John Heartfield (born Helmut Herzfeld) (German, 1891–1968)

Committed to leftist politics and to reaching broad audiences through the mass media of his time, John Heartfield had an impact that resonated beyond the art world and beyond Germany. In 1917, he founded The Malik-Verlag (Malik Publishing House), where his brother Wieland Herzfelde served as publisher and George Grosz as illustrator, and which operated until 1946.

Toward the end of the First World War, The Malik-Verlag took up the Berlin Dada cause and, together with Grosz and Raoul Hausmann, Heartfield co-organized the landmark Erste Internationale Dada-Messe (First International Dada Fair) in 1920.

Heartfield joined the German Communist Party (KPD) in 1919 and in the late 1920s worked for the organization’s Agitprop division. From 1930 to 1939, he was on the staff of Willi Münzenberg’s Neue Deutscher Verlag (NDV), an organization funded by the Communist International (Comintern). It was under the auspices of the NDV that Heartfield designed covers for the Arbeiter-Illustrierte Zeitung (AIZ; Workers’ Illustrated Newspaper).

In 1930 and 1931, Heartfield spent almost a full year in Soviet Russia, during which time he was the subject of a monographic exhibition in Moscow and participated in debates about photomontage as an effective tool for reaching the masses. Shortly after Hitler took power in Germany in January 1933, Heartfield fled Berlin for Prague, where he continued to produce vehemently anti-fascist covers for the AIZ until he was exiled to England in 1938.

After the Second World War, Heartfield lived in the German Democratic Republic, where his archive—recently digitized and made accessible online—was preserved at the Akademie der Künste in Berlin.

Journals, Booklets, Catalogues

Neue Jugend (New Youth; June 1917), John Heartfield, ed. Announcement for Kleinen Grosz Mappe (Small Grosz Portfolio). Berlin: Der Malik-Verlag
Halftone letterpress
25 3/16 x 20 11/16” (63.9 x 52.5 cm)

Advertisement for the book Günter Reimann, Das Deutsche Wirtschaftswunder (The German Economic Miracle). Berlin: Vereinigung Internationaler Verlagsanstalten, [1927], printed on the back cover of the book Günter Reimann, Giftgas in Deutschland: Die Machtstellung der I.G. Farbenindustrie A.G. (Poisonous Gas in Germany: The Power of I. G. Farben). Berlin: Vereinigung Internationaler Verlagsanstalten, [1927]
Lithograph and letterpress
8 3/4 x 6” (22.2 x 15.2 cm)

Jedermann sein eigner Fussball (Everyone His Own Soccer Ball), vol. 1, no. 1 (February 15, 1919). Wieland Herzfelde, ed. Berlin: Der Malik-Verlag. Complete in one issue.
Halftone letterpress
16 7/8 x 11 11/16” (42.9 x 29.7 cm)

13 Jahre Mord: 1914–1927, Profit heisst Krieg! (13 Years of Murder: 1914–1927, Profit Means War!) German Communist Party, Section of the Communist International, ed. Berlin Vereinigung Internationaler Verlagsanstalten G.m.b.H., 1927
Halftone letterpress
10 5/16 x 7 3/8” (26 x 18.8 cm)

Der Dada, no. 3 (April 1920). George Grosz, Raoul Hausmann, and John Heartfield, eds. Berlin: Der Malik-Verlag
Halftone letterpress
9 1/8 x 6 3/16” (23.2 x 15.7 cm)

Der Knüppel: Satirische Zeitschrift (The Cudgel: Satirical Newspaper), vol. V, no. 4 (Berlin; June 1927). Special Edition: The Plumber’s Shop. The Front, Hail!
Offset lithograph
12 9/16 x 9 7/16” (31.9 x 24 cm)

Erste Internationale Dada-Messe (First International Dada Fair), Kunsthandlung Otto Burchard, Berlin (June 30–August 25, 1920). Exhibition organizers: George Grosz, Raoul Hausmann, John Heartfield. Exhibition catalogue with text by Wieland Herzfelde. Berlin: Der Malik-Verlag
Halftone letterpress
12 1/4 x 15 3/8” (31.1 x 39.1 cm), single folded sheet

Book Dust Jacket Proofs

Upton Sinclair, Petroleum. Berlin: Der Malik-Verlag, 1927
Offset lithograph
7 7/16 x 18 3/8” (18.9 x 46.7 cm), unfolded

English edition: Upton Sinclair, Oil: A Novel. New York: Grosset and Dunlap, 1927

Upton Sinclair, Nach der Sintflut: Ein Roman aus dem Jahre 2000. Berlin: Der Malik Verlag, 1925
Offset lithograph
7 1/2 x 18 1/4” (19.1 x 46.4 cm) 

English edition: Upton Sinclair, The Millennium: A Comedy of the Year 2000. Girard, KS: Haldeman-Julius Co., 1924

Lili Körber, Eine Frau erlebt den roten Alltag: Ein Tagebuchroman aus den Putilovwerken (A Woman’s Experience of Everyday Soviet Life: A Diary-Novel from the Putilov Plant). Berlin: Rowohlt Verlag, 1932
Offset lithograph
7 11/16 x 17 5/8” (19.5 x 44.8 cm)

 Books

Upton Sinclair, Der Sumpf. Berlin: Der The Malik-Verlag, 1924
Hardcover with adhered dust jacket (offset lithograph)
7 1/2 x 5 1/4 x [1]” (19.1 x 13.3 x [2.54] cm)
Click here to view the full recto/verso cover.

English edition: Upton Sinclair, The Jungle. New York: Grosset and Dunlap, 1906 

Also in the collection: The Malik-Verlag edition of 1928

Upton Sinclair, Hundert Prozent. Berlin: Der Malik-Verlag, [1928]
Hardcover with adhered dust jacket (offset lithograph)
7 9/16 x 5 5/16 x 13/16” (19.2 x 13.5 x 2 cm)
Click here to view the full recto/verso cover.

English edition: Upton Sinclair, 100%: The Story of a Patriot. Pasadena, CA: the author, 1920

Also in the collection: Malik-Verlag editions of 1921 (softcover, dust jacket adhered), 1924 (hardcover, dust jacket adhered), 1926 (hardcover, dust jacket adhered), and 1928 (hardcover with dust jacket)

Upton Sinclair, Das Geld Schreibt. Eine Studie über die amerikanische Literatur. Berlin: Der Malik-Verlag, 1930
Softcover with partially adhered dust jacket (offset lithograph)
7 9/16 x 5 1/16 x [1]” (19.2 x 12.8 x [2.54] cm)
Click here to view the full recto/verso cover.

English edition: Upton Sinclair, Money Writes!: A Study of American Literature. Long Beach, CA: the author, 1927

Note: Heartfield’s first design for the 1927 edition of the book—pictured here—includes a photograph of the German writer Emil Ludwig and his family on the back cover, implying that Ludwig was a puppet of the state. After Ludwig won a lawsuit against The Malik-Verlag for defamation, Heartfield omitted the faces of each family member—including the dog—via circular cut-outs.  
Click here to view the censored version.

F. C. Weiskopf, Zukunft im Rohbau: 18,000 Kilometer durch die Sowjetunion (Future in Shell Construction: 18,000 Kilometers Through the Soviet Union). Berlin: Der Malik-Verlag, 1932
Softcover with adhered dust jacket (offset lithograph)
7 7/16 x 5 1/8 x 1” (18.9 x 13 x 2.54 cm)
Click here to view the full recto/verso cover.

Upton Sinclair, Die Wechsler. Berlin: Der Malik-Verlag, 1925
Hardcover with adhered dust jacket (offset lithograph)
7 1/2 x 5 1/16 x 3/4” (19.1 x 12.9 x 1.9 cm)
Click here to view the full recto/verso cover. 

English edition: Upton Sinclair, The Moneychangers. Pasadena, CA: the author, 1926

Kurt Tucholsky, Deutschland, Deutschland über Alles (Germany, Germany Above All). Berlin: Neuer Deutscher Verlag, 1929
Cloth covered boards with embossed halftone and letterpress
9 3/8 x 7 3/8 x 1/2” (23.8 x 18.7 x 1.3 cm)
Click here to view the full recto/verso cover.

Maxim Gorky, Wie ein Mensch geboren ward (How A Person is Born). Berlin: Der Malik-Verlag, 1930
Softcover with dust jacket (offset lithograph)
7 7/16 x 5 1/8 x [1]” (18.9 x 13 x [2.54] cm)
Click here to view the full recto/verso cover.

The Brown Book of the Hitler Terror, and the Burning of the Reichstag. Foreword by Lord Marley. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1933
Hardcover with dust jacket (offset lithograph)
7 3/4 X 5 1/2 x [1]” (19.7 x 14 x [2.54] cm)
Click here to view the full recto/verso cover.

Note: Heartfield’s motifs on both the front and back covers previously appeared in AIZ, vol. XII, no. 36 (September 14, 1933) and AIZ, vol. XII, no. 30 (August 3, 1933), respectively.

John Reed, Zehn Tage, die die Welt Erschütterten. Vienna and Berlin: Verlag für Literatur und Politik, 1927
Softcover (offset lithograph)
7 15/16 x 5 1/4 x 1 1/8” (20.2 x 13.4 x 2.8 cm)
Click here to view the full recto/verso cover. 

English edition: John Reed, Ten Days That Shook the World. New York: Boni and Liveright, 1919

Upton Sinclair, Leidweg der Liebe. Berlin, Der Malik-Verlag, 1930
Hardcover with dust jacket (offset lithograph)
7 1/2 x 5 1/8 x 1 15/16” (19 x 13 x 5 cm)
Click here to view the full recto/verso cover. 

English edition: Upton Sinclair, Love’s Pilgrimage: A Novel. New York and London: Mitchell Kennerley, 1911

Upton Sinclair, So macht man Dollars. Berlin: Der Malik-Verlag, 1931
Hardcover with dust jacket (offset lithograph)
7 1/4 x 5 1/4 x [1]” (18.4 x 13.3 x [2.54] cm)
Click here to view the full recto/verso cover. 

English edition: Upton Sinclair, Mountain City. New York: A. and C. Boni, 1930

Upton Sinclair, Autokönig Ford. London: Der Malik-Verlag, 1938
Hardcover with dust jacket (offset lithograph)
7 1/2 x 5 1/8 x 1 3/16” (19 x 13 x 3 cm)
Click here to view the full recto/verso cover. 

English edition: Upton Sinclair, The Flivver King: A Story of Ford-America. Pasadena, CA: the author, 1937

Heinrich Wandt, Erotik und Spionage in der Etappe Gent (Eroticism and Espionage on the Ghent Stage). Vienna-Berlin: Agis-Verlag, 1928
Hardcover with dust jacket (offset lithograph)
7 1/2 x 5 5/16 x 13/16” (19 x 13.5 x 2 cm)
Click here to view the full recto/verso cover.

Note: Wandt’s widely read, scathing indictment of the First World War was first published in 1920. Heartfield’s first design for the 1928 cover of the book—seen here—pictures a German soldier with his hand on a woman’s bare thigh. It was promptly censored and reissued in a version in which a priest wields scissors that extract the offending touch.

Click here to view the censored version.

Vsevolod Ivanov, Der Buchstabe G: Ausgewaehlte Erzaehlungen (The Letter G: Selected Stories). Berlin: Der Malik-Verlag, 1930
Hardcover with dust jacket (offset lithograph)
7 3/8 x 8 3/4 x [1]” (18.7 x 22.2 x [2.54] cm)
Click here to view the full recto/verso cover.

Ilya Ehrenburg, Der Heiligsten Güter: Roman der Grossen Interessen (The Holiest Goods: A Novel of Great Interest). Berlin: Der Malik-Verlag, 1931
Hardcover with dust jacket (offset lithograph)
7 1/4 x 5 1/4 x [1]” (19 x 13 x [2.54] cm)
Click here to view the full recto/verso cover. 

Russian edition: Published as Edinyj front (United Front) in 1930

Richard Wright, Twelve Million Black Voices: A Folk History of the Negro in the United States of America. London: Lindsay Drummond Limited, 1947
Hardcover with dust jacket (offset lithograph)
9 13/16 x 6 3/4 x 13/16” (25 x 17.1 x 2 cm)
Click here to view the full recto/verso cover.

Note: Edwin Rosskam secured, selected, and edited the photographs in this volume, which were shot by various photographers under the auspices of the Security Farm Administration. The volume was first published in the United States by Viking Press, New York, in 1941.

 Posters

No Man, No Penny for the Imperialist Armaments! Reject the Referendum, October 3–16, 1928
Offset lithograph
28 x 18 1/2” (71.1 x 47 cm)

In the East, 160 Million March Joyfully into the Future! And You, Working Germany! Recognize the Sign of your Strength! Fight with the Communist Party! Vote List 3, c. 1932
Offset lithograph
38 1/2 x 26 5/8” (97.8 x 67.6 cm)

Protect the Soviet Union! Reject on August 1st! Against Imperialist War and the Danger of War! 1929
Lithograph and halftone
36 7/16 x 24 4/5” (92.5 x 63.2 cm)

Fight Against Hunger and War! Elect [Ernst] Thälmann!, 1932
Offset lithograph
28 x 19 5/8” (71.1 x 49.8 cm)

Fight With Us! Vote Communist List 4, 1930
Lithograph
27 5/6 x 19 3/4” (70.7 x 50.2 cm)

Also in the collection: A postcard depicting the same motif accompanied by the phrase Werktätige in Stadt und Land! Heraus zum volkensentscheid! Am 15. November stimmt alle mit JA (Workers in town and country! Reject the referendum! Vote yes on November 15th).

Down with the Warmongers! Fight for the Soviet Union! Vote Communist List 6, 1930
Offset lithograph and letterpress
29 1/4 x 19 5/16” (70 x 48 cm) 

Note: This design appears in variants, calling to “Vote Communist List” 4, 5, and 6.

Also in the collection: A postcard with “Vote Communist List 5.”

 Arbeiter-Illustrierte Zeitung

The Arbeiter-Illustrierte Zeitung (AIZ; Workers’ Illustrated Newspaper) was an illustrated weekly published by Willi Münzenberg (1889–1940) of the Neue Deutscher Verlag in Berlin (1924–1933), Prague (1933–1936), and briefly Paris (1938). In 1936, in Prague, under the editorship of Franz Carl Weiskopf, it was renamed Die Volks Illlustriete (The People’s Illustrated). Heartfield contributed over 200 photomontages between 1930 and 1938.

Front cover: AIZ, vol. IX, no. 17 (Berlin; [July] 1930)
Photogravure
15 x 10 1/2” (38.1 x 26.7 cm)

Front cover: AIZ, vol. XIII, no. 16 (Prague; April 19, 1934). Mimikry (Mimicry). Nachdem alle Versuche, die nationalsozialistischen Ideen in die Arbeiterschaft zu tragen, erfolglos geblieben waren, ist Goebbels auf einen letzten verzweifelten Einfall gekommen: er hat den "Führer" überredet, fortan, wenn er vor Arbeitern spricht, sich einen Karl-Marx-Bart umzuhängen. (When all attempts to convey National Socialist ideas to the working class failed, Goebbels had one last desperate idea: he persuaded the “Führer” to wear a Karl Marx beard in the future when addressing workers.)
Photogravure
15 x 10 1/2” (38.1 x 26.7 cm)

Front cover: AIZ, vol. XI, no. 42 (Berlin; October 16, 1932). Der Sinn des Hitlergrusses. Kleiner Mann bittet um grosse Gaben. (The meaning of the Hitler salute. Little man asks for big gifts.)
Photogravure
18 3/8 x 13” (46.7 x 33 cm)

Front cover: AIZ, vol. XIII, no. 29 (Prague; July 19, 1934). Gesang der vorläufig Hinterbliebenen (Song of the temporarily bereaved)
Photogravure
15 x 10 1/2” (38.1 x 26.7 cm)

Back cover: AIZ, vol. XIII, no. 14 (Prague; April 5, 1934). Hjalmar oder Das wachsende Defizit (Hjalmar or the growing deficit)
Photogravure
15 x 10 1/2” (38.1 x 26.7 cm)

Back cover: AIZ, vol. XIV, no. 5 (Prague; January 31, 1935). Hitlers Friedenstaube (Hitler’s Dove of Peace)
Photogravure
15 x 10 1/2” (38.1 x 26.7 cm)

Back cover: AIZ, vol. XIII, no. 15 (Prague; April 12, 1934). Chor der Rüstungsindustrie: “Ein feste Burg ist unser Genf.” (Choir of the Arms Industry: “A Mighty Fortress is our Geneva.”)
Photogravure
15 x 10 1/2” (38.1 x 26.7 cm)

Front cover: AIZ, vol. XIV, no. 9 (Prague; February 28, 1935). Das Spiel der Nazis mit dem Feuer. "Wenn die Welt erst brennt, werden wir schon beweisen, daß Moskau der Brandstifter war." (The Nazis Play with Fire. “When the world eventually burns, we will manage to prove that Moscow was the arsonist.”)
Photogravure
15 x 10 1/2” (38.1 x 26.7 cm)

 Soviet Union

Cover of Illustrierte Geschichte der Russischen Revolution (Illustrated History of the Russian Revolution). Berlin: Neuer Deutscher Verlag/Willi Münzenberg, 1927. No. 13 of 20 issues.
Halftone letterpress
11 1/4 x 8 1/2” (28.6 x 21.6 cm), folded

J.[ames] Thomas, ed. Illustrierte Geschichte Des Bürgerkrieges in Russland, 1917–1921 (Illustrated History of the Civil War in Russia, 1917–1921). Berlin: Neuer Deutscher Verlag/Willi Münzenberg, c. 1928. 480 pages in twenty issues.
Fabric-covered cardboard folio containing twenty numbered and stapled issues, each halftone letterpress
11 1/2 x 8 1/2 x 1 1/8” (29.2 x 21.6 x 2.8 cm), folio; 11 1/2 x 8 1/2” (29.2 x 21.6 cm), each issue

Note: The image repeated on each cover is a still from Sergei Eisenstein’s 1928 film October: Ten Days That Shook the World. The NDV published this serialized history as a single volume in 1929.

Prozhektor (Spotlight), year 9, nos. 31-33 (289-291) (1931)
Lithograph
13 1/2 x 10 1/4” (34.3 x 26 cm)

Note: Heartfield’s photomontage reproduced on the cover—Das tote Parlament (The Dead Parliament)—originally appeared in AIZ, vol. IX, no. 42 (1930), p. 823. Paragraph 48 of the Weimar Constitution was the “emergency ordinance,” which conferred far-reaching powers to the Reich President. This issue contains a review of Heartfield’s 1931 exhibition in Moscow.

“Vystavka Dzhona Khartfil'da v Moskve” (Exhibition of John Heartfield's works in Moscow), Prozhektor (Spotlight), year 9, nos. 31–33 (289–291) (1931), p. [22]
Lithograph
13 1/2 x 10 1/4” (34.3 x 26 cm) 

Note: This page includes installation shots and an assessment of the monographic exhibition John Heartfield, Vsekokhudozhnik (Cooperative Union of Russian artists), Moscow (November 20–December 20, 1931).

 Monograph 1936

Heartfield was the subject of a one-man exhibition at Moscow’s Vsekokhudozhnik (Cooperative Union of Russian Artists) from November 20 to December 20, 1931, for which the writer Sergei Tret’iakov and the artist Solomon Telingater prepared a small brochure. In 1936, Tret’iakov and Telingater again joined forces to publish this book, which was the first comprehensive monograph on the artist.

Cover of Sergei Tret’iakov and Solomon Telingater, Dzhon Khartfilʹd: Monografiia (John Heartfield: Monograph). [Moscow]: Ogiz, 1936
Hardcover (case-binding) letterpress, halftone, and two tipped-in plates
11 3/4 x 9 3/16 (29.8 x 23.3 cm), closed, 79 pages

Sergei Tret’iakov, Dzhon Khartfilʹd: Monografiia (John Heartfield: Monograph). [Moscow]: Ogiz, 1936, pp. 8-9.

Sergei Tret’iakov, Dzhon Khartfilʹd: Monografiia (John Heartfield: Monograph). [Moscow]: Ogiz, 1936, pp. 24-25.

Sergei Tret’iakov, Dzhon Khartfilʹd: Monografiia (John Heartfield: Monograph). [Moscow]: Ogiz, 1936, pp. 52-53.

 Deaccessioned

Maquette for covers of the journal Die rote Fahne (The Red Flag), vol. 11, no. 201 (August 26, 1928), and the brochure Hurra! Der Panzerkreuzer A ist da! (Hooray! The battle cruiser A has arrived!; October 1928), 1928
Gelatin silver print with ink
8 1/4 × 6 1/8″ (21 × 15.5 cm)
Formerly Merrill C. Berman Collection; now The Museum of Modern Art, New York

Das letzte Stück Brot raubt Ihnen der Kapitalismus (Capitalism Robs You of the Last Piece of Bread), 1932
Campaign poster for Communist Party representative Ernst Thälmann in the April 1932 presidential election
Lithograph
37 3/4 × 28 1/2” (95.9 × 72.4 cm)
Formerly Merrill C. Berman Collection; now The Museum of Modern Art, New York

5 Finger hat die Hand (The Hand Has Five Fingers), 1928
German Communist Party campaign poster for parliamentary seat in election of May 20, 1928
Lithograph
Motif also appeared on journal cover: Die rote Fahne (The Red Flag), vol. 11, no. 112 (May 13, 1928)
38 1/2 × 29 1/4″ (97.8 × 74.3 cm)
Formerly Merrill C. Berman Collection; now The Museum of Modern Art, New York

Preliminary state of the photomontage reproduced as Treue um Treue. Grus vom Führer (Loyalty for Loyalty. Greetings from the Führer) in AlZ, vol. 13, No. 28 (12 July 1934)
Gelatin silver print (photograph of a photomontage), date of print unknown
9 3/8 × 7 1/8 (23.8 × 18.1 cm)
Formerly Merrill C. Berman Collection; now The Museum of Modern Art, New York

5 Finger hat die Hand (The Hand Has Five Fingers), 1928
Letterpress postcard
5 7/8 × 4 1/8” (14.9 × 10.5 cm)
Publisher: Muzei revoliutsii SSSR (Museum of the Revolution of the USSR)
Printer: Tip. im. Volodarskogo (Printing press in the name of Volodarsky), Leningrad
Formerly Merrill C. Berman Collection; now The Museum of Modern Art, New York

Preliminary state of the photomontage reproduced as Zwangslieferantin von Menschenmaterial nur Mut! Der Staat braucht Arbeitslose und Soldaten! (Forced supplier of human material, take courage! The state needs unemployed workers and soldiers!) in AIZ, vol. 9, no. 10 (March 8, 1930)
Gelatin silver print with graphite
10” x 8 7/8” (25.4 x 22.5 cm)
Formerly Merrill C. Berman Collection

The works shown here represent only a selection from the collection. Please contact us for further inquiry.