Chestnut Trees in Moonlight

1903–1904

Munich: the Technical School and the Debschitz-Schule

In 1903–1904 Kirchner continued his studies at the Polytechnic School of Munich and attended the art school run by von Debschitz and Obrist.

1905

An architect’s diploma and then only painting

In 1905 Kirchner returned to Dresden, sat the final diploma examination, received his architecture degree and then turned exclusively to painting.

c. 1905

A studio in a former butcher’s shop

The group first met in Kirchner’s first studio, a former butcher’s shop; defying convention, they drew from non-professional models of their own circle, choosing quarter-hour poses to encourage spontaneity.

7 June 1905

Founding of the Brücke group

Four architecture students of the Dresden Technical College — Kirchner, Fritz Bleyl, Erich Heckel and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff — founded the group Die Brücke (“The Bridge”); 7 June is considered its founding day. Heckel proposed the name and Kirchner became the group’s ideologist: he made the rejection of the materialist worldview, realism, Impressionism and Art Nouveau the basis of its aesthetic.

1906

The Brücke manifesto

In 1906 Kirchner wrote the group’s programme: anyone who directly and without illusion reproduces what he feels the urge to create belongs to the Brücke.

September – October 1906

The first Brücke exhibition: the female nude

In September and October 1906 the group’s first exhibition, devoted to the female nude, was held in the showroom of K. F. M. Seifert and Co. in Dresden.