Periodicals played a central role in disseminating Expressionism. These serials, over the course of a few issues—or sometimes decades—built audiences for the new art and defined the scope of the movement. They were aimed not just at professionals (artists, critics, dealers, and publishers) and collectors, but also to the broader, educated middle classes in German society. By including original woodcuts, lithographs, and etchings in addition to reproductions, these periodicals also expanded the potential market of collectors. Some publications, like Herwarth Walden’s Der Sturm or Marées-Gesellschaft’s Ganymed, presented a mix of art and literature, while others were more narrowly focused, like Franz Pfemfert’s Die Aktion, which emphasized politics over art. The Museum has either complete runs or significant holdings of the eight periodicals featured here, which represent a range of positions on the movement.
View all periodicals in the German Expressionism collection »
Various Artists
In 1911 Franz Pfemfert, a cantankerous critic of capitalism and Wilhelmine society, founded Die Aktion… More »
Various Artists
In 1916, reflecting the increasing weariness with World War I in Germany, Paul Cassirer Verlag… More »
Various Artists
Ganymed was an influential Expressionist yearbook published in four volumes between 1919 and 1922… More »
Various Artists
Hans Mardersteig and Carl Georg Heise, friends at the University of Kiel, conceived Genius as a journal… More »
Various Artists
In August 1914, Paul Cassirer Verlag began publishing Kriegszeit, a weekly, four-page broadsheet… More »
Various Artists
Rosa Schapire, an art historian, and Wilhelm Niemeyer, a docent at Hamburg's school of arts and crafts… More »
Various Artists
Published monthly for sixteen years, Das Kunstblatt promoted the work of living artists… More »
Various Artists
Herwarth Walden, founder and sole editor of Der Sturm, once proclaimed: "I have never been… More »
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