Der Sturm

Der Sturm
Cover art by Rudolf Bauer (1889 - 1953). · Public domain · source
Title	Der Sturm
Firstdate	1910
Finaldate	1932
Country	German Empire; Weimar Republic
Language	German

Der Sturm was an influential avant-garde magazine and gallery founded in 1910 in Berlin that became a central organ for Expressionism, Futurism, Cubism, Dada, and Constructivism during the early 20th century. It linked artists, writers, and theorists across Europe, promoting experimental painting, poetry, theater, and architecture while organizing exhibitions, readings, and performances. The magazine's networks extended to major figures and institutions in Paris, Moscow, Vienna, Berlin, Zurich, Prague, and New York, contributing to cross-border debates about modern art and modernity.

History

Founded in 1910 by Herwarth Walden in Berlin, the magazine emerged amid debates involving Die Brücke, Der Blaue Reiter, Blaise Cendrars, Ferdinand Léger, and Gustav Klimt. Early issues published manifestos and reproductions by artists associated with Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Henri Matisse, Marc Chagall, and Amadeo Modigliani. During the 1910s the periodical and its affiliated gallery staged exhibitions with participants from Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Franz Marc, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, and Max Pechstein. The outbreak of World War I affected contributors including Marcel Duchamp, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Kazimir Malevich, and Aleksandr Rodchenko, prompting debates with writers from Paris, Milan, St. Petersburg, and Zurich. In the 1920s, connections extended to institutions like the Bauhaus, the Deutscher Werkbund, Neue Sachlichkeit critics, and émigré circles around New York and Paris. Financial and political pressures during the early 1930s, alongside the rise of Nationalsozialismus, led to the magazine's closure in 1932.

Editorial Profile and Contributors

The magazine's editorial line reflected the tastes of Herwarth Walden and collaborators such as Else Lasker-Schüler, Franz Pfemfert, Alfred Grünwald, and guest editors from Paris and Milan. Poets and writers who appeared included Rainer Maria Rilke, Gottfried Benn, Georg Trakl, Stefan George, Bertolt Brecht, George Grosz, and Hermann Hesse. Visual artists featured encompassed Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh, Édouard Manet, Claude Monet, Edvard Munch, Oskar Kokoschka, Otto Dix, Kurt Schwitters, Theo van Doesburg, Wassily Kandinsky (again), and El Lissitzky. Architects and designers associated with the magazine and exhibitions included Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier, Erich Mendelsohn, and Peter Behrens. Music and theater collaborators included Arnold Schoenberg, Igor Stravinsky, Erwin Piscator, and Vsevolod Meyerhold. Critics and theorists such as Clement Greenberg, John Golding, Herbert Read, Siegfried Kracauer, Theodor W. Adorno, and Walter Benjamin engaged the debates the magazine fostered.

Literary and Artistic Influence

The publication catalyzed dialogues among movements like Expressionism, Futurism, Cubism, Dada, Constructivism, Surrealism, and Neue Sachlichkeit. Its exhibitions in Berlin promoted contacts with galleries such as La Section d'Or, Galerie Der Sturm patrons, and international shows that reached Moscow with connections to Vladimir Tatlin, Alexander Rodchenko, and Nikolai Puni. Writers and painters influenced by the magazine were referenced in later histories involving Surrealist Manifesto, Man Ray, André Breton, Paul Éluard, Louis Aragon, Max Ernst (again), and the film avant-garde around Dziga Vertov and Sergei Eisenstein. Academic studies later linked the magazine to exhibitions at institutions like the Museum of Modern Art, the Tate Modern, the Centre Pompidou, the Stedelijk Museum, the Neue Nationalgalerie, and the Kunsthaus Zürich.

Publication Content and Themes

Content combined manifestos, poetry, short fiction, art reproductions, critical essays, and reports on exhibitions and performances. Essays debated formal innovations discussed alongside contributions from Marcel Proust, James Joyce, Thomas Mann, Franz Kafka, Paul Valéry, Gustave Flaubert, and Charles Baudelaire. Thematic concerns ranged over pictorial space and form associated with Cubism and Futurism, theatrical experiments tied to Bertolt Brecht and Vsevolod Meyerhold, aesthetic theory in the line of Wassily Kandinsky and Arnold Schoenberg, and utopian proposals from Constructivist architects such as Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius. Reports also covered exhibitions and performances connected to the Bauhaus, the Deutscher Werkbund, Salon d'Automne, and the Venice Biennale.

Reception and Controversies

Reception ranged from enthusiastic endorsement by avant-garde networks to sharp criticism from conservative journals, nationalist groups, and rival modernist circles. Controversies included polemics with proponents of Naturalism, clashes with cultural figures sympathetic to Wilhelm II's patrons, disputes over the display of works by Pablo Picasso and Marcel Duchamp, and debates about the magazine's perceived politicization amid the upheavals of Revolution of 1918–1919 in Germany and the rise of Nationalsozialismus. Legal and financial difficulties intersected with ideological attacks from newspapers and periodicals allied to figures such as Alfred Hugenberg and other media magnates. Long-term legacies were contested in postwar scholarship by critics associated with Frankfurt School members like Theodor W. Adorno and Walter Benjamin, as well as art historians writing for exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art and the Tate Modern.

Category:German magazines Category:Art magazines Category:Avant-garde