The Nation, MARCH 26, 2021
The Night the Nazis Came to Murder My Grandfather
John Heartfield was a lifelong foe of fascism who used his art as a
weapon—and whose devastating portrayals of Hitler, Goering, and
Mussolini nearly cost him his life.
By John J Heartfield and Lance Hansen
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<https://www.thenation.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Heartfield-1929-Cutting_Head_img.jpg>
*Razor-sharp:*Heartfield depicts himself cutting into the neck of Berlin
Police Commissioner Karl Zörgiebel.(Courtesy of John J. Heartfield)
As World War I decimated a generation, a young Berlin artist born Helmut
Herzfeld changed his name to John Heartfield to protest out-of-control
German nationalism. In 1918, he was a founding member of Berlin Club
Dada—a group of artistic rebels whose influence in all areas of culture
continues to this day.
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*The face of fascism:*John Heartfield’s 1928 portrait of Benito
Mussolini.(Courtesy of John J. Heartfield)
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*The beast within:*Heartfield’s devastating portrait of Hitler made him
one of the Gestapo’s most-wanted men.(Courtesy of John J. Heartfield)
<https://www.thenation.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Heartfield-1933-Goering_the_Executioner_img.jpg>
*Serial killer:*This portrait of Hermann Göring standing before a
burning Reichstag is titled/The Executioner of the Third
Reich/.(Courtesy of John J. Heartfield)
Heartfield revolutionized the look of German book jackets and set
design. He was a lifelong pacifist whose political beliefs were a
constant in his art; his stunning collages, known as “photomontages,”
exposed the growing threat of fascism in Europe. Using just scissors and
paste, Heartfield employed an extensive visual memory and a searing wit
to expose the horrors hidden under fascism’s shiny surface. One month
after becoming the undisputed leader of Germany, Adolf Hitler ordered
Heartfield’s arrest. The artist narrowly avoided an SS squad, escaping
to Czechoslovakia, where he continued to attack the Third Reich with his
“art as a weapon.” When the German Army entered Czechoslovakia in 1938,
Heartfield was high on the Gestapo’s most-wanted list. Once again, he
narrowly escaped—this time to London, where for 12 years he enjoyed a
measure of peace. However, the Czech Refugee Fund denied his written
request to remain in England for “his health and his work.” In 1950 his
brother Wieland brought him to East Germany, where Heartfield’s years in
England again placed him under suspicion. However Heartfield had
powerful allies there, including his lifelong friend and theater
collaborator Bertolt Brecht. After Heartfield’s death in 1968, the East
German government gathered his original montages, models, and sketches
into an archive of his pioneering stage design work, which was virtually
inaccessible for many years—making it almost impossible for academics or
the public to view his original work. In 2008, I decided to reintroduce
the world to the life and work of my grandfather, a man Brecht called
“one of the most important European artists.”
I first met artist Lance Hansen after/The Nation/published Lance’s
graphic biography of George Grosz, who had been Heartfield’s close
friend and collaborator. Lance originally asked me to work with him on a
comic strip about my grandfather. But I thought Lance’s initial drawings
captured my grandfather’s character so well that I suggested we
collaborate on a graphic novel telling John Heartfield’s extraordinary
life story. Please visitJohnHeartfieldExhibition.com
<http://johnheartfieldexhibition.com/>to learn more.
<https://www.thenation.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Hansen-Heartfield-1_img.jpg>
<https://www.thenation.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Hansen-Heartfield-2_img.jpg>
John J Heartfield
<https://www.thenation.com/authors/john-j-heartfield/>John J Heartfield
is the artist John Heartfield’s paternal grandson. He giveslive
interactive presentations
<https://www.johnheartfield.com/John-Heartfield-Exhibition/>around the
world that focus on his grandfather’s life and work and modern political
art.
Lance Hansen <https://www.thenation.com/authors/lance-hansen/>Lance
Hansen <https://www.lancehansenillustration.com/>is a writer and
cartoonist living in Philadelphia. His work regularly appears in/The
American Bystander/ and on /The Weekly Humorist/.
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