George Grosz

Grosz was subjected to numerous gruelling court cases during the Weimar period. As early as 1921, he was sentenced to a fine of 300 marks for ‘insulting the Reichswehr’ on account of the portfolio Gott mit uns (God with us) exhibited at the Dada art fair in 1920. A fine of 600 marks was also imposed on his publisher Wieland Herzfelde by the Malik publishing house. A captain in the Reichswehr had filed the complaint because he considered the Dada exhibition in general and Georg Grosz's portfolio in particular to be systematic agitation and despicable vilification.

In 1923, further proceedings were opened for ‘attacking public morals’ in accordance with Section 184 of the German Penal Code, the indecency paragraph. Seven colour and 27 black-and-white illustrations from the work Ecce Homo were confiscated in April and in December charges were brought for the distribution of lewd writings. In 1924, Georg Grosz, Wieland Herzfelde and Julian Gumperz were each fined 500 marks. Five watercolours and 17 drawings had to be removed from the portfolio; the corresponding plates and forms were also to be rendered unusable. The favourable oral statements by the invited experts, including the Reich art administrator Edwin Redslob, and Max Liebermann's written expert opinion could not change this. The decisive factor for the judges was ‘the sense of shame of the normal person’