Ludwig Meidner, Selbstporträt, 1922.
— Juedisches Museum der Stadt Frankfurt
Artist and poet Ludwig Meidner (1884-1966) was the foremost and most radical exponent of a second wave of Expressionism, a movement which championed the cause of the exploited and suppressed. Military service during World War I also made Meidner an avowed pacifist. He advanced socialist goals in his 1919 An alle Künstler, Dichter, Musiker (To all Artists, Poets, and Musicians). This work challenged the existing social order and urged artists to become socialists and protect the "greater good."
In 1933, Meidner was placed on the list of banned writers and artists. Monographs about Meidner were burned during the Nazi book burnings of 1933. Also in danger because of his Jewishness, Meidner left Germany in 1939, and did not return until 1953.
In the 1940s, in response to the horrors of the Holocaust, Meidner created a cycle of drawings he called "Massacres in Poland" or "Suffering of the Jews in Poland" (samples of which are displayed with this article).
Ludwig and Else Meidner: Online exhibition of the Jewish Museum, Frankfurt »
Jewish Museum in Frankfurt am Main »
Fighting the Fires of Hate: America and the Nazi Book Burnings (USHMM online exhibition) »
Targeted Authors and Burned Works (from USHMM online exhibition) »
