Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Weinstube, 1913 Photo: Brücke-Museum, Berlin/Nick Ash © Karl Schmidt-Rottluff/ Bildupphovsrätt 2024
The founders of Brücke
Biographies
Fritz Bleyl (1881–1966)
Starting in 1901, Fritz Bleyl studies architecture at the Technical College in Dresden, where he befriends Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and, in time, also Erich Heckel and Karl Schmidt. They found Brücke together in 1905. A couple of later, in 1907, Bleyl moves to Freiberg to teach at an architecture school. He marries that same year and leaves Brücke to focus on his architecture career.
Erich Heckel (1883–1970)
Erich Heckel gets to know Karl Schmidt in school in Chemnitz. He enrols in architecture studies at the Technical College in Dresden in 1904, where he becomes friends with Fritz Bleyl and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. In 1905 they found Brücke, and Heckel gives up his studies the following year to dedicate himself to his art and organize Brücke’s activities. In 1911 he moves to Berlin, along with other Brücke members. After the group disbands in 1913 and following the First World War, he becomes involved in radical groups and continues his artistic career, all while being active as a teacher.
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880–1938)
During his architecture studies at the Technical College in Dresden, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner becomes friends with Fritz Bleyl and, later, with Erich Heckel and Karl Schmidt. In 1905 he graduates as an engineer and co-founds Brücke. He moves to Berlin in 1911, like other members of the group. Following Brücke’s dissolution in 1913 and the breakout of the war in 1914, Kirchner’s mental health deteriorates, and he leaves Germany. Depressed and despondent about Germany’s political and social evolution, he commits suicide in 1938.
Karl Schmidt-Rottluff (1884–1976)
In 1905, after studying architecture at the Technical College in Dresden, Karl Schmidt becomes one of the founders of the artist group Brücke. He later adds Rottluff to his name, after his birthplace. In 1911 he moves, like other Brücke members, to Berlin. After the disbanding of Brücke in May 1913, Schmidt-Rottluff serves in the First World War and goes on to have a long career as a teacher and painter. He donates his works to the City of Berlin in 1964, laying the foundations for the Brücke-Museum.
Otto Mueller (1874–1930)
After studying at the Dresden Art Academy, Otto Mueller moves to Berlin in 1908. He is a member of Brücke from 1910 until the group disbands in 1913. Following his military service, he continues his artistic career and becomes an appreciated, unconventional, and distinctly anti-bourgeois teacher at the Breslau art academy, where he remains until his death.
Emil Nolde (1867–1956)
Emil Hansen studies woodcutting and illustration in his youth, and later teaches drawing at a school for applied arts in Switzerland. Starting in 1898, he begins to take private lessons in painting and acquaints himself with the new international art scene in Paris. He changes his last name to Nolde, after his birthplace, and moves to Berlin, where he meets Karl Schmidt. After being a member of Brücke between 1906 and 1907, he continues a highly productive career as an artist.
Max Pechstein (1881–1955)
Max Pechstein studies decorative painting and fine arts in Dresden for several years. When he joins Brücke in 1906, he is the only member with a formal art degree. He moves to Berlin in 1908 and is expelled from the group in 1912 when he fails to comply with the group’s decision to not exhibit with the so-called Secession. He is drafted for military service during the war and, following armistice, has a long and successful career as an artist and teacher.
