Käthe Kollwitz - Bilder eines Lebens

Portrait of the artist Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945), who was always close to social movements. Beyond just showing a sequence of stages in her life, the film seeks to trace her artistic impulse and relate it to the political events of the 20th century. Kollwitz grows up in Königsberg and studies in Berlin, where she lives in the former workers' district of Prenzlauer Berg. She creates graphics and sculptures and teaches at the Berlin School for Women Artists. During World War I her son is killed and Kollwitz becomes a radical pacifist. In 1932 she signs an appeal against the National Socialists and is expelled from the Academy of Arts after their seizure of power. She dies shortly before the end of the Second World War.