When Heinrich Zille drew and caricatured after the turn of the century, Berlin was still far removed from the golden 20s, which promised a temporary distraction from misery with their glittering world of ecstasy and excess. Poverty and hardship were still in the foreground, the dreary everyday life in Berlin's tenements, which caused alcohol-related outbursts in pubs and made child labor necessary for the survival of families.
Zille completed a solid education as a lithographer, which in the 19th century should not be confused with the production of artistic lithographs, but corresponded to a purely technical profession in the printing trade. At the same time, he took private art lessons, but did not distinguish himself with an artistic oeuvre. He was to work as a lithographer at the "Photographische Gesellschaft Berlin" for 30 years before he was unexpectedly laid off in his early fifties. Without this, he would probably never have dared to take the step of working independently as an artist. Zille dedicated his motifs to the little people of the city. With humor and simultaneous social criticism he showed backyards, amusement miles or street corners, his "Milljöh" was the proletariat. Often commented by Zille, almost comic strip-like in structure, the scenes have lost none of their humor and simultaneous forcefulness to this day. "Pinselheinrich" called him the Berliners, who so like to find their own name for everything and everyone freely after Berlin Schnauze. Zille also became known for his portrait drawings, which qualified him for admission to the Berlin Secession. Thus, portraits of Ernst Barlach, Lyonel Feininger, Max Liebermann and last but not least Käthe Kollwitz can be found in his work. He had a long-lasting friendship with the latter, which was probably due to the fact that they both championed the same subjects and denounced grievances in the poor milieus. In the mid-1920s, at the suggestion of Max Liebermann, Zille was accepted into the Prussian Academy of Arts, where he received the title of professor. Until his death, the "Hofball bei Zille" (Court Ball at Zille's) was held annually in Berlin at what is now the Friedrichstadtpalast, a charity ball at which visitors dressed in Zille costumes typical of the milieu. His 70th birthday was celebrated in a big way and the Märkisches Museum (today part of the Berlin Stadtmuseum) showed a retrospective on his career.
The tenements, pubs and brothels remained the main theme until the end of his life, when he increasingly suffered from gout and diabetes. The First World War and the rapid growth of the big city ensured that he did not run out of motifs around misery, prostitution, alcohol and jurisdiction. The city of Berlin has memorialized Zille with various statues and, of course, there is its own Zille Museum, which also includes photographs of Heinrich Zille that were not assigned to him until the 1960s. These photos taken by him are even more haunting than his drawings, because here nothing has been overdrawn or commented by him.
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.jpg "Roller Skating Club Around the Alex by Heinrich Zille")
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.jpg "Dancing Couple by Heinrich Zille")
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.jpg "Circus Game in the Backyard by Heinrich Zille")
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.jpg "Zille Drawing in the Rain by Heinrich Zille")
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.jpg "Nauener Park by Heinrich Zille")
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.jpg "Four Women in the Dressing Room by Heinrich Zille")
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.jpg "H. Zille, The Bottle Child by Heinrich Zille")
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.jpg "Women in the Pub by Heinrich Zille")
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.jpg "Ten Fennje the Puppet! / Five Fennje the Golden Star! by Heinrich Zille")
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.jpg "H. Zille, Around the Swimming Pool / Cover Image by Heinrich Zille")
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.jpg "H. Zille, Alfred the Chaste by Heinrich Zille")
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.jpg "Berlin Ice Rink by Heinrich Zille")
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.jpg "Mutta, Give Those Two Flower Pots Out, Lieschen Likes to Sit in the Green! by Heinrich Zille")
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.jpg "In the Ladies")
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.jpg "Berlin Beach Life 1912 by Heinrich Zille")
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.jpg "Singing Girls / Come, Karlincken Come! Come Bubi! by Heinrich Zille")
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.jpg "Berlin Street Scene Fischerstrasse by Heinrich Zille")
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.jpg "In the Pub by Heinrich Zille")
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.jpg "Heinrich Zille / Photo around 1918 by Heinrich Zille")
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.jpg "The Spandau Worker Train by Heinrich Zille")
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.jpg "Three Nude Studies by Heinrich Zille")
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.jpg "Autumn by Heinrich Zille")
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.jpg "To the Holiday Colony by Heinrich Zille")
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.jpg "Two Street Girls by Heinrich Zille")
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.jpg "The Jubilee I by Heinrich Zille")
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.jpg "Wounded Soldier and Prostitute by Heinrich Zille")
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.jpg "The Model by Heinrich Zille")
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.jpg "Korl Sowing, Vadding Plowing by Heinrich Zille")
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.jpg "Zille Monument Berlin, Watching Children by Heinrich Zille")
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.jpg "Moabit by Heinrich Zille")
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.jpg "A Woman Carrying a Bundle of Sticks by Heinrich Zille")
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.jpg "Male Nude, Wilhelm by Heinrich Zille")
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.jpg "Wrestling Match in the Show Booth by Heinrich Zille")
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.jpg "Four Portraits by Heinrich Zille")
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.jpg "Potato Queue by Heinrich Zille")
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.jpg "Girl in Swimsuit by Heinrich Zille")
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.jpg "H. Zille, Billboard 1919 / Collage by Heinrich Zille")
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.jpg "Birthday Sheet for Liebermann")
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.jpg "Oh dear, children! You can")
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.jpg "Emperor")
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.jpg "Zille Monument Berlin, Bergstraße, Photo by Heinrich Zille")
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