Käthe Kollwitz: A Light Held High in the Darkness
“I am in the world to change the world.” — Käthe Kollwitz
Welcome to She Made That🖌️
A weekly short art story from my self-taught rabbit hole of inspiring women.
That one Käthe Kollwitz quote stopped me. Simple. Certain. No hedging or softening the edges.
Käthe Kollwitz didn’t just make art—she made space for the unseen, the unheard, and the overlooked. While the world tried to look away from grief, poverty, and injustice, she put it right in front of their eyes, raw and undeniable. And she did it with hands that carved and etched and sketched the weight of it all—turning anguish into art that refused to be silent.
In 1933, when the Nazis took power, Käthe Kollwitz was forced to resign from her groundbreaking role as the first female professor at the Prussian Academy of Arts, due to her support for anti-Nazi initiatives. Her art was pulled from museums, and she was banned from exhibiting her work. But even under that heavy hand of censorship, she kept creating.
Kollwitz wasn’t painting pretty distractions. And even though I believe beauty alone is a worthy cause to seek and make, Kollwitz had other plans. She was creating a visual protest. And she did it as a woman in a time and place that told her she should stay quiet, stay small. But Käthe wasn’t made for smallness. Even after losing her son in the war, even through personal heartbreak and political suppression, she kept going. Her work was her way through the darkness—a lantern held high for anyone who needed to know they weren’t alone.
And isn’t that why we make things too? To leave a light on. To say, I was here. I felt this. And I turned it into something you can hold.
So, whatever you’re working on, in your life, in your art, in yourself, keep going. Your voice matters.
She made that. And so can you.
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With big creative joy, XOXO,
Annie Wood
https://www.instagram.com/artistanniewood/
p.s. I found a German movie about Käthe Kollwitz on the free app, Kanopy. To sign up for the Kanopy streaming service, you simply need a library card. (I’ve found films to stream there when I couldn’t find them anywhere else. Thanks, friend Loren Kantor, for telling me about it!)
If you don’t have a library card, you can quickly sign up for an ecard by following the instructions.
If interested, sign up at Kanopy and then search for: Käthe Kollwitz: Images of a Life