Grosz, George

(Georg Gross, 1893-1959)

   Designer. Grosz is best remembered for his work with Erwin Piscator, especially on one production: Die Abenteuer des braven Soldaten Schwejk (The Adventures of Good Soldier Schwede) in 1928. For that production, Grosz provided dozens of his characteristic caricatures and cartoons, many of which Piscator then had enlarged and mounted for use as scenery onstage. Piscator employed the images as life-size figures whom Schweik encountered in his "adventures." Grosz had begun cartooning after his release from the army in 1916, publishing his work in weekly magazines. He was arrested and reassigned to the front in 1917, then in 1918 was arrested for desertion and placed in a military prison. His military experiences had a profound effect on his artistic perceptions, and after the war he was again arrested on several charges, first for insulting the German army and another time for "corrupting inherently German morals." He later was convicted of blasphemy and fined for portraying a crucified Christ wearing a gas mask like those worn by German troops in the trenches. His sketches were in many cases vicious renderings of severely disfigured or dying soldiers, prostitutes, obese war profiteers, or sanctimonious church officials — all of which amounted to an enormous, vituperative tapestry that indicted his fellow Germans for what he perceived as their militaristic depravity, obeisance to authority, and comfortable self-satisfaction.