Abstract

German artist George Grosz (born 1893) was a prolific illustrator and painter, particularly renowned for satirical caricature. Artistically active from the early years of the twentieth century until his death in 1959, Grosz’s leftist political activism and artistic production during the period of the Weimar Republic (1919-1933) made him a repeated target for the Weimar judiciary.

Although the 1919 Weimar constitution guaranteed freedom from artistic censorship, Grosz was prosecuted three times between 1921 and 1928. The second of these is the subject of my thesis: the 1923 accusation and subsequent trial of Grosz and his publishers for obscenity in the case of the 1922-23 portfolio Ecce Homo. Taking a multi-disciplinary approach complemented by a formal analysis of select portfolio images, I argue that while the portfolio’s contents could be considered obscene under a broad interpretation of the Weimar criminal code, the obscenity charge itself was a “means to an end”: Grosz’s representation of the sexual acts and behaviours of the bourgeois elites challenged their moral authority and therefore their right to wield power. Recognizing themselves in the work, the obscenity charge was leveraged by these elites as a tool to protect their own political interests.

Ultimately, my research serves as both a case study and reminder that even in societies that provide constitutional guarantees for freedom of the arts, the legal system can be manipulated by special interests to silence artists who pose a threat to powerful elites.