Despair (Not)

1892–1896

Hauptmann’s “The Weavers” inspires a new cycle

Between the births of her sons Hans and Peter she saw Gerhart Hauptmann’s play The Weavers, about the failed revolt of the Silesian weavers in Langenbielau in 1844. It inspired her to drop a series of etchings she had planned to illustrate Émile Zola’s Germinal and to produce a cycle on the weavers instead.

1896

Birth of her son Peter

In 1896 her younger son, Peter, was born; he was killed at the front in 1914.

6. februar 1896

Son born: Peter Kollwitz

1898

“The Weavers” at the Great Berlin Art Exhibition

In 1898 the cycle was shown publicly at the Great Berlin Art Exhibition and was widely acclaimed.

1898

The Kaiser refuses a gold medal to a woman

Adolph Menzel nominated her work for the gold medal of the 1898 Great Berlin Art Exhibition, but Kaiser Wilhelm II withheld his approval, saying that a medal for a woman would be going too far and that orders and medals belonged on the breasts of worthy men.

1898–1903

Teaches at the Women’s Art School

From 1898 to 1903 she taught at the Women’s Art School in Berlin.