Age of Turmoil: Art in Germany 1900–1923

Political change, rapid industrialisation and growing military strength combined to make Germany a leading international power by 1900. Yet the newly forged German state (federated in 1871) remained a contested structure which failed to reflect dramatic shifts in society and the economy.

A succession of artistic movements responded to these demanding circumstances: in 1898 the newly-formed Secession challenged the conservatism favoured by official Berlin, and was quickly followed by Expressionism and, after World War One, the Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity).

Age of Turmoil includes three sections dedicated to the work of Käthe Kollwitz, Karl Schmidt-Rotluff and Wilhelm Lehmbruck, and works by, amongst others, Max Beckmann, Lovis Corinth, George Grosz, Erich Heckel, Wassily Kandinsky, Oskar Kokoschka, Emil Nolde and Max Pechstein.