training

Psychoanalytic education also involves the trainee undergoing extensive personal therapy, where through experiencing the therapy process directly they gain firsthand insight into their own psychological conflicts, attachment history, unconscious reactions, and clinical blind spots.

This helps develop self-awareness and attunement needed to understand and respond helpfully to clients' unconscious communications.

Finally, cultural competence requires analysts to engage in ongoing self-examination around differences and power dynamics related to their own and their clients' sociocultural identities and experiences.

Unconscious assumptions, biases, stereotypes etc. rooted in culture and privilege/oppression influence clinical perceptions and relationships, so their ongoing reflection upon is considered imperative.

The multiple layers of self-exploration around unconscious processes in one's personal therapy, clinical work, supervision, and sociocultural context form the bedrock of psychoanalytic clinical education and skill development.

Learning Check: You are the Therapist

A young man, 18 years old, is referred to a psychoanalyst by his family doctor. It seems that, for the past year, the young man (Albert) has been experiencing a variety of symptoms such as headaches, dizziness, palpitations, sleep disturbances - all associated with extreme anxiety.

The symptoms are accompanied by a constant, but periodically overwhelming fear of death. He believes that he has a brain tumor and is, therefore, going to die.

However, in spite of exhaustive medical tests, no physical basis for the symptoms can be identified. The doctor finally concludes that Albert's symptoms are probably psychologically based.

Albert arrives at the analyst's office accompanied by his parents. He describes his problems and depicts his relationship with his parents as "rosy" - though admitting that his father may be "a little on the strict side."

It emerges that his father will not permit Albert to go out during the week, and he must be home by 11 pm at weekends.

Additionally, he successfully broke up a relationship between Albert and a girlfriend because he thought they were getting "too close." In describing this, Albert shows no conscious resentment, recounting the events in an emotional, matter of fact manner.

During one session, in which Albert is encouraged to free associate, he demonstrated a degree of resistance in the following example:

This passage is fairly typical of Albert's recollections.

Occasionally, Albert is late for his appointments with the therapist, and less often he misses an appointment, claiming to have forgotten.

During one session, Albert reports a dream in which his father is leaving on a train, while Albert remains on the platform holding hands with both his mother and his girlfriend. He feels both happy and guilty at the same time.

Sometime later, after the therapy sessions have been going on for several months, the analyst takes a two weeks holiday. During a session soon afterward Albert speaks angrily to the therapist.

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Psychoanalysis: Freud's Psychoanalytic Approach to Therapy

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Psychoanalysis is a therapeutic approach and theory, founded by Sigmund Freud, that seeks to explore the unconscious mind to uncover repressed feelings and interpret deep-rooted emotional patterns, often using techniques like dream analysis and free association.

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According to 1913: The Year Before the Storm, in May of 1913, Freud was writing Totem, "with the feeling that" it would be his "greatest, best, perhaps" last "good book" (Illies, 106). The book focused on taboo against incest, examining the effects of the Oedipus Complex on society. Freud would also explore totemism, arguing that it is rooted in the fear of incest.

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The Project Gutenberg eBook of Totem and Taboo, by Sigmund Freud.

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Here is my annotated version of the text.

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In 1928, Freud wrote his famous essay Dostoevsky and Parricide, which we annotated as classwork. This essay examines the relationship between Dostoevsky's book The Brothers of Karamazov and the concept of parricide. Freud explored the different facets of Dostoevsky's personality, in an effort to explain his epilepsy condition. Freud supported his arguments with psychoanalytical theory and applied the Oedipus Complex. The end of the essay focused on Dostoevsky's gambling addiction and his relationship with his wife.

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The Scientific Legacy of Sigmund Freud: Toward a Psychodynamically Informed Psychological Science

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Even though some of Freud's work is not widely accepted today, especially his theories of child development and the Oedipus Complex, he will always be remembered as a pioneer of psychology and the "Father of Psychoanalysis". The attached article takes a deep look at Freud's scientific legacy throughout the 20th century following his death.

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I found Bernhard Kellermann and Arnold Schönberg to be some of the more interesting figures included in the March and April sections of 1913: The Year Before the Storm. The Skandalkonzert was definitely one of the more interesting events we researched this semester, and it was cool to see Illies mention it in the book. Der Tunnel was my favorite film we watched this semester, and it was cool to research more about Kellermann's life and work.

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Oskar Kokoschka was a 20th century Austrian poet, artist, and playwright most known for his involvement in the Expressionist Movement.

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According to 1913: The Year Before the Storm, Kokoschka had "called for the banns for his marriage to Alma Mahler" in July. Mahler was a well known Austrian poet and composer at the time, and upon hearing Oskar's plans of marrying her, "she panics, packs her bags and flees" (Illies, 150). Kokoschka would chase after her, deliver her a self portrait of herself, and constantly write letters to her. While Kokoschka would never end up marrying Mahler, this relationship was very influential to his work.

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A Tragic Love Affair: Oskar Kokoschka and Alma Mahler / The Baker Museum / Artis—Naples

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A Tragic Love Affair: Oskar Kokoschka and Alma Mahler. November 12, 2016 – April 16, 2017 at The Baker Museum, Artis—Naples.

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In July of 1913, Georg Trakl, a poet who's work we studied earlier this semester, visited Kokoschka in Vienna. According to 1913: The Year Before the Storm, when Trakl visited Kokoschka, the two would spend time in the studio together. Kokoschka found Trakl's presence "calming" and Trakl would name one of Kokoschka's paintings The Wind-Bride. This is widely regarded as Kokoschka's best work.

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Kokoschka will always be remembered for his Expressionist work. His illustrations influenced graphic design, and he was highly influential in the Expressionist theater. As a teacher at the Academy in Dresden, he had a lasting impact on his students. The linked website explores Kokoschka's career and legacy in greater detail.

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Summary of Oskar Kokoschka

Oskar Kokoschka moved daringly from a more decorative style into a bold, racy Expressionism. He came of age during turn-of-the-century Vienna, exploring Sigmund Freud's analysis of dreams and the unconscious as well as giving voice to the growing anxiety felt among the bourgeois class about the modern age. His disorienting compositions used bold brushstrokes and strong colors to confront the viewer. His freedom from stylistic constraint as well as his belief in the power of art to raise awareness of contemporary problems set an example for artists from the Abstract Expressionists in the mid-20 th century to the Neo-Expressionists of the late-20 th century.

Accomplishments

Like many Expressionists, Kokoschka eschewed the harmonious effects of color and form and instead created tempestuous compositions with clashing colors and contorted angles to create an emotional intensity meant to rouse the viewer from bourgeois tedium and conservatism.

Kokoschka's penchant for portrait painting and self-portraiture was unique among the Expressionists. Kokoschka was less concerned about portraying the physical features of his sitters as realistically as possible and more interested in capturing their, and his, inner psyche through exaggerated features, gestures, and brushstrokes.

An outspoken critic of the Nazis and Fascism and concerned with the predicaments of refugees from these regimes, Kokoschka believed that art could counter such power, and to this end, he never painted completely abstractly like some of his other avant-garde colleagues. He felt that in order for art to be as powerful as possible it needed to maintain a reference to the concrete world in which we live.

Important Art by Oskar Kokoschka

Hans Tietze and Erica Tietze-Conrat

Kokoschka depicts his subjects, prominent Viennese art historians Hans Tietze and Erica Tietze-Conrat who were supporters of contemporary art, not so much as they actually looked but how he understood their psyches. He described his friends as "closed personalities so full of tension." The figures do not face each other, and Erica's posture with her arms across her chest further divides her from her husband. The two stare off into different distances, not even looking at the viewer. This trance-like state separates each from the other and from the viewer. Their exaggerated and distorted hands are about to touch or have just touched, creating an electrified tension. The hands, with their long, sinewy fingers and odd colors also convey a sense of nervousness, or uncertainty.

Kokoschka often set his sitters in an indeterminate space. Here he fills the background with thin layers of swirling browns, yellows, oranges, and greens and, using the end of his paintbrush, scratched lines emanating from the figures. By refusing to place the couple in a physical setting, Kokoschka signals his interest lies in their psychological states and the energy they discharge. Kokoschka spoke of his response to Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, which documented that humans and primates were closely related species; he said, "The sense of familiarity and intimacy within mankind gave way to a feeling of alienation, as if we had never really known ourselves before. I myself was more affected by this than I would admit, which is why, to confront the problem, I started painting portraits." One could point to a host of sources for modern man's feelings of alienation in society, and Kokoschka vowed to render that alienation and anxiety visible.

Oil on canvas - The Museum of Modern Art, New York

Venice Bacino di San Marco

In the summer of 1948, Kokoschka and his wife traveled to Venice in advance of the Venice Biennale, where Kokoschka represented Austria with several of his paintings. From his hotel room, he completed this panoramic, postcard scene of the San Marco Basin. One can see the grand church of San Giorgio Maggiore in the center of the composition and the Punta della Dogana, the old Custom House that is now a museum, on the right. A number of boats populate the canal. Color still operates descriptively here, but it is also stretched and saturated to enhance the brightness of the cityscape; whites, yellows, blues, and reds are distributed on the canvas to create a grand spectacle of light.

While Kokoschka reveled in his earlier rebel status as a young Expressionist, here we see him inserting himself into a long tradition of European landscape painting, going back to Canaletto, who painted Venice so magisterially, and the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, such as Monet and Signac. Kokoschka retains his bright color and short, energetic brushstrokes in this landscape painting, but instead of presenting a foreboding or anxious scene (a type of scene he specialized in earlier), Kokoschka relishes the Mediterranean light as it plays across the water and the gleaming buildings.

Oil on canvas - Private Collection

The Prometheus Triptych

Commissioned by fellow Austrian émigré, art historian, and collector Count Antoine Seilern in 1949, Kokoschka painted the three large panels of xxx. The central panel depicts the biblical scene of the Apocalypse, with four horsemen riding into a deep, bright empty space while a storm rages behind them and figures writhe beneath them. The left panel shows Persephone's escape from Hades (rendered as a self-portrait), with Demeter, the goddess of harvest and fertility, looking on. The panel on the right illustrates the punishment of Prometheus, chained to a rock and pecked by an eagle. Kokoschka meant the combination of myth, legend, and biblical prediction as a warning to modern society's obsession with science and technology and the possible loss of humanity and culture.

Kokoschka felt that the triptych was the most important painting that he had created. While he had always considered himself a stylistic rebel, here he placed himself in the lineage of the Baroque masters Rubens and Tiepolo, presenting contorted, elongated figures at dramatic angles to create an emotional intensity. Connecting his art in both subject matter and style to the tradition of Western European painting, gives this moralizing painting more gravitas and authority.

Oil on canvas - The Courtauld Gallery, London

Biography of Oskar Kokoschka

Childhood

Oskar Kokoschka was born in 1886 in Pöchlarn, a small town on the Danube, 100 kilometers west of Vienna. His father Gustav, from a German patrician family of goldsmiths, was a travelling salesman and, his mother Maria Romana (née Loidl) was a forester's daughter from the state of Styria in south east Austria. When asked about his childhood Kokoschka said that he was a very happy child and that his father gave him books which formed him as a man and an artist. Among these were an abbreviated version of the Odyssey and the Orbis Sensualium Pictus, a 1658 textbook for children written by Czech educator John Amos Comenius. From these his appreciation for classical literature and the arts began.

The reality, however, was probably slightly more bitter for young Oskar. His father struggled with his business, frequently moving the family to smaller flats further from the village center, and finally went bankrupt and relocated the family to Vienna when Kokoschka was just 3 years old. He had a younger sister Berta and brother Bohuslav, but his older brother died when Kokoschka was just an infant.

Early Training and Work

In Vienna Kokoschka attended the Realschule, a secondary school where science and language were emphasized. Kokoschka's interests, though, were heavily in the arts and classical literature. After encouragement from a teacher, the eighteen-year-old Kokoschka entered the Kunstgewerbeschule, the University of Applied Arts of Vienna. Most of the school's teachers belonged to the Vienna Secession, which in its early years embraced the styles of Art Nouveau and Jugendstil. Here, Kokoschka improved his drawing skills and studied bookbinding, lithography, and other crafts. During this time, his teacher Carl Otto Czeschka pushed him to develop his own style, and his earliest oil paintings date from 1905 and 1906. In 1907, he became a member of the Wiener Werkstätte, an alliance of artists and designers who pioneered modern design. Kokoschka participated as a graphic designer of postcards, bookplates, and drawings for children, in which he often included the human figure as a decorative motif.

Gustav Klimt, the leading Secessionist, included Kokoschka in his 1908 exhibition at the Kunstchau, as he regarded him as "the greatest talent among the younger generation." Klimt chose to exhibit Kokoschka's The Dreaming Boys, a poem illustrated by eight lithographs. The poem, about the budding sexuality of adolescent boys, caused a scandal but insured Kokoschka's place in the following year's exhibition. Here, Kokoschka met Adolf Loos, a Viennese architect who became his patron and advocate, to whom Kokoschka admitted he "owe[d] everything." In 1909, Kokoschka was expelled from the Kunstgewerbeschule after the performance of his lurid and violent play Mörder Hoffnung der Frauen ( Murderer, the Hope of Women) caused a riot. Thanks to Loos' support, Kokoschka then travelled to Switzerland in 1910 where he painted landscapes and portraits of aristocrats suffering from tuberculosis in the sanatorium of Leysin. During this time, he also contributed drawings, some illustrating his notorious drama Murderer, the Hope of Women, to the progressive journal Der Sturm, which promoted German Expressionism and other avant-garde art.

Mature Period

By 1911, after exhibitions in both Vienna and Berlin, which included depictions of young, nude girls, several portrait commissions from wealthy Viennese, his involvement with the avant-garde journal Der Sturm, and his bohemian lifestyle, Kokoschka had become a notorious artist, shocking the staid bourgeois society in which he traveled. As art historian Claude Cernuschi documents, Kokoschka was "labeled a criminal and degenerate by a hostile press" so he "shaved in his head, in his own words, 'to look the part.'" He was so controversial that Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, after seeing an exhibition of Kokoschka's work reportedly said that "he wanted to break every bone in Kokoschka's body."

In 1912, Kokoschka met Alma Malher, the widow of the famed composer Gustav Mahler, and they had a torrid affair that would become a major source of inspiration and hardship in his life. Kokoschka proposed on numerous occasions, but Mahler always declined, eventually leaving him for a previous lover, the architect Walter Gropius (of later, Bauhaus fame). Mahler recalled, "The three years with him were a single, intense battle of love. Never before have I tasted so much strain, so much hell, so much paradise." During their time together, Kokoschka painted many portraits of the couple, including Double portrait of Oskar Kokoschka and Alma Mahler (1912-1913), in which Alma is depicted wearing a red gown. She remembered, "I was once given a flame-red night gown. I didn't like it due to its overpowering color. Oskar took it from me right away and from then on went around his studio wearing nothing else. He wore it to receive his astounded visitors and was to be found more in front of the mirror than in front of his easel." One of Kokoschka's most famous paintings, The Tempest (or The Bride of the Wind) (1913-14), is a double portrait of the two lovers held afloat amidst a storm of energetic brushstrokes. Oskar dedicated this painting and almost 450 other works to Alma. After Mahler had an abortion, the disconsolate Kokoschka joined the army in 1915 to fight in World War I, selling The Tempest to buy his own horse.

Kokoschka was injured twice during the war: in Ukraine when a bullet passed through his head and again in Russia when he was bayoneted in the chest. He miraculously survived both injuries but had migraines and hallucinations for many years after. He said, "War was appalling, I didn't know if I would ever get out alive, but if I did, I would climb the highest peak to see what motivates people to sacrifice their life for no reason." During his convalescences in Vienna and then Dresden, he wrote several plays, including Orpheus und Eurydike (1918), about his war experiences.

Still reeling from Alma's departure, in 1918 Kokoschka commissioned the Munich doll maker Hermine Moos to fabricate a life-size doll with Alma Mahler's body and facial features. He provided Moos with dimensions, drawings, and specific directions, writing, "Please permit my sense of touch to take pleasure in those places where layers of fat or muscle suddenly give way to a sinewy covering of skin. For the first layer (inside) please use fine, curly horsehair; you must buy an old sofa or something similar; have the horsehair disinfected. Then, over that, a layer of pouches stuffed with down, cottonwool for the seat and breasts. The point of all this for me is an experience which I must be able to embrace." He later asked the doll maker if she could make the mouth open and include teeth and a tongue. Kokoschka was disappointed with the final result; he wrote to Moos, "The outer shell is a polar-bear pelt, suitable for a shaggy imitation bedside rug rather than the soft and pliable skin of a woman." Despite his displeasure, he still dressed the doll and took it out in public, causing much speculation and gossip. Eventually, the doll became a model for several paintings, but during a raucous party, Kokoschka decapitated the doll and poured a bottle of wine over it, thus exorcising his obsession with Alma Mahler.

During the1920s, Kokoschka was a professor at the Dresden Academy and travelled extensively in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, painting mainly landscapes. In 1927, he had his largest solo show at that point at the Zurich Kunsthaus, and between 1931 and 1933, he travelled frequently to Paris where he painted several portraits of the American dancer Mary Meerson.

In 1934, in the midst of the rising Nazi power, Kokoschka travelled to Prague, where he met his future wife Olda. There, he was commissioned to paint a portrait of the philosopher Tomáš G. Masaryk, president of Czechoslovakia. The two men became friends and often discussed the 17 th-century philosopher Comenius. In 1935, Kokokschka acquired Czech citizenship.

In 1937, the Nazis declared Kokoschka a Degenerate artist, including The Tempest (1913) and several other works in the infamous Degenerate Art Exhibition, which were seen alongside works by Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, and Kokoschka's fellow Viennese colleague Egon Schiele. As a response, he painted the defiant Portrait of a degenerate artist (1937) during one of his stays in Olda's parents' house outside Prague.

By this time, Kokoschka was a declared enemy of the Germans; after the Munich Agreement, he and Olda escaped the imminent invasion of Czechoslovakia and fled to London. There he took part in the exhibition Twentieth Century German Art with 22 works. From London, the couple moved to Cornwall, where he painted a series of landscapes, which often contain political allegories questioning the immobility of England and other European countries in the face of the Nazis' advance and the terrible situation of refugees.

In the early 1940s, Oskar and Olda moved again, this time to Scotland and North Wales where he kept making landscapes, often using crayons; in 1943 they returned to London and, at the end of World War II, obtained British Citizenship. In 1947 and 1948 he received significant recognition with a retrospective, first in Basel and then in Zurich, and an invitation to the Venice Biennale, where he represented Austria with 16 paintings. As he told his sister, the great success of these shows gave him back his " joie de vivre, faith in humanity, and hope for the future."

Kokoschka, now finally financially secure, had shows throughout Europe and the United States and continued to travel with Olda, painting portraits and landscapes along the way. In 1949, a friend and fellow Austrian émigré, Count Antoine Sielern, a scholar known for his outstanding collection of Old Master paintings as well as more modern works by the likes of the Impressionists and Cézanne, commissioned Kokoschka to create a ceiling painting for his residence. Finishing The Prometheus Triptych in the summer of 1950, Kokoschka felt it was his most important painting to date, a warning against the rising dominance of science and technology and the consequences of "man's intellectual arrogance."

Late Period

In 1953 Kokoschka moved to Switzerland and started an annual seminar in the Summer Academy for Visual Arts in Salzburg, Austria, entitled School of seeing. He wanted to teach young artists "to connect the spiritual past of European people to the present, individual experience' rather than 'what is fashionable or how to follow a recipe." In 1954, he painted a second mythological triptych, Thermopylae, for Hamburg University, and during the 1950s and 1960s he increasingly worked with lithography and designed tapestries, scenography, and costumes for the theatre. His adopted country of England bestowed notable honors on Kokoschka. In 1960, Oxford University assigned him an honorary doctorate, and the Tate gallery granted him his first British retrospective in 1962.

Kokoschka's late paintings have a brighter palette but lack the intensely nervous brushstrokes of his earlier Expressionist paintings. Despite his failing eyesight, referenced in his 1973 canvas Mal'Occhio, Kokoschka continued to paint into his 90s. He left a number of interviews, a volume of collected writings, and wrote an autobiography entitled My Life (1974). He died in 1980 in a clinic in Montreux, Switzerland.

The Legacy of Oskar Kokoschka

In his long career, Kokoschka was never formally part of a movement or group of artists; nevertheless, his work is most often considered as an exponent of Expressionism. His early theater work launched Expressionist theater in Europe, and his illustrations would impact graphic design. Though his work went in and out of style over the decades, Kokoschka's portraits and self-portraits, with their penetrating, psychological probing, remain his most well-known and inspiring works. Kokoschka left indelible marks on the students he taught at the Academy in Dresden from 1919 to the mid-1920s as well as those who attended his School of Seeing at the Salzburg International Summer Academy of Fine Arts between 1953 and 1963. His Expressionist handling of paint would find heirs among the American Abstract Expressionists, even if they largely rejected identifiable subject matter, and the later Neo-Expressionists of the 1970s and 1980s, including German artist Anselm Kiefer, who took up the Austrian master's aesthetic and his themes of war and myth. More contemporary artists, such as Jenny Saville and Cecily Brown, update Kokoschka's energetic Expressionist brushstrokes in their depictions of the female form.

Influences and Connections

Useful Resources on Oskar Kokoschka

The books and articles below constitute a bibliography of the sources used in the writing of this page. These also suggest some accessible resources for further research, especially ones that can be found and purchased via the internet.

Similar Art

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Kokoschka gave voice to the growing anxiety felt among the bourgeois class about the modern age in his bold and feverish Expressionism.

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Georg Trakl was an Austrian poet who lived between the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was one of the most important figures of the Expressionist Movement.

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In 1913, Trakl wrote his most famous poem titled Grodek. The poem is inspired by his personal experience fighting in World War I. Earlier in the semester, we studied Grodek and wrote out our poem based on a modern day interpretation of war. Here is mine:

As the night falls, the sky illuminates

Not to stars, but a rocket's trail

Peaceful lakes reflect the fear of conflict

As a missile's fire breaks up the night

Destroyed cities lie below the blazing sky

A center of human interaction dominated by silence

Armored vehicles battle in the ruins

The silence is broken by their roar

Amid the destruction, the loss is evident

As shadows move through the night

Under the sky of lost hope

The ghosts of the dead roam

To mourn the lives lost

Their spirits drift in the twilight

O demolished city, you carry the sorrow

The legacy of the dead

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Poems, readings, poetry news and the entire 110-year archive of POETRY magazine.

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According to 1913: The Year Before the Storm, during a trip to Venice in August of 1913, Trakl produced one of his greatest poems. Illies described Trakl as the "unhappiest person in the entire world" at the time of this trip, which would inspire his writing of In Venice. The poem challenges the reader with ideas of death and loneliness.

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In Venice

In Venice

Stillness in the passing night of the room.
Seven silver branches flicker
before the whispered song
of the deserted,
the mystic flock of roses.

A swarm of flies, black as smoke,
swallows up the stony space,
and from the anguish
of golden days the head
of the homeless child gazes back.

The frozen sea fills with night.
The one star and the dark journey
have vanished in the ditch.
Child, your ailing smile
haunts me, wordless, in sleep.

Translated by Eric Plattner

..............................................................................

In Venedig

Stille in nächtigem Zimmer
Silbern flackert der Leuchter
Vor dem singenden Odem
Des Einsamen;
Zaubrisches Rosengewölk.

Schwärzlicher Fliegenschwarm
Verdunkelt den steinernen Raum
Und es starrt von der Qual
Des goldenen Tags das Haupt
Des Heimatlosen.

Reglos nachtet das Meer.
Stern und schwärzliche Fahrt
Entschwand am Kanal.
Kind, dein kränkliches Lächeln
Folgte mir leise im Schlaf.

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In Venice Stillness in the passing night of the room. Seven silver branches flicker before the whispered song of the deserted, the mystic flock of roses. A swarm of flies, black as smoke, swallows up the stony space, and from the anguish of golden days the head of the homeless child gazes back.

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In 1914, at just 27 years old Trakl passed away due to a cocaine overdose, which was likely intentional. Trakl dealt with depression and had struggled with drug addiction. His experience in World War I only made these issues worse. Although he was gone too soon, Trakl will always be remember for his production of Expressionist poetry. The attached article takes a deeper look at Trakl's life and work.

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In the footsteps of the poet Georg Trakl : Salzburg Magazine : salzburg.info

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Walk to the places that inspired the expressionist poet Georg Trakl.

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Bertolt Brecht was a German playwriter born in 1898, and he was well known for creating epic theater throughout the first half of the 20th century.

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In 1913: The Year Before the Storm, Illies wrote, "In September the first edition of the school magazine Die Ernte (40 hectographed copies, 15 Pfennigs) is published," mostly "written by a pupil in class 6A called Bertolt Brecht" (Illies, 178). Brecht decided to start his own magazine (Die Ernte), since his poetry was not accepted by other magazines. At this point in his career, Brecht had convinced himself he would eventually be a successful poet, but through Die Ernte, he discovered his playwriting ability. The attached article is the only source of information I could find on Die Ernte outside 1913: The Year Before the Storm.

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Die Ernte war der Titel einer Augsburger Schülerzeitschrift, in der der deutsche Dichter und Dramatiker Bertolt Brecht seine ersten literarischen Versuche veröffentlichte. Brecht selbst veröffentlichte Teile seiner Werke unter dem Pseudonym Berthold Eugen.[1]

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One of Brecht's most famous plays is titled The Caucasian Chalk Circle. Written in 1948, the play is centered around a dispute for the custody of a child between his mother who abandoned him and a young servant who takes care of him. The judge places the child in the center of a chalk circle, offering custody of the child for whoever pulls him from the circle first. The servant concedes, not wanting to harm the child, and his natural mother takes him back. It is impressive to me how this play is still highly relevant even though it was written nearly 75 years ago. On the linked website, I actually found performances of the play going on right now. This demonstrates just how skilled Brecht was as a playwriter.

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The Caucasian Chalk Circle | School of Drama | University of Washington

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Brecht will always be remembered for his playwriting. Throughout his career, he wrote many famous plays, some of which are still performed to this day. Although he wasn't as successful as a poet, he did not let early struggles in his career prevent him from being successful. The attached article contains a conversation exploring Brecht's legacy in greater depth.

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Brecht’s Legacy and Influence – Essential Drama

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Born in 1859, Kaiser Wilhelm II was the last German emperor and King of Prussia, from 1888 to 1918. Wilhelm's abdication marked the end of the German empire.

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According to 1913: The Year Before the Storm, in October of 1913, "Kaiser Wilhelm II inaugurates the Monument to the Battle of Nations" (Illies, 191). The monument commemorated the Battle of Leipzig in 1813. The linked website explores the monument in greater detail. This monument is a prime example of Wilhelminist architecture.

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Else Lasker-Schüler was an Expressionist German poet and playwriter, known for her poetry exploring the themes of love, loneliness, and religion.

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Gottfried Benn was a German poet and physician, well known for his work exploring nihilism and isolation.

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In 1913, Lasker-Schüler and Benn were in an intimate relationship. Lasker-Schüler had expressed her love for Benn in numerous poems we read for classwork. In these poems, Lasker-Schüler would express feelings of loneliness, but it seemed as if a loving relationship with Benn was a solution to her problems. According to 1913: The Year Before the Storm, in November of 1913, Benn left Lasker-Schüler, leaving her with "unbearable abdominal pains" (Illies, 216). This aligns with the ideas expressed in Listen! and No Solace Here, poems by Lasker-Schüler and Benn respectively. In Listen!, Lasker-Schüler pleads for Benn's love and Benn rejects her in No Solace Here. Benn's actions had a strong emotional impact on Lasker-Schüler, inspiring her future work.

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After Germany's loss in WWI, in 1918, Wilhelm announced his abdication and left the country for Netherlands. His decision making in the war was not supported by the country, and he was viewed by many as an indecisive, ineffective war leader. The Allies even wanted to punish Wilhelm as a war criminal, but the Queen of Netherlands refused to extradite him. The linked article takes a deeper look at Wilhelm's reign.

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Table of Contents

1. Kaiser Wilhelm II's Early Years

2. Emperor and King: 1888

3. Kaiser Wilhelm II and World War I

4. Kaiser Wilhelm II's Years of Exile

Wilhelm II (1859-1941), the German kaiser (emperor) and king of Prussia from 1888 to 1918, was one of the most recognizable public figures of World War I (1914-18). He gained a reputation as a swaggering militarist through his speeches and ill-advised newspaper interviews. While Wilhelm did not actively seek war, and tried to hold back his generals from mobilizing the German army in the summer of 1914, his verbal outbursts and his open enjoyment of the title of Supreme War Lord helped bolster the case of those who blamed him for the conflict. His role in the conduct of the war as well as his responsibility for its outbreak is still controversial.

Some historians maintain that Wilhelm was controlled by his generals, while others argue that he retained considerable political power. In late 1918, he was forced to abdicate. He spent the rest of his life in exile in the Netherlands, where he died at age 82.

Kaiser Wilhelm II's Early Years

Kaiser Wilhelm II was born in Potsdam, Germany, on January 27, 1859, the son of Prince Frederick Wilhelm of Prussia (1831-88) and Princess Victoria (1840-1901), the oldest daughter of Queen Victoria (1819-1901). The future monarch was the queen's firstborn grandchild and was genuinely fond of her; in fact, he was holding her in his arms when she died. His ties to Britain through its royal family would play an important part in his later political maneuvering.

Did you know? Kaiser Wilhelm II was reportedly amused when he heard his cousin King George V (1865-1936) had changed the name of the British royal family from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor in 1917 as a result of anti-German sentiment in Britain during World War I.

Wilhelm's childhood was shaped by two events, one medical and one political. His birth had been traumatic; in the course of a complicated delivery, the doctor permanently damaged Wilhelm's left arm. In addition to its smaller size, the arm was useless for such ordinary tasks as cutting certain foods with a knife at mealtime.

The political event that shaped Wilhelm was the formation of the German Empire under the leadership of Prussia in 1871. Wilhelm was now second in line after his father to become an emperor as well as king of Prussia. Twelve years old at the time, Wilhelm was filled with nationalistic enthusiasm. His later determination to win a "place in the sun" for Germany had its roots in his childhood.

An intelligent young man who possessed a lifelong interest in science and technology, Wilhelm was educated at the University of Bonn. His quick mind, however, was combined with an even quicker temper and an impulsive, high-strung personality. He had dysfunctional relationships with both parents, particularly his English mother. Historians still debate the effects of the kaiser's complicated psychological makeup on his political decisions.

In 1881, Wilhelm married Princess Augusta Victoria (1858-1921) of Schleswig-Holstein. The couple would go on to have seven children.

Emperor and King: 1888

Wilhelm's father became Kaiser Frederick III of Germany in March 1888. Already ill with terminal throat cancer, he died after a reign of only several months. Wilhelm succeeded his father on June 15, 1888, at the age of 29. Within two years of his coronation, Wilhelm broke with Otto von Bismarck (1815-98), the "Iron Chancellor" who had dominated German politics since the 1860s. The kaiser embarked on his so-called New Course, a period of personal rule in which he appointed chancellors who were upper-level civil servants rather than statesmen. Bismarck bitterly predicted that Wilhelm would lead Germany to ruin.

Wilhelm damaged his political position in a number of ways. He meddled in German foreign policy on the basis of his emotions, resulting in incoherence and inconsistency in German relations with other nations. He also made a number of public blunders, the worst of which was The Daily Telegraph affair of 1908. Wilhelm gave an interview to the London-based newspaper in which he offended the British by saying such things as: "You English are mad, mad, mad as March hares." The kaiser had already been hurt politically in 1907 by the Eulenburg-Harden affair, in which members of his circle of friends were accused of being homosexuals. Although there is no evidence that Wilhelm was gay-in addition to his seven children with his first wife, he was rumored to have several illegitimate offspring-the scandal was used by his political opponents to weaken his influence.

Wilhelm's most important contribution to Germany's prewar military expansion was his commitment to creating a navy to rival Britain's. His childhood visits to his British cousins had given him a love for the sea-sailing was one of his favorite recreations-and his envy of the power of the British navy convinced him that Germany must build a large fleet of its own in order to fulfill its destiny. The kaiser supported the plans of Alfred von Tirpitz (1849-1930), his chief admiral, who maintained that Germany could gain diplomatic power over Britain by stationing a fleet of warships in the North Sea. By 1914, however, the naval buildup had caused severe financial problems for Wilhelm's government.

Kaiser Wilhelm II and World War I

Wilhelm's behavior during the crisis that led to war in August 1914 is still controversial. There is little doubt that he had been broken psychologically by the criticism that followed the Eulenburg-Harden and Daily Telegraph scandals; he suffered an episode of depression in 1908. In addition, the kaiser was out of touch with the realities of international politics in 1914; he thought that his blood relationships to other European monarchs were sufficient to manage the crisis that followed the June 1914 assassination of the Austrian archduke Franz Ferdinand (1863-1914) in Sarajevo, Bosnia. Although Wilhelm signed the order for German mobilization following pressure from his generals-Germany declared war against Russia and France during the first week of August 1914- he is reported to have said, "You will regret this, gentlemen."

With World War I under way, the kaiser, as commander in chief of the German armed forces, retained the power to make upper-level changes in military command. Nonetheless, he was largely a shadow monarch during the war, useful to his generals as a public-relations figure who toured the front lines and handed out medals. After 1916, Germany was, in effect, a military dictatorship dominated by two generals, Paul von Hindenburg (1847-1934) and Erich Ludendorff (1865-1937).

Kaiser Wilhelm II's Years of Exile

In late 1918, popular unrest in Germany (which had suffered greatly during the war) combined with a naval mutiny convinced civilian political leaders that the kaiser had to abdicate to preserve order. In fact, Wilhelm's abdication was announced on November 9, 1918, before he had actually consented to it. He agreed to leave when the leaders of the army told him he had lost their support as well. On November 10, the former emperor took a train across the border into the Netherlands, which had remained neutral throughout the war. He eventually bought a manor house in the town of Doorn, and remained there for the remainder of his life.

Although the Allies wanted to punish Wilhelm as a war criminal, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands (1880-1962) refused to extradite him. His last years were darkened by the death of his first wife and the suicide of his youngest son in 1920. He did, however, make a happy second marriage in 1922. His new wife, Hermine Reuss (1887-1947), actively petitioned German leader Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) in the early 1930s to restore the monarchy, but nothing ever came of her negotiations. Hitler despised the man he held responsible for Germany's defeat in World War I, and Wilhelm was shocked by the Nazis' thuggish tactics. In 1938, Wilhelm remarked that for the first time he was ashamed to be a German. After two decades in exile, he died in the Netherlands on June 4, 1941, at the age of 82.

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Kaiser Wilhelm II - WWI, Abdication & Death

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Wilhelm II (1859-1941) was the last German kaiser (emperor) and king of Prussia from 1888 to 1918, and one of the most recognizable public figures of World War I (1914-18). He gained a reputation as a swaggering militarist through his speeches and ill-advised newspaper interviews.

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Due to her Jewish background, Lasker-Schüler was forced to flee Nazi-Germany in 1933. She moved around quite a bit in the latter years of her life, spending time in Switzerland and Jerusalem. In 1945, Lasker-Schüler passed away due to a heart attack. She will always be remembered as Gottfried Benn described her, the "greatest poet Germany has ever had". The attached article provides a more in depth description of Lasker-Schüler's life, especially her late years.

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Encyclopedia of Jewish and Israeli history, politics and culture, with biographies, statistics, articles and documents on topics from anti-Semitism to Zionism.

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Gottfried Benn is remembered as one of the more influential poets in Germany after WWII. Like Lasker-Schüler, Benn too was affected by the Nazi regime. Rather than fleeing the country, however, Benn would join the Nazi military to avoid harassment. Even though his involvement in the Nazi regime has certainly impacted his cultural legacy, Benn was still a very influential poet nonetheless. The linked essay examines Benn's influence on later poets.

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Sources for images and information

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Robert Musil was an Austrian writer, best known for his unfinished novel The Man Without Qualities.

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According to 1913: The Year Before the Storm, in December of 1913, Robert Musil took "notes from which his novel The Man Without Qualities will later grow. Illies continued citing specific sentences Musil wrote (Illies, 246). The Man Without Qualities is an extremely long novel, well over a thousand pages. Musil would publish the unfinished story on 3 separate occasions, in 1930, 1933, and 1943. Evidently, Musil spent nearly half of his life writing The Man Without Qualities. One of the most interesting aspects of the story is that it was never completed, and it leaves interpretation up to the reader. The activity we completed earlier in the semester, writing alternate paragraphs of the story following an early chapter was very engaging. It showed just how challenging it can be to interpret and translate an unfinished story of great depth. I have attached my writing from this activity, as well as a reflection.

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Since the novel was so influential, Robert Musil is effectively remembered solely for writing The Man Without Qualities. Although he did write some other books, including The Confusions of Young Törless and Drei Frauen, none of his other works were close to the success of The Man Without Qualities. The novel is still relatively popular, particularly for its exploration of self identity. The linked article explores Musil's life and the legacy of The Man Without Qualities in great depth.

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After reading the January and February sections of Illies' book, I found Kafka and Picasso to be two of the most significant figures involved. I found Kafka's relationship struggles particularly interesting, and the Armory Show was surely a turning point in the history of modern art. I felt both of these sections were important to highlight in my take on 1913. Engaging with Kafka's work throughout the semester has provided a unique perspective on the reality of life in Germany in this time period. Researching Picasso's art was awesome, especially looking at the Cubist work.

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While reading the May and June sections, I identified Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Sigmund Freud to be two important figures I should include in my project. The dissolution of Die Brücke was an interesting topic Illies mentioned, and I see it as a pretty unfortunate ending to a very talented group of artists. I had a good bit of background knowledge on Freud from my taking Psychology classes in high school, but it was cool to take a deep dive into some of his most notable works. It is upsetting how the Nazi control of Germany impacted the prominent figures in Illies' story, including Kirchner. It was disturbing to discover the Nazi's censorship of art, as freedom of expression is a fundamental human right.

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Among all the important figures Illies included in the July and August sections, Kokoschka and Trakl stood out to me. It was neat to see how Kokoschka's relationship with Alma Mahler had impacted his work, just as romantic relationships had affected the work of other prominent figures in the book. It was cool to write our own poems based on Trakl's Grodek, but it was really disappointing to see how he passed away so young upon further research.

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From the September and October sections of the text, I decided to highlight Bertolt Brecht and Kaiser Wilhelm in my project. It was a bit more challenging to research these two, as I had little to no background knowledge on them. The way Brecht discovered his playwriting ability through a poetry magazine was inspiring, and it reminded me about how we discover many of our best skills through similar but fundamentally different activities. Although I couldn't find very much to write about Wilhelm, it was interesting to see that he was the last emperor of Germany. It really goes to show how transformative this time period was in German history.

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After reading the last two sections of Illies' book, I decided to highlight Else Lasker-Schüler, Gottfried Benn, and Robert Musil in my project, three figures we have studied this semester. It was cool to see Illies mention Lasker-Schüler and Benn's relationship in the text, and it made me realize how closely our classwork has aligned with the progression of 1913: The Year Before the Storm. I enjoyed researching the lives of these two in much greater detail, and with this added context I gained a much better understanding of what influenced their work. While I was a little disappointed, I was not surprised to find out that The Man Without Qualities is the only work of Musil that is popular these days.