In Memoriam: Kathe Kollwitz

Throughout her artistic career, Kathe Kollwitz - born on this day in 1867 - concerned herself with the suffering inherent in the human condition. Her works usually depicted the victims of poverty, famine, and war.

After her son Peter died in World War I she spent the next 15 years, wracked by depression, making him a suitable memorial; The Grieving Parents was finally installed at the Belgian cemetery of Roggevelde in 1932, then later moved to the war cemetery at Vladslo, which is also in Belgium.

Though she and her husband were questioned by the Gestapo in 1936, likely because of their socialist leanings, her fame may have saved them. She died in April 1945, just weeks before the end of the war in Europe.
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