New Objectivity - 909

Narrator (m):

The advertising pillar—the symbol of communication and advertising in large cities—was a recurring element in New Objective paintings and was employed, for example, Rudolf Schlichter in his portrait of Egon Erwin Kisch id 1927 to characterize the person portrayed.

Narrator (f):

Born in Prague, Kisch, who is known to history as the “racing reporter” after his eponymous book, Der rasende Reporter, always had his finger of the pulse of the era when reporting from the United States, the Soviet Union, China, and North Africa. The advertising pillar seen behind him in Schlichter’s painting offers hints of the broad spectrum of his interests and—with the poster for the Communist Red Aid—of his political views. It is no coincidence that Kirsch is shown standing in front of the Romanisches Café in Berlin, a legendary meeting place of artists and intellectuals in the 1920s. In the foreword to Der rasende Reporter, Kisch wrote in 1925:

Narrator (m):

“Nothing is more amazing than the simple truth, nothing is more exotic than our surroundings, nothing is more imaginative than objectivity. And there is nothing more sensational in the world than the times in which one lives. […] The reporter has no tendency, has nothing to justify, and has no viewpoint. He has to be an unbiased witness and offer unbiased testimony.”

Narrator (f):

The Rudolf Schlichter’s life story reflects the complexity of his time: Initially, he was involved in leftist political organizations and was a member of the Communist Party. At the end of the 1920s, however, he distanced himself from the Berlin avant-garde and, influenced by his wife, turned to Catholicism. When he moved back to his native city of Calw in 1932, he came into contact with the nationalist, conservative circle around Ernst Jünger. Schlichter thus broke with his past as a leftist artist, but that did not keep him from being temporarily banned from his profession in 1933.