1898
Nuremberg and Dürer: the decision to become a painter
On a school trip to Nuremberg in 1898 the young Kirchner saw the printing blocks of early woodcuts and incunabula at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum and, inspired by the art of Albrecht Dürer, decided to become a painter; he later wrote that this experience shaped his aim of renewing German art.
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.
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.
1913
The “Brücke Chronicle” and the break-up of the group
In 1913 Kirchner wrote the “Chronicle of the Brücke group,” in which, his comrades felt, he overstated his own role in its creation; a quarrel followed, Kirchner left the Brücke and the group fell apart.
1937
“Degenerate art”: 639 works removed
In 1937 the Nazis classed Kirchner as a “degenerate” artist: 639 of his works were removed from German museums, some of them destroyed, and 25 paintings were shown at the “Degenerate Art” exhibition, which Hitler personally declared an “insult to the nation.”
1938년 6월 15일
Died