Rajesh PunjabiGR616 - Making Ideas VisibleInfluencesJohn Heartfield

In 1891, John Heartfield was born as Helmut Herzfelde in Berlin, Germany. As a child he, his younger brother, and two sisters were abandoned in the woods by their parents. The children spent time with their uncle in the town of Aigens, in Germany. Heartfield became an apprentice bookseller in 1905 before moving to Munich to study at the Royal Bavarian Arts and Crafts School from 1908-1911. Herzfelde began an internship as a graphic artist in Mannheim but returned to Berlin and attended school until 1914.

At the start of WWI in 1916, Germany developed a anti-British attitude that led to Helmut Herzfelde to protest by changing his name to John Heartfield. In 1917, Heartfield became a member for the German Communist Party (KPD) and a follower of the Dada movement, which included Hannah Hoch, Edwin Piscator, and Bertolt Brecht. He then founded the Malik-Verlag publishing house, along with his brother Wieland Herzfelde and George Grosz, for which he was in charge of the graphics. They would be responsible for the publication of Die Pleite, a German periodical of their own creation which was in production from 1919-1924. The magazine was noted for its criticisms and challenges against the German government prior to Nazi occupation known as the Weimar Republic. (Figure 5.1)

From 1924-1933, Heartfield’s reputation grew and spread through his designs for the magazine, AIZ (Arbeiter Illustrierte Zeitung or The Workers Pictorial Newpaper). The magazine functioned as the main publication for the Communist party throughout the war. He used a form of photomontage, which combines photographs often with other mediums, with heavy political themes. His fame would reach its peak with The Hand Has Five Fingers (Figure 5.2), which contains an image of a workers hand and the caption, “5 fingers make a hand! With these 5 grab the enemy.” Heartfield worked on his propaganda for AIZ in Berlin until 1933 (Figure 5.3), when the Nation-al Socialists came to power and the SS attempted to apprehend him. He escaped and fled to Prague, Czechoslova-kia where the publication of AIZ had also relocated (Figures 5.4 - 5.7).

After Czechoslovakia fell victim to Nazi invasion in 1938, Heartfield moved to Hampstead for a year until moving to the United States with his brother and family in 1939. He remained in the United States for the duration of WWII designing covers for Penguin Books among other thing. John made attempt to return to Berlin in 1950 but the German Police were reluctant to grant Heartfield admission considering his time spent in England. As a result, he was not allowed to work as an artist and was denied health benefits but he built theater sets for Picator and Brecht.

In 1956, with support from Brecht and Stefan Heym, Heartfield was admitted to the East German Akademie der Kunste (Academy of Arts). He continued his work there, although the theme of his photomontages focused on the threat of nuclear war, until his death on April 26th, 1968 in Berlin, Germany.

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[Pg 2, Top Left] Die Pleite, Issue No. 3 (Cover). April 1919. John Heartfield, Wieland Herzfelde, George Grosz. Malik-Verlag Publishing.

[Pg 2, Top Right] The Hand Has Five Fingers (5 Finger hat die Hand). 1928. John Heartfield. Off-set lithograph on ivory wove paper, laid down on coated white wove paper, lined with canvas971 x 697 mm. Ada Turnbull Hertle Fund, 2009.290

[Pg 2, Bottom Left] Adolf, the Superman, Swallows Gold and Spouts Tin. July 1932. John Heart-field. Copper-plate photomontage. From AIZ Magazine. Research Library, The Getty Research Institute

[Pg 2, Bottom Right] The old motto of the New Empire: Blood and Iron. March 1934. John Heart-field. Photomontage. AIZ Magazine. Research Library, The Getty Research Institute

[Pg 3, Left] War and Corpses: The Last Hope of the Rich. April 1934. John Heartfield. Photomon-tage. AIZ Magazine. Research Library, The Getty Research Institute

[Pg 3, Right] The Voice of Freedom in the German Night on Radio Wave 29.8. April 1937. John Heartfield. Photomontage. Die Volks-Illustrierte. Research Library, The Getty Research Institute