“We live in what might be the most exhilarating and exciting time ever to have been.” This is how the physician and publicist David Sarason described the eventful year of 1913. For the artists of the Brücke, this year meant the end of their cooperation. After quarrels surrounding their planned Chronik (Chronicle) of the artist group, the community dissolved in May 1913 in Berlin.

The exhibition 1913: The Brücke and Berlin presents a kaleidoscope of associations on this eventful year. Starting with the artists Erich Heckel, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff and Max Pechstein, the exhibition traces the inspirations from and narratives of the city of Berlin. Themes from the cabaret, circus, film and literature reveal the dense cultural context in which the artists worked. Kirchner’s quick sketches of the lively Potsdamer Platz testify to the diversity of the metropolis, just as much as Heckel’s portraits of the film star Asta Nielsen, and Schmidt-Rottluff’s scenes of Berlin’s cafés.

1913 is an expression of a certain attitude to life, not limited to the calendar year. The exhibition will examines this historic moment from a contemporary perspective and present both familiar and lesser known works from the collection of the Brücke-Museum.

A newspaper (in German and English), prepared in collaboration with journalist and author Florian Illies, accompanies the exhibition. The supporting programme of the exhibition reflects on the contemporary aspects of history to open up new and interdisciplinary perspectives on this significant year.