Ernst Barlach - WordShapes

Beggars, witches, prophets: the starving, freezing, crying, but also the singing, dancing, laughing and dreaming figures were for Ernst Barlach realistic "symbols for the human situation in its nakedness between heaven and earth". The sculptor and draftsman became a maverick of German Expressionism and achieved world fame.

In addition, Barlach dedicated his life to poetic projects. However, with the exception of his award-winning dramas, the writer remained mostly hidden from the public. Especially since only two smaller prose fragments and his autobiography were published until his death. The posthumous publications of his literary works, however, have proven that Barlach neither was a poet-sculptor nor a sculptor-writer, but that the two creative styles were in a permanent relationship of tension, mutually promoting and conditioning each other.