#GDR #OTD 1968 – Artist and pioneer of political montage John Heartfield dies in East Berlin (1)

John Heartfield, born Helmut Herzfeld – changed name as a protest against anti-British sentiment in Germany during WWI (2)

Heartfield was an early member of both the Berlin Club Dada and the German Communist Party (KPD) (3)

In the Weimar Era, Heartfield produced political photomontage for the Rote Fahne and the Arbeiter-Illustrierte-Zeitung (4)

John Heartfield produced the famous 1928 Communist Party election poster "The Hand has Five Fingers" (5)

In 1933, Heartfield went into exile; first to Czechoslovakia, then later England where he was interned as an enemy alien (6)

After WWII, Heartfield moved to East Berlin where he faced persecution because the Stasi feared Heartfield was a collaborator with the British due to his years in exile (7)

John Heartfield was eventually allowed into the GDR Academy of Arts with support of Bertolt Brecht and Stefan Heym (8)

In poor health from imprisonment in the UK and state persecution in the GDR, Heartfield produced little in the post-war period (10)

In 1968, John Heartfield died in East Berlin – he is buried at the Dorotheenstadt cemetery (11)

Here are more of John Heartfield’s best works – “Hurrah the Butter is Gone!” (1935) (12)

John Heartfield, “No Pasaran, Paseramos” (1936) (14)

If after all of this you want to check out more work by John Heartfield, go to http://johnheartfield.com  (15)