Major Project Influences (3) - John Heartfield

I first came across John Heartfield’s political photomontages in a small exhibition of his work at Tate Modern, London. Heartfield, along with fellow Germans George Grosz and Hannah Hoch, established the photomontage as an art form. As a member of the German Stalinist KPD party, Heartfield used this new art form in their weekly illustrated magazine, Arbeiter Illustrierte Zeitung (AIZ), to devastating effect as a satirical tool in order to lampoon the German Fascists and the moderate Social Democratic Party (SDP), which the Stalinists sought to portray as an organisation of “social fascists”, in the years following the First World War. Whilst Heartfield’s savage portrayal of the Fascist leaders was witheringly accurate, his lampooning of the SPD drove a wedge between his own party and that of the social democrats. This action was one of many factors that allowed the Fascists to rise to power, with devastating consequences for the world.

Heartfield’s life story reads like an action novel. Forced to leave Germany following Hitler’s seizure of power he fled to Czechoslovakia. Later, he was offered the chance to move to Moscow but wisely turned it down, as he would almost certainly have become a victim of one of Stalin’s “purges”. With the impending German occupation of Czechoslovakia becoming more inevitable (and Heartfield was number 5 on the Nazis’ “most wanted” list there) he moved to England where, as a German with strong left wing views, he enjoyed a less than comfortable time during the Second World War and also suffered from ill health. He returned to East Germany after the war, where he lived out his days quietly until his death in 1968.

So much for Heartfield the man, but what about Heartfield the artist? It is generally regarded that he used the new medium of photomontage to push political satire to new heights or, at the very least, to new extremes. An early, famous example of his work is shown below (image 1)

Image 1: "The Real Meaning of the Hitler Salute: Millions Stand Behind Me"

(AIZ no. 42, 16 October 1932)

In this photomontage Hitler is seen accepting money from a Nazi-funding industrialist, with the quote of “millions stand behind me” now referring to money, rather than to people. The concept for the photomontage is simple, yet brilliant but its execution must also have required much time and effort. Heartfield photographed an actor, who played the industrialist, before carefully introducing him into the montage. He did not carry out all the work himself, but exercised complete control over all the many processes involved to produce the montages. The end product was often used on the front cover of AIZ magazine. Ironically, Hitler came to power within a few months of the publication of this photomontage.

Heartfield continued to produce wonderful photomontages whilst in exile in Czechoslovakia, although the circulation of AIZ magazine was diminishing rapidly. One of his later classics is shown in image 2.

Image 2: "Hurrah, the Butter is Finished!"

(AIZ no. 51, 19 December 1935)

With the Nazis now in complete control of Germany, Goering stated in a speech in Hamburg that “metal makes an empire strong, butter only makes a people fat”. Presumably he was urging the German people to get their priorities right and increase industrial output, but Heartfield mocks the statement in a most amusing way. This complex photomontage must have taken many hours or possibly days to put together – a far cry from today’s speedy “Photoshop” edits.

Heartfield’s photomontages also featured on book jackets, but it will be for his trail blazing, strong, satirical work in the 1930s that he will be remembered. In many ways this work pre-empts the photomontage output of Peter Kennard, who is next on my list of influences.

Although I am using photomontage in an entirely different way to Heartfield, his inspired work has influenced my own. In particular his use of double exposure, in which the juxtaposition of images encourages the viewer to propose a link which tells a story, is at the heart of what I am trying to do. A recently published book by David King and Ernst Volland (“John Heartfield: Laughter is a Devastating Weapon” – Tate) provides an excellent overview of Heartfield’s life and work.