German printmaker and sculptor. She received her first art
tuition from Rudolph Mauer (1845–1905) in Königsberg in 1881.
She continued her training in 1885 in Berlin under Karl
Stauffer-Bern and in 1888 under Ludwig Herterich (1856–1932) in
Munich. Influenced by the prints of Max Klinger, which had been
brought to her attention by Stauffer-Bern, she devoted herself
to this form and gave up painting after 1890. She first produced
etchings and lithographs but later also woodcuts. From 1891 she
lived in Berlin where she had her first success: the portfolio
of three lithographs and three etchings, A Weavers’ Revolt
(1895–8; Washington, DC, N.G.A.), inspired by Gerhard
Hauptmann’s play Die Weber, was shown at the Grosse Berliner
Kunstausstellung. Kollwitz joined the Secession in Berlin and
was appointed to a special teaching post at the
Künstlerinnenschule. Kollwitz was indebted stylistically to
naturalism, but her preferred subject-matter was linked to the
emerging workers’ movement. Her prints on themes of socia