German Expressionism Exhibition at Mathildenhöhe

The Mathildenhöhe in Darmstadt sits above a hill, close to the city centre, and is the highest point in Darmstadt. It is a purpose built exhibition hall from late 1800s built by Darmstadt's Grand Duke, as part of a wider artist colony. It also features a Russian chapel built for the Tsar, and a wedding tower. Although, the artist colony is now gone, the beautiful houses remain, and many have been maintained by their current owners, either private citizens or various organizations.

I was not too aware of Expressionism, so I went in with an open mind. The exhibition had a wide range of exhibits, from all the various forms, painting, sculptures, movie clips, music clips, architecture models and drawings and stage costumes. The exhibits are largely chronological, tracing from the founding of the movement, through world war 1 to the end in the beginning of Nazi Germany. The exhibition itself ends with Mein Kampf, where the audio guide explains that Nazism's rigid control of everything was what brought the movement to the halt.

There was an array of interesting art works, where the whole motivation was "total art", which sounded very much like other similar labels, total football or total politics. Some of the ideas have persisted, such as glass architecture and weird and wonderful stage costumes. But there was also some very weird motivations for the artists, for example a number wanted world war 1 to happen, so that they could experience war first hand, and because they believed only a war would be able to reshape the worked to their point of view. After the horrors of war, which they often depicted in their works, they were left broken and it similarly impacted on their subsequent works.

It was an enlightening experience, and sheds some interesting perspective on at least a part of German life between the wars. That in itself makes it worthwhile.