Foreign Minister Westerwelle is to speak on Thursday, 7 November at the opening of the exhibitions “1914. The Avant-Gardes at War” and “Missing Sons” in the Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany in Bonn.

The exhibition “1914. The Avant-Gardes at War” presents the artistic creations of the European avant-garde in the period before and during World War One with about 300 paintings, drawings and sculptures by Beckmann, Dix, Kandinsky, Kirchner, Klee, Macke, Malewich, Marc, Picasso and 50 other artists. The collection shows how the close artistic bonds within Europe were brutally shattered by the War and how the battlefields left their mark on the artists or indeed cost them their lives.

With World War One as its starting point, the exhibition “Missing Sons” forges a link to the 21st century. Photographs and some originals by Käthe Kollwitz sketch out the impact in terms of cultural history of this ultimate catastrophe of the 20th century.

You can find out more about the exhibitions at

www.bundeskunsthalle.de.