German Art: Romantic to Weimar

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

This mid-level survey course explores the history of art in Germany-speaking countries from the late 18th-century to 1937. We begin with the Neo-Classic philosophy of Winckelmann and proceed to the Romanticism of Caspar David Friedrich and onward to the naturalist Adolph von Menzel, the Expressionist Brücke and Blaue Reiter groups, the Bauhaus collective, the Dadaists, Nazi architecture, and more. We will look at the birth of German film and modern theatre and will read Georg Kaiser’s Expressionist play Gas I. The class ends with an examination of the infamous “Degenerate Art” exhibition, organized in 1937 by the Nazis as an attack on modern art. In addition to serving as a corrective to Franco-centric art history, this class suggests important approaches to thinking about various social and political issues that continue to resonate with us today. (No knowledge of German required.) For more information about this and other courses in the Department of Art and Art History, please visit https://art.georgetown.edu