The career of George Grosz is the perfect example of an artist's life tied insep­arably to the historical, social and political movements of the age and lived in response to them. Grosz was born on 26 July 1893 in Berlin, three years after Chancellor Bismarck's dismissal by Kaiser Wilhelm II. Growing up in the Kaiser's empire, Grosz volunteered on the outbreak of war in 1914 but in 1915 was discharged, unfit for service; in 1917 he was called up again, only to be discharged for good soon after. Following the revolution in Russia, an art­ists' association, the "November Group" was established in Berlin in 1918, and Grosz joined. At the end of that year he became a member of the Com­munist Party. In 1919, with the publisher Wieland Herzfelde (of Malik Pub­lishing), he started a magazine, "Die Pleite" (roughly: bankruptcy or disaster), and collaborated with Franz Jung on "Jedermann sein eigener Fuβball" (Everybody his own football) and with John Hoexter and Carl Einstein on "Der blutige Ernst" (The bloody seriousness). His drawings, tartly critical of society, appeared in various Malik publications; Grosz also produced portfo­lios and books. In 1921 he was prosecuted for defamation of the Reichswehr (army); in 1924 for offences against public morality; in 1928 for blasphemy. In 1924 he became chairman of the artists' association "Rote Gruppe" (Red Group); until 1927 he was a regular contributor to "Der Kniippel" (The Stick), a Communist satirical weekly. In 1927 he supplied drawings to assist Erwin Piscator in his stage production of "The Good Soldier Schwejk". In 1928 he was co-founder of the "Association Revolutionarer Bildender Kiinstler Deutschlands" (German Association of Revolutionary Artists). In 1932, in­vited to lecture to the Arts Student League in New York, Grosz visited the USA, and thfollowing year emigrated there together with his wife.

Ivo Kranzfelder