The Somme tourist board

Their utopia, however, was more artistic than ideological: they hoped that a new creative world would rise up from the ashes of the old. Some of those who expressed post-war despair, such as Otto Dix or Georges Grosz, are familiar, but the hope that grew out of it and the artistic and literary work that spread that hope are less well-known. The exhibition brings to light a major aspect of German creativity of that period.

The exhibition shows an important but often underrated aspect of creative talent across the Rhine between 1914 and 1924. It was jointly organised by the University of Heinrich Heine, Düsseldorf and the Institute of Modern Studies in the Rhineland, with the support of France Culture.

Art was to allow the creation of a new humanity and civilisation. The killing, wounding and destruction of bodies and souls were to become the central theme of their productions: Otto Dix, Gert Wollheim, Else Lasker-Schüler, Ernst Toller, Gustav Landauer, and many others, contributed to this collective project to first expose and then to overcome the horrors of World War One. They were united by their longing for a better world.