In 1905, four architectural students, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Erich Heckel, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, and Fritz Bleyl ( who was soon replaced by Max Pechstein) formed the artists’ group Die Brücke (The Bridge). Their manifesto was:

"As youth we carry the future and want to create for ourselves freedom of life and of movement against the long established older forces."

This was the birth of German Expressionist art.

The artists influenced each other as they were influenced by Munch, the Fauves, Van Gogh, Gauguin, and the art of the non-Western world. Besides the "new" paintings, their greatest achievement was found in their graphic artworks.

In 1911 in Munich, a second group of artists banded together and formed Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider). Its publication of Der Blaue Reiter Almanach was one of the great achievements in the history of art. The two editors, Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc, chose as contributors not only their most important painter friends, but composers like Arnold Shönberg, dancers, folk artists, and poets.

The third phase of this "new" movement began after the first World War with the founding of the Bauhaus by the architect Walter Gropius. Outstanding artists of the period taught at this important institution. Amongst them were Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, and Lyonel Feininger. Parallel to these events, poets, writers, and composers believed that society had to change. All the arts: visual arts, theatre, dance and even film, collaborated and staged revolutionary plays, Dada readings, etc. replacing tradition. It was a vibrant art scene and lasted until the darkness of the Third Reich descended upon Germany.

Ernst Barlach	Käthe Kollwitz
Max Beckmann	Alfred Kubin
Hermann Blumenthal	Wilhelm Lehmbruck
Heinrich Campendonk	Max Liebermann
Lovis Corinth	August Macke
Otto Dix	Franz Marc
Lyonel Feininger	Gerhard Marcks
Conrad Felixmüller	Ludwig Meidner
Walter Gramatté	Gabriele Münter
George Grosz	Emil Nolde
Erich Heckel	Max Pechstein
Hannah Höch	Franz Radziwill
Karl Hofer	Christian Rohlfs
Horst Janssen	Hugo Scheiber
Alexej von Jawlensky	Egon Schiele
Wassily Kandinsky	Karl Schmidt-Rottluff
Alexander Kanoldt	Georg Tappert
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner	Michael Triegel
Paul Klee	Marc Velten
Gustav Klimt	Oskar Kokoschka
others