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.