Several years ago I found an amusing greetings card to give for an anniversary and was particularly pleased to see that it was by a German artist, Heinrich Zille (1858-1929), taken from the cover of his book Rund um’s Freibad. My interest in Zille deepened during a visit to Berlin when I discovered a museum dedicated to him. There was a large element of humour in his work, and as it is some time since our blog post dedicated to German humour, now feels like a good time to revisit this theme, looking at relevant works in the UL’s collections. Zille was a keen observer of the harsh realities of everyday life as well, so this post will also cover this more serious side to his work, shown in both his art and photography. Continue reading “Heinrich Zille: observing Berlin life” →