George Grosz was born on July 26, 1893 in Berlin as Georg Ehrenfried Groß. As a child, with the support of his teacher, he enthusiastically copied drawings. After successfully completing his studies at the Royal Art Academy in Dresden and at the arts and crafts school in Berlin with Emil Orlik, some of his caricatures were published in German newspapers such as Ulk and Funny Leaves.
From 1916 onwards, he called himself "George Grosz" because he no longer wanted to bear a German name as an opponent of the war. During this time, he created many drawings showing war scenes. Through publications in the monthly magazine "Deutsche Jugend" and in Theodor Däubler's literary magazine "Die weissen Blätter" Grosz became known and came into contact with the art patrons Falk, Harry Graf Kessler and later Felix Weil. After the war, George Grosz, according to his own statements, put his art in the service of the proletariat and joined the KPD in 1919. The first publications followed as well as a solo exhibition in Munich. In 1920 he was co-organizer of the "First International Dada Fair" in Berlin and developed into a chronicler and critic of his time. The main subjects of his many paintings were militarism and the conservative-reactionary bourgeoisie. Because of his social criticism, he often came into conflict with the judiciary. Experiences during his five-month trip to Russia in 1922, the meeting with Lenin and Leo Trotsky reinforced Grosz's mistrust of any form of dictatorial authority and prompted him to withdraw from the KPD in 1923.
He remained politically active and founded with intrer alia Max Pechstein the "Club 1926 e.V.", a society for politics, science and art.
Induced by a teaching assignment that he received in 1932, Grosz emigrated to New York in 1933. He worked there for American satirical newspapers. Despite several exhibitions and publications, the expected success in America did not materialize. In Germany, his previous work was now considered to be "degenerate art" due to the seizure of power by the National Socialists.
In 1946 George Grosz published his autobiography "A Little Yes and a Big No", in 1951 he made his first trip to Germany after the war. It was not until the mid-1950s that he received recognition, in 1954 became a member of the prestigious "American Academy of Arts and Letters" and in 1958 an extraordinary member of the Academy of the Arts in Berlin. A year later, shortly after moving back to Berlin, George Grosz died on July 5, 1959.
