Bitter Witness: Otto Dix and the Great War

by Linda F. McGreevy

Bitter Witness is an intensive, factual study of Otto Dix’s war-related art. It is the first book to place Dix’s etching cycle, Der Krieg , alongside numerous paintings and drawings in the perspective of his war experience on two fronts from mid-1915 to 1918’s finale. It includes a full history of the war, the Weimar Republic’s socio-political upheavals, and the Nazi years, following Dix and his colleagues, including Kaethe Kollwitz, through the artistic movements and events in the first half of Germany’s most turbulent century.

467 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[Elizabeth (Elzburg)]

This is a very unique and interesting academic text. There are no other examinations of the German artist Otto Dix, his war experience, and his war-related art that are quite as in-depth as this one, while also covering a wide range of different aspects and angles of not only the artist's story, but also the Great War's.

I used this as a source for a University research essay I wrote on the effects of Dix's war experience on the creation and effects of his painting Skat Players (1920). I was very late in starting my research so I unfortunately had to stick to only reading the information I could use for my own examination, rather than being able to devour this book in its entirety. However, the library requires this book be returned at the end of January of next year, so I have some time now to actually finish this book since the semester has finished... Whether or not I'll actually get around to it is another story. That said, this book truly does cover some interesting stuff, so ideally I do hope to read it in time.

*EDIT*: Lmao nope.