Sculptpedia Statues, Busts and Sculptures Park sculptures and installations Ancient World & Antiquity Middle Ages & Renaissance Marble & Other Stones Bronze & Other Metals

Mourning Parents

Mourning Parents is a two-part sculptural group by German artist Käthe Kollwitz, dedicated to her youngest son Peter, who was killed in the First World War in 1914. Made of Belgian granite, it is regarded as Kollwitz’s major sculptural work. After 18 years of work, the group was first shown in Berlin’s National Gallery in summer 1932 and then installed on 23 July 1932 at the German military cemetery Esen-Roggeveld in Belgium. It was later moved after the cemetery’s reorganization and is now on the German war cemetery in Vladslo, West Flanders, near Peter Kollwitz’s grave.

The Mourning Parents sculpture with two kneeling stone figures on separate pedestals outdoors.
Käthe Kollwitz’s Mourning Parents shown as two kneeling stone figures on separate pedestals.
August 2006 © · Public domain
Mourning Parents stone statues by Käthe Kollwitz in a wooded setting, with one figure standing upright and the other bent forward.
Mourning Parents by Käthe Kollwitz, shown as two stone figures in a woodland setting.
December 2020 © · CC BY-SA 4.0
A grainy black-and-white photograph of the Mourning Parents sculpture, showing a robed figure kneeling with its head bowed on a low base outdoors.
Mourning Parents sculpture shown in a black-and-white photograph, with the robed figure kneeling in grief outdoors.
© Unknown authorUnknown author · Public domain
Käthe Kollwitz\'s lying dead soldier sculpture shown full length in military uniform against a dark wall.
Käthe Kollwitz’s lying dead soldier, a plaster model for Mourning Parents, shown in a sepia-toned photograph.
© Unknown authorUnknown author · Public domain
Hand-drawn cemetery site plan with German annotations, showing paths, trees, and the placement of the Mourning Parents sculpture group.
Site plan for the Roggeveld cemetery showing the planned placement of Käthe Kollwitz’s Mourning Parents sculpture group.
1932 © Unknown authorUnknown author · CC BY 3.0

Identification

TitleMourning Parents
Original German titleTrauerndes Elternpaar
Polish titleOpłakujący rodzice
TypeTwo-part figural group

Historical context

Created asA memorial to Käthe Kollwitz's son Peter and to all the fallen in war
Dedicated toPeter Kollwitz, Käthe Kollwitz's youngest son, who died in the First World War at age 18
Peter Kollwitz's deathKilled during the First Battle of Ypres in October 1914, on the night of 22–23 October during the attack on Diksmuide
Planning and creationWork began on 1 December 1914 and continued for 18 years
Original memorial planPlanned as the central element of a three-part memorial with a lying figure of Peter and an inscription, both later omitted

Creator

Other artists involvedAugust Rhades and Fritz Diederich executed the stonework; Joseph Beuys executed the father's figure in the 1959 copy and Erwin Heerich executed the mother's figure
Artist professionsGerman painter, graphic artist, and sculptor
ArtistKäthe Kollwitz

Discovery and provenance

Surviving early documentationOnly a photograph of the initial plaster sculpture survives, preserved in the Landesarchiv Berlin

Materials

Original materialPlaster
Final materialBelgian granite
1959 copy materialMuschelkalk

Technique

Initial modelFirst modeled nude, then clothed in 1915/16

Physical characteristics

FormLife-size kneeling parent figures
CompositionFather and mother shown as a pair of standing stones? No

Appearance

Father figureKneeling upright with head raised, looking downward, arms embracing the chest; sunken cheeks, tightly closed lips, and a bitterly downturned mouth
Mother figureKneeling and bent forward, hunched in on herself, with eyes closed, one collar pulled up to her face and hands gripping her coat
Portrait featuresThe figures were given the facial features of Käthe Kollwitz and her husband Karl Kollwitz, reportedly inspired by an idea from Ernst Barlach

Iconography and meaning

SubjectGrieving parents mourning their son Peter
Omitted son figureThe planned central figure was a dead soldier lying on his back with his head hyperextended backward; the same motif later reappeared in Pietà Mother with Dead Son

Location and ownership

First public presentationSummer 1932 at the Berlin National Gallery
Original installation date23 July 1932
Installed atThe burial place of Peter Kollwitz
Current locationGerman soldiers' cemetery in Vladslo, West Flanders, Belgium, about 20 kilometers south of Ostend
Nearby burialPeter Kollwitz is buried a few meters away at the same cemetery
RelocationMoved to Vladslo in 1956 when the cemetery at Roggeveld was dissolved and graves were reburied
Current settingThe figures stand on pedestals in the cemetery entrance area
Original installationGerman soldiers' cemetery Esen-Roggeveld in Belgium

History and restoration

Related quote"Saatfrüchte dürfen nicht vermahlen werden" ("Seeds for sowing must not be ground")
Protection statusThe Belgian state placed the entire site under monument protection on 18 March 1997
2014 castA cast was erected on 20 September 2014 at the German War Cemetery in Rshew by the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge in memory of Peter Kollwitz (1921–1942), who fell near Rzhev in World War II
1959 copyA copy was unveiled in 1959 by Federal President Theodor Heuss at the ruins of St. Alban's Church in Cologne
Installation supervisionKäthe and Karl Kollwitz personally supervised the installation, with Albert Einstein helping secure approval
Artist reactionKollwitz was hurt by the disregard from communist newspapers and became active in peace activism
Reception in GermanySome Germans objected that the work lacked heroic references; the Nazi press mocked it, saying German mothers do not look like this
Reception in BelgiumSeen by some Belgians as enemy figures on their soil; they were given the nicknames "Mette" and "Pette" or "Manten" and "Kalle"
Display before installationExhibited in the vestibule of the Berlin National Gallery
Original intended inscription"Hier liegt die Jugend" ("Here lies youth")

Significance

Art-historical statusConsidered Käthe Kollwitz's major sculptural work
Visitor interestAbout 70,000 visitors per year

Other

Documentary filmSaatfrüchte sollen nicht vermahlen werden, directed by Kurt Tetzlaff, produced by DEFA in 1967, 18 minutes, East Germany