New Objectivity - 925

Narrator (m):

Berlin in particular had undergone an enormous evolution in the first decades of the twentieth century, but urbanization was progressing in Munich and Stuttgart as well and spiked after the war ended. Wilhelm Heise celebrated progress in a descriptive and documentary form in loving detail:

Narrator (f):

In 1935, he painted Stiglmaierplatz in Munich at Night. From an elevated perspective, he offers viewers an intricate, panorama-like view of the illuminated square full of people, on foot, on bicycles or mopeds, in cars or streetcars—an image of urban life made possible by progress and technology.

Narrator (m):

After Heise had participated in numerous exhibitions in Germany and abroad in the 1920 and 1930s, five of paintings were confiscated as so-called “degenerate art” in 1937 and destroyed. Nevertheless, Heise continued to receive commissions under the National Socialists. He held first a professorship of graphic art at the academy of art in Königsberg (now Kaliningrad) and from 1943 a chair at the Städel-Schule in Frankfurt am Main. After World War II ended, he took over its directorship and reorganization as the State College of the Fine Arts.