The Women of German Modernism

Morning flight from London Heathrow to Hamburg. Transfer by private coach to the Hamburger Kunsthalle, one of Germany’s largest art galleries. After a group lunch at the museum, we will explore its collection, giving particular focus to the work of Paula Modersohn-Becker, including several of her strikingly intimate female portraits, and others of the Worpswede Group. Continue to Bremen and check in to our hotel, where we will enjoy a meal together in the evening.

A day in Bremen on foot. Our first visit is to the Bremen Kunsthalle, which houses a collection spanning 700 years of art. Highlights include works by Franz Marc, Edvard Munch, Paula Modersohn-Becker and Käthe Kollwitz. After an independent lunch, we discover historic Bremen; the majestic cathedral, which rises from one end of a picturesque market square, and the Bremen Roland, the oldest surviving statue of Roland, paladin of Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne, erected in 1404. Nearby, the unusual Böttcherstraße – a street designed in the Expressionist style – is home to the Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum and the Roselius Museum, which houses the private collection of the coffee merchant Ludwig Roselius, who was largely responsible for the Böttcherstraße remodelling initiative between 1922 and 1931. There will be time to visit both before we return to our hotel for an evening at leisure.

By coach to Worpswede, to spend the day exploring the artists’ colony established at the end of the 19th century. Art Nouveau painter Fritz Mackensen and landscape painter Otto Modersohn were the first to arrive, in the late 1880s, followed by Paula Becker, who later married Modersohn, and others. Many of the historic artists’ homes and studios have been preserved as museums and galleries, although the settlement continues to foster creative ambition to this day. The Große Kunstschau holds some of the most famous works created by this first generation of artist settlers and we will explore this collection in the morning, as well as the Barkenhoff, which celebrates the life’s work of painter, designer and architect Heinrich Vogeler. After lunch, visit the romantic Haus im Schluh, former home of Vogeler’s first wife, Martha, filled with art and furniture designed by Vogeler. Finally, the Worpsweder Kunsthalle houses an impressive collection of work by multiple generations of Worpswede artists, charting how the colony’s spirit has mutated through the ages. Return to Bremen.

Depart Bremen for Berlin, checking in to our new hotel before enjoying a group lunch. In the afternoon, a visit to the New National Gallery will reveal works by the likes of Lotte Laserstein, the Jewish painter who fled Germany for Sweden in 1937, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Dada artist Hannah Höch, one of the originators of photomontage, and contemporary visual artist Rebecca Horn. Works by the likes of Edvard Munch, Max Beckmann and Paul Klee are also on display. Short coach transfer to Unter den Linden, Berlin’s landmark 19th-century promenade, where the Neue Wache war memorial is home to Käthe Kollwitz’s deeply moving sculpture, ‘Mother with her Dead Son’. The artist began work on the sculpture in 1937 and it is an enlarged casting of this original piece that occupies the space today. Return to our hotel.

A morning to explore the Käthe Kollwitz Museum. Berlin’s most famous female artist, she encountered much hardship and suffering in her lifetime and is perhaps best known for her intimate and harrowing depictions of human torment, hauntingly universal and timeless in their themes. The collection presents more than 200 examples of sculpture, drawing, woodcuts and prints. After lunch, our time in Berlin concludes with a visit to the Berlinische Galerie, where our focus will be the works of Hannah Höch and the German Modern movement. Coach transfer to the airport for our homeward flight to London Heathrow.