Instant Access To 100,000+ Essays!

John Heartfield was born under the name Helmut Herzfield in 1891. He later anglicized his name to John Heartfield in 1915 as a protest against Germany’s nationalistic xenophobia. From an early age, politics played a major part in Heartfield’s life, his mother being a textile worker and political activist and his father a writer for many Socialist publications. In 1899, John, his brother Wieland, and his two sisters Lotte and Hertha were abandoned by their parents because they were forced to flee Germany to avoid prosecution for their religious beliefs. Thus, the Herzfields were left to be raised by relatives and institutions. In 1908, Heartfield began his artistic studies in Munich at the Royal Bavarian Arts and Crafts School, where he would be taught and influenced by commercial designers Albert Weisberger and Ludwig Hohlwein. He continued his studies in 1913 at the Berlin Arts and Crafts School in Berlin. Heartfield fought in the German army in World War I for a year before being dis