The Chemnitz Art Collections have received a significant donation of 42 expressionist artworks from renowned collector Hermann Gerlinger, marking a major expansion of their "Die Brücke" (The Bridge) collection. The donated works, primarily featuring pieces by Karl Schmidt-Rottluff along with creations by Erich Heckel and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, are now being presented to the public in a special exhibition that opened on Saturday.
The special exhibition "Hermann Gerlinger Collection" runs from October 18, 2025, through February 1, 2026, in the Parade Hall at Theaterplatz, complementing the museum's permanent collection. Visitors can explore oil paintings, watercolors, drawings, prints, and sculptures created by the three founding members of the expressionist artist group "Die Brücke": Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Erich Heckel, and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. The collection showcases the full spectrum of Bridge Expressionism through diverse artistic media.
Florence Thurmes, General Director of the Chemnitz Art Collections, views the new acquisitions as a perfect complement to their existing holdings, particularly given Karl Schmidt-Rottluff's birth in the Rottluff district of Chemnitz. "The history of 'Bridge' Expressionism was rooted in Chemnitz," Thurmes explained. "This was a highly industrial city, a textile city, and this longing for nature had to come from somewhere. It wasn't rooted in Dresden, the baroque city."
Thurmes believes Gerlinger's decision to permanently donate these works to Chemnitz was very deliberate. "He knows our collection, he knows what we have here in Chemnitz, how important Chemnitz is for 'Bridge' Expressionism," she said, expressing deep appreciation for his trust in the city. The now over 90-year-old entrepreneur and collector has previously loaned large portions of his approximately 1,000-piece collection to various museums, though not always permanently.
Gerlinger's collecting history includes some controversial moments. The State Art Museum of Saxony-Anhalt, the Moritzburg in Halle, even constructed an 18 million euro extension building to house around 900 permanently loaned paintings, graphics, and sculptures from Gerlinger's collection. However, in 2016, the collector withdrew his works following a dispute, leaving the museum without its centerpiece collection.
A central position in the Chemnitz exhibition is occupied by the one-meter-by-one-meter painting "You and I" from 1919, which Schmidt-Rottluff created as a wedding gift for his wife Emmy. In luminous colors, the artist portrayed himself and his wife in what Thurmes describes as both a formal and color-intensive self-examination of the couple. She points to the intertwined hands, which could be interpreted as forming a heart shape: "His eyes are depicted as lines, the blue from the window is reflected in Emmy Frisch's eye, she has one eye open, one closed, which is often interpreted in Schmidt-Rottluff's work as the open eye looking to the outside world and the closed one looking inward."
Another significant work on display is one of collector Gerlinger's favorite pieces, also by Schmidt-Rottluff: "Landscape in Moonlight" from 1938. The painting depicts a house in a landscape, with long shadows creating a rather somber mood. This work comes from a period when it became increasingly difficult for the artist to work, as he was banned from painting by the Nazis in 1941, reflecting the dark times of the Nazi era through its shadowed landscapes.
The exhibition also features Erich Heckel's 1919 painting "Two Men," showing two nude men in expressive colors standing before a landscape, and a 1908 drawing by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner depicting Emmy Frisch and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. Not all works in the special exhibition are donations; three woodcuts and one chalk drawing were acquired by the museum's Friends' Circle.
After the special exhibition concludes, many of the 42 donated "Bridge" works will be permanently displayed in the freshly renovated Karl Schmidt-Rottluff House, the artist's childhood home that has been newly designed as a museum. This ensures that the valuable collection will remain accessible to the public beyond the temporary exhibition period.
The exhibition is housed at the Art Collections at Theaterplatz, located at Theaterplatz 1, 09111 Chemnitz, and is open Tuesday through Sunday and holidays from 11 AM to 6 PM. Extended hours are available from October 14 through November 2, 2025, when the museum will be open from 10 AM to 7 PM on Tuesday through Sunday and holidays, allowing more visitors to experience this significant addition to Chemnitz's cultural landscape during the city's year as European Capital of Culture 2025.
