November Group (German) - Weimar Republic

Weimar Republic

The artists of the November group described themselves as radical and revolutionary. Their work, like that of the similar Arbeitsrat für Kunst, aimed to support a socialist revolution in Germany. A key objective of the group was the union of art and the people. Furthermore, the group tried to influence public and cultural aspects of society.

In 1921, artists from the left wing of the November Group called for an end to the "bourgeois development" of the artists. The declaration was signed by Otto Dix, George Grosz, Raoul Hausmann, John Heartfield, Hannah Höch, Rudolf Schlichter and Georg Scholz.

In 1922, the decentralised November Group restructured away from a conglomeration of local groups and became part of the "Cartel of advanced artistic groups in Germany" (Kartell fortschrittlicher Künstlergruppen in Deutschland).

A synthesis of styles is a characteristic of the group, often referred to as cubo-futo-expressionism, (Kubofutoexpressionismus) but really the group had quite disparate output which makes classification rather problematic.

As well as painters, there were many artists from other disciplines such as architecture and music. The musicians became one of the driving forces under their leader Max Butting (later replaced by Hans Heinz Stuckenschmidt).

The November Group held regular art festivals, costume parties, studio visits, literary and musical events.