Hannah Höch

Hannah Höch (1 November 1889 – 31 May 1978) was a German artist associated with Dada. She is most famous for her output during the Weimar period, when she helped pioneer the technique of photomontage. This form of collage uses actual photographs or photographic reproductions taken from newspapers and other mass-produced media. A central aim of Höch’s work was to break down the myth and the binary embedded in the idea of the "New Woman"—an energetic, professional, androgynous figure ready to stand as man’s equal. She was particularly concerned with how that binary was constructed and who does the constructing of social roles. Other major themes in her art included androgyny, political debate, and changing gender roles. Together, these concerns created a feminist dialogue around her pieces that promoted women’s liberation and agency during the Weimar Republic (1919–1933) and continues to resonate today.

Born Anna Therese Johanne Höch in Gotha, Germany, she attended school, but domestic duties were prioritized in her household. In 1904, she left the Höhere Töchterschule in Gotha to care for her youngest sibling, Marianne. She began classes in 1912 at Berlin’s College of Applied Arts under glass designer Harold Bergen, choosing glass design and graphic arts over fine arts to satisfy her father. At the outbreak of World War I in 1914, she left school and returned to Gotha to work for the Red Cross. She went back to Berlin in 1915, joining Emil Orlik’s graphics class at the National Institute of the Museum of Arts and Crafts. That same year, she began an intimate relationship with Raoul Hausmann, later a key figure in the Berlin Dada movement. Her active involvement with the Berlin Dadaists started in 1917. As the only woman in the Berlin group, she was noted for her self-reliance, masculine presentation, and bisexuality, and she consistently explored the theme of the "New Woman"—someone free to vote, pursue sexual relationships, and achieve financial independence.

From 1916 to 1926, Höch worked in the handicrafts department of the publisher Ullstein Verlag, creating dress, embroidery, lace, and handiwork designs for magazines such as *Die Dame* and *Die Praktische Berlinerin*. This early training influenced many of her collages from the late 1910s through the mid-1920s, which often incorporated sewing patterns and needlework designs. She lived and worked in the Netherlands from 1926 to 1929. Over the years, she formed important friendships and professional ties with figures including Kurt Schwitters, Nelly van Doesburg, Theo van Doesburg, Sonia Delaunay, László Moholy-Nagy, and Piet Mondrian. Along with Hausmann, Höch was among the first pioneers of the art form later known as photomontage.

Art historian Maria Makela described Höch’s affair with Raoul Hausmann as “stormy,” noting that their conflicts—some turning violent—stemmed largely from Hausmann’s refusal to leave his wife. He even fantasized about killing Höch. Hausmann criticized her both for wanting to marry him, which he called a “Bourgeois” impulse, and for her artistic opinions. His hypocritical views on women’s emancipation led Höch to write a biting short story in 1920 titled “The Painter,” about an artist thrown into a spiritual crisis when his wife asks him to do the dishes. Hausmann repeatedly suggested that Höch could only reach her full potential, as a woman and in their relationship, by having a child with him. Höch herself wanted children, but when she became pregnant with Hausmann’s child in May 1916 and again in January 1918, she had abortions. She ended their seven-year relationship in 1922.

In 1926, Höch began a relationship with Dutch writer and linguist Mathilda (“Til”) Brugman, whom she met through mutual friends Kurt and Helma Schwitters. By autumn of that year, she moved to The Hague to live with Brugman, and they relocated to Berlin in 1929. Their relationship lasted nine years, until 1935. The two did not label it as lesbian, instead calling it a private love relationship. In 1935, Höch started a relationship with Kurt Matthies, whom she married in 1938 and divorced in 1944.

During the Third Reich, Höch remained in Berlin, keeping a low profile. She was the last member of the Berlin Dada group to stay in Germany through this period. She bought and lived in a small garden house in Berlin-Heiligensee, a remote area on the city’s outskirts. She married businessman and pianist Kurt Matthies in 1938 and divorced him in 1944. Nazi censorship affected her work, which was labeled “degenerate art,” making it even harder for her to exhibit. Although her work received less acclaim after the war than before the Third Reich’s rise, she continued making photomontages and showing them internationally until her death in Berlin in 1978. Her house and garden are open to visitors during the annual Tag des offenen Denkmals. A Google Doodle commemorated the 128th anniversary of her birthday on 1 November 2017.

Dada was an artistic movement that began in 1916 in Zurich, Switzerland. It rejected monarchy, militarism, and conservatism and was rooted in an “anti-art” attitude. Dadaists believed art should have no limits or restrictions and could be whimsical and playful. These ideas emerged after the Great War.