Der Sturm

Magazine published in Berlin from 1910 to 1932 which promoted the avant-garde in Germany. It is particularly well known for its reproduction of original Expressionist graphics and woodcuts. It was founded and edited by HERWARTH WALDEN, who had worked for brief periods as editor for the journals Der neue Weg and Das Theater (1908-10), before founding Der Sturm, the Sturm-Galerie (1911-27) and the Sturm publishing house. Der Sturm was an important carrier of the work and ideas of leading German and European modernist writers and painters before World War I and introduced the work of the Italian Futurists and French Cubists to Germany; it also, however, included articles on a wide variety of topical issues, including birth control, women's rights and legal cases. The use of daily-newspaper format (three columns in bold Roman type) meant that artistic affairs appeared as 'news', allowing Der Sturm to play a polemical role in contemporary debates. Walden's own editorials were mostly satirical, including vicious attacks on German cultural nationalism, the parochial tastes and prejudices of the German bourgeoisie, and, above all, art criticism.

See the Abbreviations for further details.

Sturm, Der, a radical artistic periodical published and edited by H. Walden from 1910 to 1932, supporting Expressionism (see Expressionismus) in literature and painting. Among the writers associated with it are E. Arendt, G. Benn, Döblin, H. Essig, R. Goering, K. Heynicke, A. Holz, K. Kraus, E. Lasker-Schüler, A. Stramm, L. Schreyer, P. Zechm, W. Mehring, and K. Schwitters, whose preface to Anna Blume. Selbstbestimmungsrecht des Künstlers was published in it. Painters it supported included Marc, Chagall, Kokoschka, and W. Kandinsky.

Originally a weekly, Der Sturm appeared from 1916 to 1932, when it ceased publication, as a monthly periodical. For a few years, until 1921, it sponsored the Kunstbühne in Berlin (also known as Sturm-Bühne), founded by L. Schreyer, who, with Nell Walden, published Der ‘Sturm’. Ein Erinnerungsbuch an H. Walden und die Künstler aus dem Sturmkreis (1954).

Der Sturm for October 1917. Cover art by Rudolf Bauer

Der Sturm (German: The Storm) was a magazine of expressionism founded in Berlin in 1910 by Herwarth Walden. Originally running weekly, and then monthly in 1914, it became a quarterly in 1924 until it ceased publication in 1932.

Among the literary contributors were Peter Altenberg, Max Brod, Richard Dehmel, Anatole France, Knut Hamsun, Arno Holz, Karl Kraus, Selma Lagerlöf, Adolf Loos, Heinrich Mann, Paul Scheerbart, René Schickele. Der Sturm consisted of pieces such as expressionistic dramas (i.e. from Hermann Essig and August Stramm), artistic portfolios (Oskar Kokoschka), essays from artists (the Kandinsky Album), and theoretical writings on art from Herwarth Walden. The most well-known publications resulting from the magazine were the Sturmbücher (storm-books), (e.g. Sturmbücher 1 and 2 were works of August Stramm – Sancta Susanna und Rudimentär). Postcards were also created featuring the expressionistic, cubist, and abstract art of Franz Marc, Wassily Kandinsky, Oskar Kokoschka, August Macke, Gabriele Münter, Georg Schrimpf, Maria Uhden, Rudolf Bauer and others. The term Sturm was branded by Walden to represent the way in which modern art was penetrating Germany at the time.

Particularly in the time before outbreak of the World War I, Der Sturm played a crucial role in the French-German exchange of expressionist artists, which led to a special relationship between Berlin and Paris. Regularly, poems and other texts of French and/or French-speaking expressionists were published (Guillaume Apollinaire, Blaise Cendrars, etc). This relationship was renewed after the war despite the hostilities between the two countries caused by the fighting.

The Gallery

The magazine also fostered the Galerie Der Sturm, started by Walden to celebrate its 100th edition, in 1912. The gallery became the focus for Berlin's modern art scene for a decade. Starting with an exhibition of Fauves and Der Blaue Reiter, followed by the introduction in Germany of the Italian Futurists, the gallery was to exhibit Edvard Munch, Georges Braque, Pablo Picasso, Robert Delaunay, Gino Severini, Jean Arp, Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, and Kurt Schwitters.

After the war, Walden expanded Der Sturm into Sturmabende, lectures and discussions on modern art, and Die Sturmbühne, an expressionist theatre, as well as publishing books and portfolios by leading artists such as Oskar Kokoschka. Despite this, the gallery declined in importance after the war and closed in 1924, leaving the magazine to carry on as a quarterly until it too closed in 1932.^[1]

See also

• Die Aktion

Notes

1. ^ Encyclopedia Britannica Online [1]

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