UC Davis

The end of National Socialism and the Second World War created a vacuum for German cultural identity in West Germany, leading to a philosophical discourse regarding the nature and future of that identity, a discourse in which visual aesthetics played a vital part. Hoping to create and reinforce the idea of a fundamental reshaping of society, philosophers, art critics, artists, and historians gathered in Darmstadt in July of 1950 to discuss “Das Menschenbild in unserer Zeit”, “The Image of Man in Our Time”. Seemingly only focused on aesthetic formalism, the Darmstädter Gespräche posed deeper existential questions about how a future, post-National Socialist identity would be shaped and reflected in visual art. The following thesis argues that such works as Louise Rösler’s 1951 collage, Die Strasse, rather than evincing the indecision and lack of direction typically assigned to this period of West German art, show a pivotal and much needed grappling with the existential issues of the time, and form a vital part of how West Germany perceived itself and the path forward.