"Born in Berlin in 1891, John Heartfield grew up in Germany during the formative years of the main modern movements: Expressionism, Cubism, Futurism, each of which contributed recognisably to the photomontages for which he would become famous. Sharply critical of the Weimar Republic in which he flourished, in Germany his work was banned for the duration of Hitler's Third Reich. In London, where he lived as an anti-Fascist exile throughout the Second World War, he remained an outsider till after his return to East Germany in 1950, It is only since the 1970s that he has become a European, if not a world figure."--Cover

Working in Germany between the two world wars, John Heartfield (born Helmut Herzfeld, 1891–1968) developed an innovative method of appropriating and reusing photographs to powerful political effect. As a pioneer of modern photomontage, he sliced up mass media photos with his iconic scissors and then reassembled the fragments into compositions that utterly transformed the meaning of the originals. In John Heartfield and the Agitated Image, Andrés Mario Zervigón explores this crucial period in the life and work of a brilliant, radical artist whose desire to disclose the truth obscured by the mainstream press and imperial propaganda made him a de facto prosecutor of Germany’s visual culture. Zervigón charts the evolution of Heartfield’s photomontage from an act of antiwar resistance into a formalized and widely disseminated political art in the Weimar Republic. Appearing on everything from campaign posters to book covers, the photomonteur’s notorious pictures challenged well-worn assumption and correspondingly walked a dangerous tightrope over the political, social, and cultural cauldron that was interwar Germany. Zervigón explains how Heartfield’s engagement with montage arose from a broadly-shared dissatisfaction with photography’s capacity to represent the modern world. The result was likely the most important combination of avant-garde art and politics in the twentieth century. A rare look at Heartfield’s early and middle years as an artist and designer, this book provides a new understanding of photography’s role at this critical juncture in history.

The political collages of John Heartfield (1891-1968) have earned him a reputation as one of the most innovative graphic artists of the Weimar Republic. His photomontages and book covers based on collages which had their origins in Berlin's Dada scene were directed against Fascism and made him internationally famous. Their explosive power has lost none of its impact. Heartfield was a sharp and uncompromising observer who subverted the documentary character of the press photograph. He employed his art as political propaganda, and fought against war and Fascism with gripping pictures and trenchant humour. This catalogue will include not only the working materials which reveal Heartfield's method but also his trick films, work for the theatre and book design. The original art-works and documents all derive from his personal estate in Berlin. Statements by contemporary artists formulate positions and pose questions, which Heartfield's work raises in the age of fake news. Exhibition: Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Germany (21.03. - 21.06.2020) / Museum de Fundatie, Zwolle, The Netherlands (27.09.2020 - 03.01.2021) / Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK (27.06. - 26.09.2021).

"Kurt Tucholsky (1890-1935) achieved popular success in Germany before the First World War with a witty and sensitive novel of young love. But he is best known for his work as a satirist and critic, most of it written as a left-wing journalist in Berlin during the twenties and the years leading up to the Nazis, the fateful Weimar years. He is considered by some an exemplar of the intemperately critical spirit that doomed Weimar--a cautionary and bitter footnote to an era; by others, an indispensable moral and prophetic voice of the period, basically correct in his assessments and values." -- Book jacket.

Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch (author of Making Bombs for Hitler and Stolen Girl) delivers a gripping story about the bonds of friendship forged in the perils of war. In the grip of World War II, Maria has realized that her Nazi-occupied Ukrainian town is no longer safe. Though she and her family might survive, her friend Nathan, who is Jewish, is in grave danger. So Maria and Nathan flee -- into the heart of Hitler's Reich in Austria.There, they hope to hide in plain sight by blending in with other foreign workers. But their plans are disrupted when they are separated, sent to work in different towns.With no way to communicate with Nathan, how can Maria keep him safe? And will they be able to escape Hitler's web of destruction?

Based on the real-life scheme to take down one of history's greatest monsters, this heart-pounding trilogy puts two courageous kids at the center of the plot to kill Adolf Hitler. Berlin, November 1943. With bombing raids commencing, the city is blanketed by explosions. Siblings Gerta and Max Hoffmann live a surprisingly carefree childhood amid the raids. Berlin is a city going about its business, even as it's attacked almost nightly. But one night, the air raid sirens wail, and the Hoffmanns' neighborhood is hit. A mortally wounded man comes to their door, begging to be let in. He asks for Karl Hoffmann, their father. Gerta and Max watch as Karl tries in vain to save the man's life. Before he dies, the stranger gives their father a bloodstained packet of documents, along with a message: "For the sake of humanity, the Führer must die. Finish it, Karl!" Based on real events, this is the story of two children swept up in a fight for the soul of Germany -- and the world.

Among the many studies on German National Socialism that have appeared in the last forty to fifty years, one aspect has seldom been treated in detail: the cultural representations of Adolf Hitler from the late 1920s to the present. This book focuses on the image of Hitler in literature, photography, historiography, film, philosophy, theatre, and comic books by major artists and scholars such as Ernst Ottwalt, Heinrich Hoffmann, Bertolt Brecht, John Hearfield, Leni Riefenstahl, Charles Chaplin, Theodor W. Adorno, Heiner Muller, and George Tabori.