Der Träumer

1904

Enters the architecture department in Dresden

At 21 Heckel begins to study architecture at the Dresden Polytechnic; he and his future companions in Die Brücke saw it as a compromise with their respectable middle-class parents, who would never have supported art studies. He leaves after three terms, shortly after the foundation of Die Brücke.

7 June 1905

The founding of Die Brücke

With Fritz Bleyl, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, also architecture students, Heckel founds the artists’ group Die Brücke (“The Bridge”) and becomes its secretary and treasurer. They aim to build a “bridge” between traditional neo-romantic German painting and modern expressionism, greatly admire Edvard Munch and make much use of the print as a cheap and quick way to produce affordable art.

1905–1907

A draughtsman in Wilhelm Kreis’s office

From 1905 Heckel works in the architectural office of Wilhelm Kreis; at the same time he rents a former butcher’s shop at Berlinerstrasse 60 as a shared studio for the whole Die Brücke group. He will leave Kreis’s office in 1907.

1905–1913

Secretary, treasurer and manager of Die Brücke

Heckel is the group’s secretary and treasurer and often its business manager: he builds contacts with other up-and-coming artists, such as the Munich-based Franz Marc, which brings Die Brücke publicity, even a mention in the almanac of the Blaue Reiter. His brother introduced the group to African sculpture.

1907

A painting trip to Dangast

Having left Kreis’s office, Heckel goes to Dangast to make studies; Brickworks (Dangast), now in the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection, is dated to that year.

July 1907

Leaves Kreis’s office for painting

In July 1907 Heckel resigns from Wilhelm Kreis’s office in order to become a full-time artist.