ABSTRACT 
 
 
 
 
Title of Document: FIGURATIVE CONSTRUCTIVISM, 
PICTORIAL STATISTICS, AND THE 
GROUP OF PROGRESSIVE ARTISTS,    
C. 1920-1939 
  
 Benjamin Benus, Doctor of Philosophy, 2010 
Directed By: Professor Steven A. Mansbach  
Department of Art History and Archaeology 
 
 
This dissertation examines an episode of interdisciplinary collaboration in 
Vienna during the late 1920s and early 1930s, led by the Austrian social scientist Otto 
Neurath (1882-1945) and the German printmaker Gerd Arntz (1900-1988). This 
collaboration, which took place at Vienna?s Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum 
[Social and Economic Museum] ultimately created an international graphic sign 
language that would have wide-ranging applications across a variety of media and 
disciplines. Known as the Vienna Method of Pictorial Statistics, this graphic language 
was intended to communicate social and economic facts to a general audience. In 
making such information broadly accessible, the Vienna Method?s designers hoped to 
empower the public at large to take informed positions on a variety of social and 
political issues. 
Prior to and during the period of this collaboration, Arntz was a member of 
the Rhineland-based Gruppe progressiver K?nstler [Group of Progressive Artists]. In 
  
1929 two additional members of this group?the Dutch artist Peter Alma (1886-1969) 
and the Czech artist Augustin Tschinkel (1905-1983)?joined Arntz at the museum. 
All three artists produced prints, drawings, and paintings in an expressive mode, later 
classified under the rubric ?figurative constructivism.? While these ?free? works (as 
they often described them) were produced independent of the applied work at the 
museum, the two types of production share several key stylistic and iconographic 
features. Yet, the relationship between figurative constructivist artworks and pictorial 
statistic graphics has until now remained obscure. This dissertation analyzes the 
nature of this creative relationship by describing the different circumstances out of 
which the two projects originated, and by examining the manner in which certain 
figurative constructivist features were adapted in the design of pictorial statistics. In 
considering the ways in which these two types of work were presented and discussed 
together in a variety of contemporaneous avant-garde publications, the present 
investigation will provide new insights concerning the interwar connections between 
the artistic avant-garde and visual communication in the sciences. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
FIGURATIVE CONSTRUCTIVISM, PICTORIAL STATISTICS, AND THE 
GROUP OF PROGRESSIVE ARTISTS, C. 1920-1939 
 
 
 
By 
 
 
Benjamin Benus 
 
 
 
 
 
Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the  
University of Maryland, College Park, in partial fulfillment 
of the requirements for the degree of 
Doctor of Philosophy 
2010 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Advisory Committee: 
Professor Steven A. Mansbach, Chair 
Professor Dorothea Dietrich 
Professor Joshua A. Shannon 
Professor Marjorie S. Venit 
Professor Jeffrey Herf 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
? Copyright by 
Benjamin Benus 
2010 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ii 
 
 
 
 
 
The dissertation document that follows has had referenced material removed in 
respect for the owner?s copyright. A complete version of this document, which 
includes said referenced material, resides in the University of Maryland, College 
Park?s library collection. 
 
 iii 
 
Acknowledgements 
This dissertation would not have been possible without the generous and 
enthusiastic support of a number of institutions and individuals. Crucial to the 
completion of this work was the ACLS Mellon Dissertation Completion Fellowship, 
which afforded me the opportunity to devote my energies exclusively to this project 
at a critical stage in the process. A Summer Research Fellowship from the University 
of Maryland and an earlier grant from the Cosmos Club Foundation were both of 
enormous help in allowing me to travel and conduct archival research in a wide 
variety of locations throughout Europe and the United States. 
I am especially indebted to my advisor, Steven Mansbach, who has been my 
tireless and dedicated supporter for nearly a decade now?first advising my master?s 
thesis at the Pratt Institute in 2001, and now chair of my dissertation committee at the 
University of Maryland. I have repeatedly benefited from his guidance, direction, and 
generosity. I would also like to thank the Department of Art History and Archaeology 
at the University of Maryland for their unwavering support?especially Marjorie 
Venit and Joshua Shannon, who have both offered help and encouragement at crucial 
moments in my academic career. Additionally, I would like to thank Dorothea 
Dietrich, whose feedback and enthusiasm early on in the writing-process helped to 
determine the shape of this project.  
Thanks are due to the staff, librarians, archivists, and scholars at the following 
institutions: the Getty Research Center in Los Angeles; the Historisches Archiv in 
Cologne; the International Institute for Social History in Amsterdam; the Stadsarchief 
in Amsterdam; the Museum of Czech Literature (PNP) in Prague; and the National 
 
 iv 
 
Library of the Czech Republic in Prague. Individuals at the following institutions 
deserve special mention for their generous assistance and hospitality: Timothy 
Benson and Erika Esau at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art?s Rifkind Center 
for German Expressionist Studies; Eric Kindel at the Otto and Marie Neurath Isotype 
Collection at the University of Reading; Vivien Entius at the Gemeentemuseum in 
The Hague; Arno van Roosmalen at Stroom Den Haag; Michiel Nijhoff and Carolien 
Glazenburg at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam; Charles van den Heuvel at the 
Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) in Amsterdam; Ursula 
Frohne at the Universit?t zu K?ln; Claudia Gloeckner at Galerie Gloeckner in 
Cologne; Lucie Siklova and Eva Bendova at the National Gallery in Prague; and Iva 
Knobloch at the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague.  
Additionally, I have benefited immeasurably from conversations and 
exchanges with a number of scholars, whose earlier work on pictorial statistics and 
the Group of Progressive Artists has provided the foundations for this dissertation. 
Robin Kinross patiently answered questions and shared notes with me from his own 
earlier research on Isotype. Flip Bool was especially kind in allowing me access to his 
extensive personal library. Nader Voussoughian generously devoted time to read 
sections of my dissertation, and provided critical feedback. I am especially grateful to 
Christopher Burke, who not only read and commented on sections of my dissertation, 
but patiently responded to all of my typography-related inquiries, and repeatedly 
brought new and relevant material to my attention. 
Special thanks are due to those descendents and friends of artists, who invited 
me into their homes and provided me access to their collections. I am grateful to Dr. 
 
 v 
 
Jobst J?rgen Knief and Dr. Marlies Knief in Cologne, who shared with me their 
correspondence and documentation related to Augustin Tschinkel, as well as personal 
recollections of their friend. Peter Modley in Bethesda was especially kind in 
allowing me to make use of his father?s papers and rare publications. Peter and 
Marian Arntz in Rijswijk were wonderfully hospitable, and Peter was of 
immeasurable assistance?both in providing me access to his personal collection of 
his father?s pictorial statistic work, and in sharing with me memories of his father. 
Though I spent only one day with him in the winter of 2009, Peter?s kindness, 
enthusiasm, and generosity made a lasting impression. It was with great sadness that I 
learned of his passing last summer.  
There are additionally a number of friends, colleagues, and mentors, who have 
supported me in innumerable ways. I would like to thank Jana Mikulcov? for her 
hospitality in Prague and her help in navigating some of the city?s more labyrinthine 
archival institutions. Alena Kottov? and Maia Henley also provided assistance with 
Czech translations. I am indebted to Tjitske Risselada for help with Dutch translations 
and assistance with archival research in Amsterdam. Elke Wojan has tirelessly and 
enthusiastically provided encouragement over the past few years (along with 
assistance in matters of German language and grammar). Bob Richardson has, once 
again, selflessly served as a reader for sections of this draft, offering invaluable 
insights and criticism. Of my friends and colleagues as Maryland, I am especially 
grateful to Angela George, whose friendship and support have helped me to reach this 
goal. Finally, I would like to thank my family, especially my parents, for all of the 
ways in which they have provided support and assistance over the years. 
 
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Table of Contents 
 
 
Acknowledgements ................................................................................................. iii 
Table of Contents .....................................................................................................vi 
List of Figures .........................................................................................................vii 
Introduction...............................................................................................................1 
Chapter 1: The Origins and Development of Figurative Constructivism...................26 
Chapter 2: Figurative Constructivism and the International Avant-garde..................66 
Chapter 3: The Vienna Method of Pictorial Statistics...............................................92 
Chapter 4: Sociological Graphics and Pictorial Statistics .......................................149 
Conclusion ............................................................................................................180 
Figures ..................................................................................................................194 
Appendix: Artists? and Designers? Biographies......................................................335 
Bibliography..........................................................................................................353 
 
 
 
 vii 
 
List of Figures 
 
1. Chart showing unemployment in Great Britain, France, and Germany, in 
Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft [Society and Economy] (Leipzig: 
Bibliographisches Institut AG, 1930), 87. 
 
2. Chart showing the distribution of wealth in Germany, in Gesellschaft und 
Wirtschaft, 91. 
 
3. Prints by Gerd Arntz, Franz Wilhelm Seiwert, Augustin Tschinkel, Peter 
Alma, and Heinrich Hoerle. Reproduced in a bis z 1, no. 1 (October 1929): 2. 
 
4. Chart showing rationalization and worker downsizing, in Technik und 
Menschheit [Technology and Humankind] (Vienna: Deutscher Verlag f?r 
Jugend und Volk, 1932). 
 
5. Gerd Arntz, Oben und unten [Above and Below], 1931, woodcut. 
 
6. Cover of Schwedische Felsbilder [Swedish Rock Art] (Hagen, 1919). 
 
7. Prints and drawings by Franz Wilhelm Seiwert and Heinrich Hoerle. 
Reproduced in Stupid 1 (Cologne, 1920). 
 
8. Heinrich Hoerle, Mann (Konstruktive Figur) [Man (Constructive Figure)], 
1920, graphite. 
 
9. Heinrich Hoerle, Frauen [Women], 1920, linocuts. 
 
10. Heinrich Hoerle, Zeichnung (Frau) [Drawing (Woman)], 1920, graphite. 
 
11. Heinrich Hoerle, Der Europ?er [The European], 1923, linocut. 
 
12. Heinrich Hoerle, Prothesenkopf [Prosthetic head], 1923, linocut.  
 
13. Heinrich Hoerle, Kopfprothese [Head prosthesis], c. 1923, linocut. 
 
14. Heinrich Hoerle, Denkmal der unbekannten Prothesen [Monument to the 
Unknown Prostheses], 1930, oil on canvas. 
 
15. Otto Dix, Skin Graft, 1924, etching. 
 
16. Page from Ernst Friedrich?s Krieg dem Krieg! [War against War!] (1924). 
 
 
 viii 
 
17. John Heartfield and George Grosz, The Middle-Class Philistine Heartfield 
Gone Wild (Elektro-Mechanical Tatlin Sculpture), 1920, mixed media. 
 
18. Max Ernst, Self-Constructed Small Machine, 1920, pencil and ink on paper. 
 
19. Hoerle, Fabrikarbeiter [Factory Worker], 1922, oil on canvas. 
 
20. Franz Wilhelm Seiwert, Fabrik [Factory], 1923, linocut. 
 
21. Gerd Arntz, Ruhe und Ordnung [Calm and Order], 1926, woodcut. 
 
22. Gerd Arntz, Die Ordnung [Order], 1926, woodcut. 
 
23. Gerd Arntz, Fabrik [Factory], 1927, woodcut. 
 
24. Gerd Arntz, Krankenhaus [Hospital], 1927, woodcut. 
 
25. Peter Alma, Oorlog [War], 1937, oil on canvas. 
 
26. Peter Alma, 1914-1918, 11 Millioen invaliden (De oorlog maakt de man) [11 
Million invalids (War Makes the Man)], 1936, poster. 
 
27. Franz Wilhelm Seiwert, Sieben Antlitze der Zeit [Seven Faces of the Times], 
1921, ink drawings. 
 
28. Franz Wilhelm Seiwert, Betriebsorganisation [Factory Organization], 1922, 
woodcut. 
 
29. Franz Wilhelm Seiwert, Solidarit?t [Solidarity], 1922, linocut. 
 
30. Franz Wilhelm Seiwert, Feierabend [Quitting Time], 1922, linocut. 
 
31. Gerd Arntz, Spartakusbund [Spartacus league], 1926, woodcut. 
 
32. Gerd Arntz, Tag der Freiheit [Day of Freedom], 1927, woodcut. 
 
33. Franz Wilhelm Seiwert, Erkenntnis der Welt treibt zur ?nderung der Welt 
[Understanding the World Works Towards Changing the World], 1924, 
linocut. 
 
34. Franz Wilhelm Seiwert, Die Weltrevolution zerst?rt die Gef?ngnisse der Welt 
[World Revolution Destroys the Prisons of the World], c.1924, linocut. 
 
35. Gerd Arntz, Die Partei sch?tzt den Staat! [The Party Protects the State!], 
1927, woodcut. 
 
 
 ix 
 
36. Gerd Arntz, R?temandat oder Di?tenmandat? [Council Mandate or Salary 
Mandate?], 1927, woodcut. 
 
37. Gerd Arntz, R?te und Betrieb Organisation [Council and Factory 
Organization], 1927, woodcut. 
 
38. Franz Wilhelm Seiwert, ?Schema des R?tesystems? [Scheme of the Council 
System], in a bis z 3, no. 27 (September 1932): 107. 
 
39. Augustin Tschinkel, BO, 1928, linocut. 
 
40. Augustin Tschinkel, BO, 1929, oil on canvas. 
 
41. Augustin Tschinkel, BO, 1932, oil on canvas (replica). 
 
42. Gerd Arntz, Amerikanisches [Things American], 1924, woodcut. 
 
43. Gerd Arntz, Ruhe und Ordnung [Calm and Order], 1926, woodcut. 
 
44. Gerd Arntz, Fabrik [Factory], 1927, woodcut. 
 
45. Gerd Arntz, Erschossen um nichts [Shot for Nothing], 1924, woodcut. 
 
46. Gerd Arntz, Beschissen um alles [Cheated Out of Everything], 1925, woodcut. 
 
47. Gerd Arntz, Les Baigneuses [Bathers] 1926, woodcut 
 
48. Gerd Arntz, Zw?lf H?user der Zeit [Twelve Houses of the Times] series, 
1927, woodcuts. 
 
49. Gerd Arntz, B?rgerkrieg [Civil War], 1928, woodcut. 
 
50. Gerd Arntz, Fabrikbesetzung [Factory Occupation], 1931, woodcut. 
 
51. Augustin Tschinkel, Solowetzky, 1924, ink drawing. 
 
52. Augustin Tschinkel, Der Kapitalismus im ehemaligen Sowjet-Russland 
[Capitalism in the Former Soviet Russia], 1924, ink drawing. 
 
53. Augustin Tschinkel, Leben und Tod [Life and Death], 1927, woodcut. 
 
54. Augustin Tschinkel, Menschen [People], 1927, linocut. 
 
55. Augustin Tschinkel, Alltag [Daily Life], 1927, linocut. 
 
56. Augustin Tschinkel, Auswanderer [Emigrants], 1927, linocut. 
 
 x 
 
 
57. Augustin Tschinkel, Profitgesellschaft [Profit Society], 1928, linocut. 
 
58. Augustin Tschinkel, Kohle [Coal], 1932, linocut. 
 
59. Augustin Tschinkel, Schema der zeitgen?ssischen P?dagogik [Scheme of 
Contemporary Pedagogy], 1928, ink drawing. 
 
60. Peter Alma, Leve Sowjet Rusland [Long Live Soviet Russia], 1920, woodcut 
in De Tribune (November, 13, 1920). 
 
61. Peter Alma, Colijn-iade, 1923, woodcuts. 
 
62. Peter Alma, Alma, Een huis [A House], 1925, woodcut. 
 
63. Peter Alma, De straat [The Street], 1926, woodcut. 
 
64. Peter Alma, Acht uur [Eight Hours], 1928, woodcut. 
 
65. Peter Alma, Militaire [Military], 1928, woodcut. 
 
66. Peter Alma, De Bankier [The Banker], 1928, woodcut. 
 
67. Peter Alma, Werkelozen in wachtzaal [Unemployed in the Waiting Room], 
1927, woodcut. 
 
68. Peter Alma, Maschinefabriek [Machine Factory], 1929, woodcut. 
 
69. Peter Alma, Acht portretten [Eight Portraits], 1929, woodcuts. 
 
70. Peter Alma, Het Geld [Money] series, 1929, woodcuts. 
 
71. Prints by Gerd Arntz, Franz Wilhelm Seiwert, Augustin Tschinkel, Peter 
Alma, and Heinrich Hoerle. Reproduced in a bis z 1, no. 1 (October 1929): 2. 
 
72. Prints by Peter Alma, Franz Wilhelm Seiwert, and Augustin Tschinkel. 
Reproduced in a bis z 2, no. 12 (November 1930): 45. 
 
73. Prints by Gerd Arntz, Vladimir Krinski, and Heinrich Hoerle. Reproduced in a 
bis z 2, no. 12 (November 1930): 46. 
 
74. Franz Wilhelm Seiwert, Die Menschen fallen, die Profite steigen! [People 
Fall, Profits Climb!], 1924, drawing. Reproduced in a bis z 2, no. 12 
(November 1930): 48. 
 
 
 xi 
 
75. Jan Tschichold, Versuch einer neuen Schrift. Reproduced in a bis z 2, no. 11 
(October 1930): 43. 
 
76. Prints by Vladimir Krinski, Augustin Tschinkel, Franz Wilhelm Seiwert and 
Gerd Arntz. Reproduced in vtvarn? snahy 11, no. 8 (1930): 136-137. 
 
77. Ladislav Sutnar, cover design for vtvarn? snahy 11, no. 1 (1929). 
 
78. Page from nae cesta 1, no. 3 (November 1931). 
 
79. Franz Wilhelm Seiwert, Feierabend, 1922, linocut; Peter Alma, H?ter und 
St?rer der Profitordnung [Guardians and Disturbers of the Profit Order], c. 
1930, woodcut. Reproduced in soziale grafik (Kladno: Nae cesta, 1932). 
 
80. soziale grafik (1932), back cover. 
 
81. Page 39 from soziale grafik (1932). 
 
82. Peter Alma cover design for Wendingen 11, no. 9 (1930). 
 
83. Charts from Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft (1930). Reproduced in Wendingen 
11, no. 9 (1930): 6. 
 
84. Drawings by Vladimir Krinski; installation pieces by El Lissitzky from the 
Soviet Pavilion at the Cologne Pressa exhibition. Reproduced in Wendingen 
11, no. 9 (1930): 10. 
 
85. Prints by Franz Wilhelm Seiwert and Helios G?mez. Reproduced in 
Wendingen 11, no. 9 (1930): 11. 
 
86. Peter Alma, Meerwaarde and Rationalisatie, 1929, woodcuts; Augustin 
Tschinkel, Arbeiders onder weg, 1929, woodcut. Reproduced in Wendingen 
11, no. 9 (1930): 18. 
 
87. H.T. Wijdeveld, page design for Wendingen. 
 
88. Page from the catalog Socialistische kunst heden: Stedelijk Museum 
Amsterdam, 8 Nov.?8. Dec. 1930 (Amsterdam: Socialistische 
Kunstenaarskring, 1930). 
 
89. Rondom Rembrandt (The Hague: N.V. Drukkerij Trio, 1938), cover. 
 
90. ?The Subjects of the Paintings,? Rondom Rembrandt (1938), 5. 
 
91. ?Rembrandt and his Family,? Rondom Rembrandt (1938), 8. 
 
 
 xii 
 
92. ?Rembrandt?s Students and Painters Influenced by Him,? Rondom Rembrandt 
(1938), 9. 
 
93. ?Example of a Quantitative Picture,? from Neurath, ?Das Sachbild,? Die 
Form 5, no. 2 (1930): 31. 
 
94. ?Development of Breadstuff and Rice Production,? Gesellschaft und 
Wirtschaft (1930), 36. 
 
95. Births and mortality rates in pictorial statistic and traditional graph 
representations, in International Picture Language (1936), 87, 101. 
 
96. ?Police Interventions in Vienna,? reproduced in the ?sterreichische 
Gemeinde-Zeitung 3, no. 10 (May 15, 1926). 
 
97. Charts showing ?Social Stratification in Vienna,? from Die Gewerkschaften 
(1928), and Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft (1930). 
 
98. ?Putting Signs Together,? from International Picture Language (1936). 
 
99. ?Monopoly Production in Countries Outside Europe,? Gesellschaft und 
Wirtschaft (1930), 59. 
 
100. ?Economic Systems of the World,? Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft (1930), 97. 
 
101. Gerd Arntz, Bank, 1927, woodcut. 
 
102. Gerd Arntz, Warenhaus [Department Store], 1927, woodcut. 
 
103. ?350 Years at Leiden University,? Rondom Rembrandt (1938), 2. 
 
104. ?Migration Movements in Important Countries, 1920-27,? Gesellschaft und 
Wirtschaft (1930), 74. 
 
105. The ?transformation? process (Marie Neurath, 1932). Photograph in the 
Isotype Collection at the University of Reading. 
 
106. Chart showing iron and coal consumption in different countries for the years 
1830 and 1888, respectively. In Michael G. Mulhall, The Dictionary of 
Statistics (London, 1892), plate VI. 
 
107. Willard C. Brinton, Graphic Methods for Presenting Facts (New York, 1914), 
38-39. 
 
108. ?Roots of a Settlement House? (1923). Reproduced in the ?sterreichische 
Gemeinde-Zeitung 2, no. 16 (1925). 
 
 xiii 
 
 
109. ?Health Insurance Recipients? (1926) reproduced with the article ?Statistische 
Hieroglyphen,? in the ?sterreichische Gemeinde-Zeitung 3, no. 10 (1926). 
 
110. Die bunte Welt: Mengenbilder f?r die Jugend (Vienna, 1929) cover. 
 
111. Illustration from Die bunte Welt, 3. 
 
112. ?Population Groups of the World,? Die bunte Welt, 6. 
 
113. ?Automobile Supplies of the World,? Die bunte Welt, 25. 
 
114. ?Marriages in Germany,? Die bunte Welt, 42. 
 
115. Gerd Arntz, Vornehme Stra?e [Classy Street], 1924, woodcut. 
 
116. Gerd Arntz, Mitropa, 1925, woodcut. 
 
117. Gerd Arntz, Die Ordnung [Order], 1926, woodcut. 
 
118. Gerd Arntz, Hotel, 1927, woodcut. 
 
119. Gerd Arntz, Oben und unten [Above and Below], 1931, woodcut. 
 
120. Gerd Arntz, Schauenfenster I [Store Window], 1925, woodcut. 
 
121. Gerd Arntz, Spiegel [Mirror], 1925, woodcut. 
 
122. Gerd Arntz, Bank, 1927, woodcut. 
 
123. Gerd Arntz, Warenhaus [Department Store], 1927, woodcut. 
 
124. ?Age Distribution in Germany 1925,? Die bunte Welt, 45. 
 
125. Paul Renner, Futura type specimen folder, 1927. 
 
126. Franz Wilhelm Seiwert, typographic work featured in Jan Tschichold?s Die 
neue Typographie (1928). 
 
127. Die bunte Welt, title page. 
 
128. Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum pamphlet for the K?rnten exhibition, 
1929. 
 
129. Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum pamphlet, ?Development of 
Agriculture and Business in Germany,? 1928. 
 
 xiv 
 
 
130. ?Cartographic Overview,? Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft (1930), 100. 
 
131. Illustration of distortion through Mercator projection in Neurath, ?Das 
Sachbild,? Die Form 5, no. 2 (1930): 35. 
 
132. ?Arabian Empire and Neighboring Regions: Cities,? Gesellschaft und 
Wirtschaft (1930), 8. 
 
133. Rome, Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft (1930), 70. 
 
134. New York, Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft (1930), 71. 
 
135. ?Population Groups of the World,? Die bunte Welt, 6. 
 
136. ?Population Groups of the World,? Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft, 97. 
 
137. ?Religions of the World,? Die bunte Welt, 7. 
 
138. ?Religions of the World,? Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft, 98. 
 
139. ?Population Numbers and World Economic Systems,? Die bunte Welt, 9. 
 
140. ?Development of Economic Systems,? Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft, 93. 
 
141. ?Economic Systems of the World,? Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft, 97. 
 
142. ?Automobile Supplies of the World,? Die bunte Welt, 25. 
 
143. ?Automobile Supplies of the World,? Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft, 56. 
 
144. Different human figure pictogram types in Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft (1930). 
 
145. ?Manpower in the Transport of a Heavy Object,? Technik und Menschheit. III. 
Der Verkehr (1932), 2. 
 
146. ?Comfort on the Railway,? Technik und Menschheit. III. Der Verkehr (1932), 
5. 
 
147. ?The Application of Electricity,? Technik und Menschheit. II. Die Elektrizit?t 
(1932), 1. 
 
148. Gerd Arntz, Sozialarbeit der Stadt Wien [Social Work in the City of Vienna], 
1929, oil on wood. 
 
149. Gerd Arntz, Ruhe und Ordnung [Calm and Order], 1926, woodcut. 
 
 xv 
 
 
150. ?Scope of Functions for the Chamber for Employees and Workers,? from the 
pamphlet accompanying the Carinthia exhibition, 1929. 
 
151. Page 78 from vtvarn? snahy 11, no. 5 (1929). 
 
152. Page 82 from vtvarn? snahy 11, no. 5 (1929). 
 
153. Charts from Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft. Reproduced in a bis z 1, no. 8 (May 
1930): 29. 
 
154. Gerd Arntz, Sozialarbeit der Stadt Wien; Franz Wilhelm Seiwert, Feierabend. 
Reproduced in a bis z 1, no. 8 (May 1930): 30. 
 
155. Chart from Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft. Reproduced in a bis z 1, no. 9 (July 
1930): 34. 
 
156. Charts from Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft (1930). Reproduced in Wendingen 
11, no. 9 (1930): 7. 
 
157. Gerd Arntz, Fabrik and Stadion, 1927. Reproduced in Wendingen 11, no. 9 
(1930): 13. 
 
158. Peter Alma, Militair [Soldier], Priester [Priest], Cipier [Jailer], and Minister 
[Minister], 1929, woodcuts. Reproduced in Wendingen 11, no. 9 (1930): 17. 
 
159. ?Social Stratification in Vienna,? Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft, 81. 
 
160. Gerd Arntz, ?Types? from the Mundaneum Wien; August Sander, Hirte, 
1913, photograph. Reproduced in a bis z 3, no. 28 (November 1932): 110. 
 
161. August Sander, Kohlentr?ger, photograph. Reproduced in a bis z 2, no. 14 
(March 1931): 56. 
 
162. Prints by Peter Alma, Franz Wilhelm Seiwert, and Augustin Tschinkel. 
Reproduced in a bis z 2, no. 12 (November 1930): 45. 
 
163. Franz Wilhelm Seiwert, Die Menschen fallen, die Profite steigen! [People 
Fall, Profits Climb!], 1924, drawing. Reproduced in a bis z 2, no. 12 
(November 1930): 48. 
 
164. Gerd Arntz, Fabrikbesetzung [Factory Occupation], 1931, woodcut. 
 
165. Gerd Arntz, Krise [Crisis], 1931, woodcut. 
 
166. Gerd Arntz, Pictograms representing groups of figures. 
 
 xvi 
 
 
167. Gerd Arntz, Spartakusbund [Spartacus League], 1926, woodcut. 
 
168. Gerd Arntz, Politische wirtschaftliche Einheitsorganisation [Political 
Economic Unitary Organization], 1927, woodcut. 
 
169. Gerd Arntz, Tag der Freiheit [Day of Freedom], 1927, woodcut. 
 
170. Gerd Arntz, Fabrikbesichtigung [Factory Inspection], 1935, linocut. 
 
171. Gerd Arntz, Alle macht aan de arbeidersraden [All Power to the Workers? 
Councils] 1935, linocut. 
 
172. Gerd Arntz, F?r?s Vaterland [For the Fatherland], 1936, linocut. 
 
173. Gerd Arntz, Streik [Strike], 1936, linocut. 
 
174. Gerd Arntz, Krieg [War], 1935, woodcut. 
 
175. ?Army Sizes in Antiquity and the Middle Ages,? Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft, 
25. 
 
176. ?Army Sizes in the Modern Era,? Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft, 26. 
 
177. ?Great War 1914-1918,? chart for exhibition in London, c. 1933. 
 
178. Peter Alma, De oorlog maakt de man [War Makes the Man], 1936, poster. 
 
179. Peter Alma, Murals in Amstel station, Amsterdam, 1939. 
 
180. Peter Alma, Mural in Amstel station, Amsterdam, 1939 (detail). 
 
181. ?Development of the Railroad,? Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft, 57. 
 
182. Peter Alma, Mural in Amstel station, Amsterdam, 1939 (detail). 
 
183. ?City Dwellers per Every 25 People,? Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft, 67 (detail). 
 
184. ?Travel to America,? Technik und Menschheit III, 8 (detail). 
 
185. Augustin Tschinkel, B?rgerliche Ordnung [Bourgeois Order], 1930, mixed 
media. 
 
186. Augustin Tschinkel, Anbetung des goldenen Kalbes [Worship of the Golden 
Calf], 1932. 
 
 
 xvii 
 
187. Augustin Tschinkel, Kohle (Kapital und Arbeit) [Coal (Capital and Labor)], 
1932. 
 
188. Augustin Tschinkel, Symbol, rebus, p?smeno [Sign, Rebus, Letter] (Prague: 
St?tn? grafick? kola, 1937). 
 
189. f. w. seiwert ? gem?lde, grafik, schriften (Prague, 1934), cover. 
 
190. Guide to the exhibition de olympiade onder dictatuur, 1936. Cover design by 
Cas Oorthuys and Jo Voskuil. 
 
191. Gerd Arntz, Das dritte Reich [The Third Reich], 1934, woodcut. Reproduced 
in De Arbeidersraad 2, no. 4 (1936). 
 
192. Gerd Arntz, Io, 1939, linocut. 
 
193. Exhibition of charts from the Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum, c. 1930, 
photograph reproduced in advertisement for the atlas. 
 
194. ?Pictures Grouped Together,? in International Picture Language (1936), 71. 
 
195. ?Collectivization of Peasant Farmsteads,? in Reconstruction of the Soviet 
Union under the Five-Year-Plan (Moscow: Ogiz State Fine Art Publishers, 
1932), 29. 
 
196. ?Traktorenproduktion? in Der zweite F?nfjahr-Plan im Aufbau (Moscow: 
Ogiz State Fine Art Publishers, 1934), 6. 
 
197. Aviacija i vozduchoplavanie [Aviation and Floatation] (Moscow: Ogiz State 
Fine Art Publishers, 1934), 8, 29. 
 
198. XV let sovetskoy vlasty. 44 diagrammi. [15 Years of Soviet Power: 44 
Diagrams] (Moscow: Ogiz State Fine Art Publishers, 1932), 43, 44. 
 
199. Molodezh CCCP v zifrach. Zbornik diagram [Youth of the USSR in Figures: 
A Compilation of Diagrams] (Moscow, 1936). 
 
200. USSR: An Album Illustrating the State Organization and National Economy of 
the U.S.S.R. (Moscow: Scientific Publishing Institute of Pictorial Statistics, 
1939), 35. 
 
201. USSR (Moscow, 1939), 48. 
 
202. Letterheads showing the succession of organizations associated with the 
Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum in the early 1930s. 
 
 
 xviii 
 
203. Survey Graphic (February, 1937) cover. 
 
204. Pages from Tuberculosis: Basic Facts in Picture Language (New York: 
National Tuberculosis Association, 1939), 12, 13. 
 
205. Poster for the New York City Department of Health (with text on reverse 
side), 1939. 
 
206. Pages from Compton?s Picture Encyclopedia (Chicago: F.E. Compton & Co., 
1939). 
 
207. Page from Modern Man in the Making (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1939), 
53. 
 
208. W.J.H.B. Sandberg, Het verleden in egyptische reliefs, het heden in statistich 
beeld [The Past in Egyptian Reliefs, the Present in Statistical Pictures] 
(Amsterdam, 1929). 
 
209. Peter Alma, ?Carrying capacity of arriving and departing aircraft at Schiphol,? 
Amsterdam, c.1938. 
 
210. Welvaart en industrie in Nederland [Prosperity and Industry in the 
Netherlands] (Leiden: H.E. Stenfert Kroese, 1940). 
 
211. ?Population by Nationality? and ?Population by Profession,? in Mal? 
vlastivda [Little Civics Reader] (Prague: St?tn? nakladatelstv?, 1935), 17, 19. 
 
212. ?The Population of Prague? (above) and ?Prague in 1400 and Today? (below), 
in Mal? vlastivda (1935), 28, 29. 
 
213. Rudolf Modley, Now it can be shown (New York: Pictorial Statistics, Inc., 
1937), cover. 
 
214. ?Electric Power on the Farm.? Graphic by Rudolf Modley for the Rural 
Electrification Administration, Washington D.C., 1936. Reproduced in 
Modley, How to Use Pictorial Statistics (New York: Harper and Brothers, 
1937). 
 
215. Graphics produced by Rudolf Modley for the Henry Street Settlement, New 
York City, 1930s. Reproduced in Modley. How to Use Pictorial Statistics. 
New York: Harper and Brothers, 1937. 
 
216. Gerd Arntz, Examples of later pictograms from the 1950s and 1960s, 
reproduced in Arntz and Broos, Symbolen voor onderwijs en statistiek: 1928-
1965 Wenen-Moskou-Den Haag (The Hague: Nederlandse Stichting voor 
Statistiek, 1979). 
 
 1 
 
Introduction 
 
Figurative Constructivism and Pictorial Statistics 
In January 1929, the German printmaker Gerd Arntz (1900-1988) was 
promoted to head of the graphics department at the Gesellschafts- und 
Wirtschaftsmuseum [Museum of Society and Economy] in Vienna, where, since the 
previous autumn, he had worked on a trial basis under the museum?s director, Otto 
Neurath (1882-1945). As its main task the museum?s design-team produced 
information graphics for exhibition displays and print media. Generally, these charts 
communicated social and economic information of a quantitative nature, such as rates 
of unemployment or income distribution. In communicating this information, 
pictograms played a central role, and their arrangement in rows and columns lent 
themselves to easy quantification and comparison [FIGURES 1, 2]. The graphic 
language developed for these charts?initially called the Wiener Methode der 
Bildstatistik [Vienna Method of Pictorial Statistics] and later renamed ?Isotype?
1
?
was aimed at general audiences, and therefore, was designed to be ?universally? 
legible. In making this material as accessible and inclusive as possible, the Vienna 
Method?s designers hoped to empower the public at large to take informed positions 
on a variety of social and political issues. 
                                                
1
 The name Isotype, an acronym for International System of Typographic Picture Education, was 
adopted following the relocation of Vienna museum?s core team to The Hague in 1934, and its 
reincarnation there as the International Foundation for Visual Education. This organization underwent 
one further displacement with the outbreak of the Second World War, and was reconstituted in Oxford 
in 1942 (and subsequently in London) as the Isotype Institute. 
 
 
 2 
 
Prior to joining the design team at the Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum 
in Vienna, Arntz was (and continued to be) affiliated with an international artists? 
organization based in Cologne, known as the Gruppe progressiver K?nstler [Group of 
Progressive Artists]. In 1929 Arntz was joined at the museum by two additional 
members from this group, the Dutch artist Peter Alma (1886-1969) and the Czech 
artist Augustin Tschinkel (1905-1983), both of whom were hired to assist in the 
design of the museum?s pictorial statistic atlas, titled Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft 
[Society and Economy], which would be published in the following year. Throughout 
the mid-1920s and 1930s, Arntz, Alma, and Tschinkel created prints, drawings, and 
paintings in an expressive mode, later classified together under the rubric ?figurative 
constructivism.? This artistic tendency was, to a large extent, the creation of the 
group?s leading figures, the Cologne artists Franz Wilhelm Seiwert (1894-1933) and 
Heinrich Hoerle (1895-1936). It was Seiwert, in fact, who coined the term in 1929; 
however, figurative constructivist features appeared in his work, as well as in prints 
and drawings by Hoerle, as early as 1920.
2
  
As can be seen in a page from the Progressives? official journal, a bis z 
[FIGURE 3], these five artists? graphic works are characterized at the formal level by 
a tendency towards geometric abstraction: human anatomy is reduced to simple 
shapes; facial characteristics, where they do occur, are limited to one or two circular 
forms and lack any individualizing characteristics; forms are generally composed 
                                                
2
 A variation on the term ?figurative constructivism? first appears in a short autobiographical sketch by 
Seiwert in 1929, in which he describes working with a ?gegenst?ndlichen konstruktiven? [figurative 
constructive] pictorial form. See Kunst der Zeit 3, no. 6, Sonderheft Rheinland (1929): 171. The term 
has since been employed to describe the work of several Progressive members. See, for example, 
Ingeborg G?ssow, ?Die Malerei des Gegest?ndlichen Konstruktivismus,? in Kunst und Technik in den 
20er Jahren: Neue Sachlichkeit und Gegenst?ndlicher Konstruktivismus (Munich: St?dtische Galerie 
im Lenbachhaus, 1980), 74-93. 
 
 
 3 
 
along vertical and horizontal axes; and figures, which refer to professional types or 
social classes rather than specific individuals, are set in frontal or profile views. 
Meanwhile, the settings depicted in these works are limited to social institutions and 
sites of production and consumption, such as the factory and the department store?
though scenes set in harbors, prisons, and in army barracks figure prominently in 
other works. 
While Arntz, Alma, and Tschinkel produced their ?free? works (as they 
sometimes described them) independent of their applied work designing statistical 
pictograms in Vienna, these two types of production share several key stylistic and 
iconographic features. Indeed, some of the most important and frequently recurring 
Vienna Method pictograms, including those for the basic human figure, the worker-
type, and the factory building?as well as those symbols connected to automobile 
production and coal-mining?appear to have been adapted directly from the artists? 
?free? work [FIGURES 4, 5]. Yet, the relationship between these two realms of 
production has until now remained obscure. This dissertation will attempt to throw 
light on the nature of this relationship by considering the different circumstances out 
of which the two projects originated, by analyzing the manner in which certain 
figurative constructivist conventions were adapted to the design of statistical 
pictograms, and by examining the ways in which these two types of work were 
presented and discussed together in a variety of publications, both during the period 
of collaboration in Vienna, as well as in its aftermath.
3
 
                                                
3
 1929-1930 mark the years during which all three artists were together in Vienna, though Arntz and 
Alma?s collaboration with Neurath extended beyond this timeframe. Arntz, whose employment at the 
museum began in September 1928, continued to work with Neurath until 1940. Alma worked for 
Neurath until 1934. 
 
 4 
 
As these projects were generally collaborative in nature?and often 
represented collective efforts?I looked for their origins less in the private lives of the 
figures involved with these projects, and more in the larger cultural spheres in which 
they participated. This has meant situating these projects in relation to the different 
discourses of the period from a variety of disciplines, ranging from art and design, to 
education, to politics. In the case of figurative constructivism, the movement may 
best be understood as an attempt to negotiate the competing art-theoretical discourses 
of the period concerning the social function of art and the proper relation between 
artistic practice and political commitment. Thus, while the Group of Progressive 
Artists was sympathetic to the political left?s demand that artworks serve to cultivate 
a unified political consciousness among a working class audience, they rejected the 
naturalistic approach generally favored and promoted among the left political parties. 
On the other hand: while the Progressives were sympathetic to the Suprematists? and 
Constructivists? assaults on pictorial naturalism, they were skeptical with regard to 
these movements? reliance on abstraction. With figurative constructivism, then, the 
Progressive Artists sought to navigate these two positions by means of a synthesis of 
Constructivism?s formal invention and social realism?s narrative content. 
In the case of the Vienna Method of Pictorial Statistics, the project can be 
understood to a large extent in the context of the social education policy promoted by 
the Austrian Social Democrats, who controlled Vienna in the aftermath of the First 
World War. By educating the residents of Vienna about relevant social issues, the 
Social Democratic Party hoped to engage and win the support of city?s population. 
This policy coincided with Neurath?s own interests in aesthetics and visual education, 
 
 5 
 
formed earlier during his tenure as director of the Kriegswirtschaftliches Museum 
[Museum of War Economy] in Leipzig and, soon after, through his involvement with 
Viennese modernist architects as General Secretary for the ?sterreichischer Verband 
f?r Siedlungs- und Kleingartenwesen [Austrian Association for Settlement and 
Allotment Gardens]. At the same time, the formal character of the Vienna Method 
represents a departure from the traditional aesthetic standards promoted by the 
Viennese Social Democrats, reflecting instead Neurath?s openness to the techniques 
utilized in the production of mass media and to the radical aesthetics advanced by 
members of the international avant-garde. In this way, the pictorial statistic project 
may be seen in connection with developments in modernist graphic design of the 
mid- and late-1920s, represented by the work of artists at the Bauhaus, or those 
associated with the international circle known as the Ring ?neue Werbegestalter? 
[Ring of New Advertising Designers]. 
In explaining why these projects originated and developed where and when 
they did?and in understanding the relationship between the two types of work?I 
have drawn extensively on primary sources, including statements by the affiliated 
artists and designers?as well as their critics?which appear in publications of the 
period. These publications, many of which are avant-garde journals, often featured 
reproductions of figurative constructivist graphics and pictorial statistic charts. Since, 
in some cases, original works are no longer accessible, the reproductions included in 
these publications provide a valuable record that expands upon the picture provided in 
more recent, related exhibition catalogs. These journals are especially significant, 
moreover, in that they constitute the sites wherein the two projects?figurative 
 
 6 
 
constructivism and pictorial statistics?have most often been brought into contact 
with one another. 
Arntz, in statements made later about the relationship between the 
?Progressive style? and Isotype, often emphasized the distinction between his ?free? 
and applied work.
4
 Alma and Tschinkel, by contrast, were far more emphatic in their 
writings about links between the two areas of production. Neither, however, pursued 
their assertions after the short-lived period of collaboration in Vienna, despite the fact 
that both continued throughout the 1930s to produce pictorial statistic graphics, as 
well as artworks in a figurative constructivist style. For Seiwert and Hoerle?who, in 
any case, played no direct role in designing pictorial statistic symbols?the Vienna 
project may even be seen to run counter to certain aspects of their artistic program.
5
 
Finally, in those cases where Neurath addressed the Progressives? ?free? work, his 
attention was mostly focused on the potential application of its stylistic conventions 
for pictogram design. Thus, while Neurath and the Progressives both promoted one 
another?s work in their published writings, each of the participants in the Vienna 
collaboration conceived of the relationship between the two types of production in 
rather different terms. 
What becomes clear, however, both in reading the statements made by the 
artists and designers and in looking at the artworks reproduced in these publications, 
is the value that all of the aforementioned figures placed upon the cultivation of a 
                                                
4
 See, for example, Gerd Arntz, Zeit unterm Messer: Holz- & Linolschnitte 1920-1970 (Cologne: 
Leske Verlag, 1988), 22. 
 
5
 Lynette Roth puts forth this argument in her recent catalog, Painting as a Weapon: Progressive 
Cologne 1920?1933. Seiwert ? Hoerle ? Arntz (Cologne: Walther K?nig, 2008), 123. 
 
 
 7 
 
universal visual literacy among the general public. This new kind of literacy was 
largely based on what I have described as diagrammatic visualizations, or 
arrangements that facilitate comparisons between parts, and emphasize structural 
relationships. In some respects, these projects share certain features with 
contemporaneous efforts in modernist art and design to produce ?universal? 
languages based on visual forms, such as those undertaken at the Bauhaus by Wassily 
Kandinsky (1866-1944) and Paul Klee (1879-1940)?or later, by Werner Graeff 
(1901-1978) and Karl Peter R?hl (1890-1975).
6
 Like these projects at the Bauhaus, 
figurative constructivism and pictorial statistics utilized vocabularies of basic 
geometric elements ?arranged according to a ?grammar? of formal contrasts? with the 
aim of producing a mode of expression that would have universal appeal.
7
 In contrast 
to these experiments at the Bauhaus, however, figurative constructivism and pictorial 
statistics were not based exclusively on the emotional impact of abstraction; rather, 
these latter projects combined the language of geometry with representational 
elements to produce socially critical narratives.  
In combining this diagrammatic pictorial approach with social content, the 
projects of figurative constructivism and pictorial statistics aimed to provide viewers 
with analytic tools by which they might better reflect upon their place in the social 
                                                
6
 Klee and Kandinsky both developed ?grammars? for ?visual languages? in the books they published 
as part of the Bauhausb?cher series. See Klee?s P?dagogisches Skizzenbuch (Munich, 1925) and 
Kandinsky?s Punkt und Linie zur Fl?che (Munich, 1926). While these visual languages were 
conceived, as Kandinksy asserted, to have applications for ??Art? as a whole,? Graeff and R?hl?s visual 
systems were developed for more specific, utilitarian purposes. For a discussion of Graeff?s ?Plan for 
an International Traffic-Sign Language? and R?hl?s ?Sign Language for All Areas of Public Life,? see 
Daniela St?ppel?s essay, ?Rabbits Darting Sideways. On the Development of Modern Traffic Signs 
and Pictograms,? in Piktogramme ? die Einsamkeit der Zeichen (Berlin; Munich: Deutscher 
Kunstverlag, 2006), 346-349. 
 
7
 Ellen Lupton and J. Abbot Miller, The ABCs of   
: The Bauhaus and Design Theory (New 
York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1991), 23. 
 
 8 
 
order. Furthermore, in the intention to appeal to a mass audience at an intellectual 
rather than an exclusively emotional level, both projects were guided by the belief 
that the general population possessed the intellect necessary to draw well-informed 
conclusions and that they could participate responsibly in a democratic society. This 
belief in the masses? capacity for self-management, which represented a unique 
position among intellectuals at this moment, helps explain the connection between 
figurative constructivism and pictorial statistics. 
I have presented this argument over the course of five chapters, which chart 
the parallel trajectories of these two projects and consider their points of intersection. 
Chapter 1 examines the origins of figurative constructivism in the work of the 
Cologne-based artists Seiwert and Hoerle, along with its later manifestations in the 
work of Arntz, Alma and Tschinkel. In particular, this chapter considers the impact of 
the First World War and the workers? council movement on the development of the 
figurative constructivist idiom. Chapter 2 explores the role that publications and 
exhibitions played, both in the formation of a group identity and in the self-conscious 
articulation of the movement?s aims. Additionally, this chapter examines the way in 
which publications served to foster exchanges among an international network of 
avant-garde artists, and to link figurative constructivism with contemporaneous 
developments in design, such as ?the new typography? movement. With Chapter 3, 
the focus shifts to the Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum in Vienna, for which the 
pictorial statistic method was developed. This chapter outlines the principles of the 
Vienna Method and describes the larger social and political context out of which the 
method originated, and in which it operated. This chapter also considers the aesthetic 
 
 9 
 
transformation to which this method was subjected under the leadership of Arntz, and 
through the work of Alma and Tschinkel. Chapter 4 examines the relationship 
between figurative constructivism and pictorial statistics. In particular, emphasis here 
is upon how the two types of work were discussed and presented in relation to one 
another within avant-garde publications. Finally, the fifth (and concluding) chapter 
summarizes the dual trajectories of figurative constructivism and pictorial statistics in 
the period following the collapse of democracy in Central Europe. This period, from 
1933 to the start of the Second World War, witnesses both the dissolution of the 
Group of Progressive Artists and the gradual abandonment of its associated figurative 
constructivist idiom, as well as the international displacement of the Vienna 
museum?s operations and concomitant changes in its project?s mission. 
 
Figurative Constructivism in the Literature 
Since the period following the Second World War, a growing body of 
literature on figurative constructivism and the Group of Progressive Artists has taken 
shape gradually and sporadically. Like many of the lesser-known groups and 
tendencies of the interwar avant-garde, the Group of Progressive Artists (and the 
figurative constructivist approach associated with some of its members) was largely 
forgotten in the intervening years of National Socialism and the Second World War. 
The first efforts in the postwar period to recover this historical episode from obscurity 
came from surviving members of the original circle in Cologne. Over the course of 
the 1950s and 1960s, the art historians Hans Schmitt-Rost (1901-1978) and Carl 
Oskar Jatho (1884-1971)?both friends and associates of the Progressives during the 
 
 10 
 
peak years of the group?s activities?attempted to resuscitate the memory of these 
artists and their work through publications and exhibitions.
8
 In this early phase of the 
secondary literature, emphasis was placed upon the Group of Progressive Artists as a 
local, Cologne-based phenomenon. These studies dealt primarily with the group?s 
leading figures, Seiwert and Hoerle, who (like Schmitt-Rost and Jatho) had lived in 
and around Cologne. However, the Progressives? international and political 
dimensions began to emerge with greater clarity only in 1969, with the reprint of the 
group?s journal, a bis z.
9
 Beyond introducing a new generation of scholars and 
historians to these artists? work and writings, this reprint revealed the extensive scope 
of the international network within which the Progressives operated. 
This revelation was reinforced the following year in an exhibition organized at 
the Kunstverein zu Frechen, titled Hoerle und sein Kreis [Hoerle and His Circle].
10
 
This exhibition was the first major postwar show to exhibit work by Hoerle and 
Seiwert alongside that of other Cologne members of the group, such as Hans Schmitz 
(1896-1977) and Anton R?derscheidt (1892-1970), as well as participants from 
beyond Cologne, such as Gerd Arntz, Augustin Tschinkel, Jankel Adler (1895-1949), 
and Otto Freundlich (1878-1943).
11
 What also became clear with this exhibition was 
the important place that the Progressives occupied during the years of the Weimar 
                                                
8
 Hans Schmitt-Rost, Hoerle und Seiwert. Moderne Malerei in K?ln zwischen 1917 und 1933 
(Cologne: K?lnischer Kunstverein, 1951); Carl Oskar Jatho, Franz Wilhelm Seiwert (Recklinghausen: 
A. Bongers, 1964). 
 
9
 a bis z: organ der gruppe progressiver k?nstler, ed. Heinrich Hoerle, Franz Wilhelm Seiwert, and 
Walter Stern (Cologne, 1929-1933). [Reprint Cologne: Verlag Gebr. K?nig, 1969.] 
 
10
 Hoerle und sein Kreis (Frechen: Kunstverein zu Frechen, 1970).  
 
11
 Adler, who was a prominent figure in the D?sseldorf art scene during the years of the Weimar 
Republic, first brought Arntz into contact with Seiwert and Hoerle. Freundlich lived in Cologne from 
1914 to 1924, after which he relocated to Paris.  
 
 11 
 
Republic, both within the international, as well as regional, art scenes. The art 
historian Horst Richter, in his foreword to this catalog, called upon the cultural 
institutions of Cologne to play a more active role in the recovery of this history.  
Over the course of the ensuing decade, the K?lnischer Kunstverein answered 
Richter?s call with several exhibitions and publications devoted to Seiwert, Hoerle, 
and their larger circle. These exhibitions and publications coincided with a second 
wave of scholarship, which emphasized the political context in which the Group of 
Progressive Artists had operated. The surviving members of the circle had, until now, 
been rather quiet with regard to this aspect of the group?s history, but a younger 
generation of scholars now sought to recover figurative constructivism as a political 
project. These scholars, inspired by the student movement and the still recent events 
of May 1968, were particularly receptive to the Progressives? promotion of an anti-
authoritarian communism, as revealed by the recent reprint of the group?s journal. 
The 1973 catalog of Gerd Arntz?s woodcuts, Politieke prenten tussen twee oorlogen 
[Political Prints between Two Wars], issued by the Dutch socialist publisher SUN and 
authored by Uli Bohnen and Kees Vollemans, is representative of this subsequent, 
more politically oriented wave of scholarship.
12
 Bohnen?s dissertation, completed two 
years later at the University of T?bingen (and published in 1976), constitutes the first 
attempt to offer a comprehensive account of the entire group?s history and to define 
its core membership.
13
 Beyond this study?s analysis of the Progressives? political 
                                                
12
 Uli Bohnen and Kees Vollemans, Politieke prenten tussen twee oorlogen (Nijmegen: Socialistiese 
Uitgeverij Nijmegen, 1973). 
 
13
 Uli Bohnen, Das Gesetz der Welt ist die ?nderung der Welt: Die rheinische Gruppe Progressiver 
K?nstler, 1918?1933 (Berlin: Karin Kramer Verlag, 1976). 
 
 
 12 
 
program, Bohnen?s dissertation is significant for its examination of the group?s 
connections with the photographer August Sander (1876-1964), as well as for his 
discussion of Arntz, Tschinkel, and Alma?s collaboration at the Gesellschafts- und 
Wirtschaftsmuseum in Vienna. 
Bohnen?s dissertation also coincided with two major, related exhibitions?the 
catalogs for which included essays by Bohnen, describing the political scene in which 
certain members of the Group of Progressive Artists participated. The first exhibition, 
held at the K?lnischer Kunstverein from March to May of that year, took a broad 
view of the cultural landscape of Cologne in the 1920s, affording the (mostly 
Rhineland-based) Progressives a prominent place in the city?s cultural scene.
14
 The 
section of the exhibition devoted to the Progressives was reinstalled later that year at 
the Akademie der K?nste in Berlin, and expanded to include wider geographic range 
of the group?s members.
15
  
Following these group exhibitions, which were crucial in the beginning to 
recover a place for the Progressives in the modernist art-historical narrative, the 
K?lnischer Kunstverein organized retrospective exhibitions for Seiwert (in 1978) and 
Hoerle (in 1981), with comprehensive catalogues raisonn?s authored by Uli Bohnen 
and Dirk Backes, respectively.
16
 In conjunction with the Seiwert retrospective, 
Bohnen and Backes edited and published an extensive collection of Seiwert?s 
                                                
14
 Vom Dadamax bis zum Gr?ng?rtel: K?ln in den zwanziger Jahren, ed. Wulf Herzogenrath 
(Braunschweig: Waisenhaus Verlag, 1975). 
 
15
 Politische Konstruktivisten: die?Gruppe progressiver K?nstler? K?ln (Berlin: Neue Gesellschaft f?r 
bildende Kunst, 1975). 
 
16
 Uli Bohnen, Franz W. Seiwert (1894?1933): Leben und Werk (Cologne: K?lnischer Kunstverein, 
1978); Dirk Backes, Heinrich Hoerle: Leben und Werk (1895?1936) (Cologne: Rheinland-Verlag 
GmbH, 1981). 
 
 
 13 
 
writings, containing his numerous published articles, unpublished manuscripts, and 
personal correspondences.
17
 
In addition to the efforts of Uli Bohnen and the K?lnischer Kunstverein, the 
Dutch art historians Flip Bool and Kees Broos played important roles in the 
resuscitation of this historical chapter. In the year following the first major show in 
Cologne, Bool and Broos organized a retrospective exhibition of Gerd Arntz?s 
graphic work at the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague, for which they published a 
comprehensive catalog.
18
 In addition to Arntz?s ?free? work, the catalog also 
examined his applied work in pictogram design. Bool and Broos were particularly 
interested in the printed work produced by the Progressives, and followed up the 
Arntz retrospective with smaller exhibitions of Seiwert?s typographic work, and 
Augustin Tschinkel?s prints, drawings, and graphic design work.
19
 
While the spike in activity during the 1970s ultimately failed to bring the 
Group of Progressive Artists entirely out of obscurity (and into the official narrative 
as recounted by modern art survey textbooks), works by the group?s members were 
increasingly included in thematic group exhibitions over the ensuing decades. Some 
of these exhibitions framed the Progressives? work in terms of national and 
                                                
17
 Der Schritt, der einmal getan wurde, wird nicht zur?ckgenommen. Franz W. Seiwert: Schriften, ed. 
Uli Bohnen and Dirk Backes (Berlin: Kramer, 1978). 
 
18
 Flip Bool and Kees Broos, Gerd Arntz: kritische grafiek und beeldstatistiek (The Hague: Haags 
Gemeentemuseum; Nijmegen: Socialistiese Uitgeverij Nijmegen, 1976). 
 
19
 Flip Bool and Kees Broos, Franz W. Seiwert 1894-1933: kritische grafiek en typografie (The Hague: 
Haags Gemeentemuseum, 1976); Kees Broos, Augustin Tschinkel (The Hague: Haags 
Gemeentemuseum, 1976). 
 
 
 14 
 
international movements, such as Neue Sachlichkeit or constructivism.
20
 Other 
exhibitions situated the work in local and regional contexts, as the K?lnischer 
Kunstverein had done in their earlier Dadamax bis zum Gr?ng?rtel exhibition.
21
 
The recovery of the Progressives? work and history was much slower in 
coming to the English-speaking world. The first English-language publication 
devoted exclusively to these artists was the small catalog accompanying the 1987 
?Cologne Progressives? exhibition at the Rachel Adler Gallery in New York, which 
included a brief essay by Bohnen.
22
 The Progressives received some further attention 
when prints by Seiwert and Arntz were featured in the 1990 exhibition, Envisioning 
America, at the Busch-Reisinger Museum at Harvard and, more recently, with the 
2006 exhibition of the Soci?t? Anonyme, which included work by Seiwert.
23
 More 
often, however, when Progressives have received mention in English-language 
scholarship it has been in connection with the Dada movement in Cologne, with 
which several artists from the group had been associated earlier in their careers.
24
  
                                                
20
 See, for example, Kunst und Technik in den 20er Jahren: Neue Sachlichkeit und Gegenst?ndlicher 
Konstruktivismus (Munich: St?dtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, 1980); and Konstruktivistische 
internationale Arbeitsgemeinschaft 1922-1927 ? Utopien f?r eine europ?ische Kultur (Stuttgart: G. 
Hatje, 1992). 
 
21
 See Ulrich Krempel, Am Anfang, Das Junge Rheinland: zur Kunst- und Zeitgeschichte einer Region, 
1918-1945 (D?sseldorf: Claassen, 1985); and Zeitgenossen: August Sander und die Kunstszene der 
20er Jahre im Rheinland (Cologne: SK Stiftung Kultur, 2000). 
 
22
 Bohnen, Uli. ?Constructivism Between East and West: The Progressives of Cologne.? In The 
Cologne Progressives, 1919-1933. New York: Rachel Adler Gallery, 1987. 
 
23
 Envisioning America: Prints, Drawings, and Photographs by George Grosz and his Contemporaries 
1915-1933 (Cambridge: Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University, 1990); The Soci?t? Anonyme: 
Modernism for America, ed. Jennifer R. Gross (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006). 
 
24
 See, for example, the following works: Angelika Littlefield, The Dada Period in Cologne: Selections 
from the Fick-Eggert Collection (Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 1986); Wulf Herzogenrath, Dirk 
Teuber, and Angelika Littlefield, Willy Fick, ein K?lner Maler der zwanziger Jahre wiederentdeckt 
(Cologne: K?lnischer Kunstverein, 1986); Charlotte Stokes, ?Rage and Liberation: Cologne Dada,? in 
Crisis and the Arts: The History of Dada, ed. Stephen C Foster (New York: G.K. 
 
 15 
 
The most extensive English-language publication devoted to the Progressives 
to date appeared only two years ago, in connection with an exhibition at the Museum 
Ludwig in Cologne, curated by Lynette Roth.
25
 This exhibition, the first major show 
on the group in more than three decades, took as its focus three of the group?s 
Rhineland members?Seiwert, Hoerle, and Arntz. Central to Roth?s study is the 
reevaluation of the relationship between traditional craft?painting, in particular?
and leftist politics in the Weimar period. In contrast to the established narrative of 
artistic-political engagement in interwar Germany, in which reproducible media?
posters, magazines, or cinema, for example?supplanted such traditional media as 
painting and sculpture, the case of the Cologne Progressives, Roth asserts, provides 
an alternative model, wherein traditional craft served a radical political program. In 
making this argument, Roth has sought to counter earlier studies, which, in her 
estimation, have placed too much emphasis upon the Progressives as graphic artists. 
To this end, she has argued against characterizations that couch this work ?in the 
language of the print,? on the grounds that terms like ?reduction,? ?symbol,? and 
?sign? downplay the artists? commitment to craft and handwork, and (in the cases of 
Seiwert, Hoerle, and Arntz) overlook ?their investment in intensely worked surfaces 
and haptic effects.?
26
 For similar reasons, Roth suggests little connection between the 
Progressives? artistic project and the pictorial statistic work in Vienna.
27
 
                                                                                                                                      
Hall; London: Prentice Hall International, 1996); Dada: Zurich, Berlin, Hannover, Cologne, New York, 
Paris, ed. Leah Dickerman (Washington: National Gallery of Art in association with D.A.P./ 
Distributed Art Publishers, 2005). 
 
25
 Lynette Roth, Painting as a Weapon: Progressive Cologne 1920?1933. Seiwert ? Hoerle ? Arntz 
(Cologne: Walther K?nig, 2008). Roth?s related dissertation, ?The Cologne Progressives: Political 
Painting in Weimar Germany? (The Johns Hopkins University, 2009), is not yet accessible. 
 
26
 Roth, 30-34. 
 
 16 
 
Yet, the collaboration in Vienna represents a decisive chapter in the careers of 
three key members of the Group of Progressive Artists; and their published writings 
on the subject of pictorial statistics suggest that this relationship requires further?and 
more careful?study. In considering this relationship, I do not wish to suggest that 
pictorial statistics were the culmination of the Progressives? work. To the extent that 
this dissertation draws parallels between figurative constructivist graphics and 
pictorial statistic charts, it is with the goal of explaining why the Progressives? prints 
and drawings had such appeal for Neurath, why the group embraced and promoted 
the pictorial statistic project in their own avant-garde publications, and why certain 
graphic conventions associated with figurative constructivism were so effectively 
adapted in the design of statistical pictograms. 
It is also important to note that, while paintings (to varying extents) comprise 
a significant part of the Progressives? total artistic production,
28
 prints and drawings 
played an essential role within the context of the Vienna collaboration. In addition to 
being exhibited on occasion at the Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum, the prints 
that Neurath purchased for the museum?s collection also served as source material for 
                                                                                                                                      
 
27
 In her catalog, Roth warns against projecting the aims of the later pictorial statistic project ?back 
onto Arntz?s earlier oeuvre, as well as that of Seiwert and Hoerle.? As she explains: ?Instead of 
focusing on the specificity of the Progressives? pursuit of legible art forms, accounts privileging 
graphic art as the defining medium of the Progressives group read their work more strictly as a 
?symbol.? This often results in an emphasis on the more functional aspect of the standardized form of 
the worker or the factory as it appears, for example, in Seiwert?s [linocut] Feierabend. And while the 
Progressives were committed to creating legible art, the popular belief that the Viennese statistical 
language represents the apex of the artists? aims overlooks key aspects of the collaborative atmosphere 
of 1920s Cologne.? Roth, 22. 
 
28
 While Seiwert and Hoerle were prolific in their printmaking output between 1920 and 1923, they 
concentrated increasingly on painting in the later years of the decade. For Arntz, Alma, and Tschinkel, 
prints and drawings account for the majority (between two thirds and three quarters) of each artist?s 
total artistic production in the years between the wars.  
 
 
 17 
 
symbol design. Moreover, reproductions of graphic works appeared with greater 
frequency than paintings in those publications that featured pictorial statistic charts 
together with the Progressives? artworks, and which sought to present the latter as 
representative of an international movement.
29
 Since this dissertation is concerned 
with the relationship between pictorial statistics and figurative constructivism?and 
with the latter?s dissemination within print media?the focus here is generally limited 
to the Progressive Artists? prints and drawings. 
 Of the three members of the Group of Progressive Artists who participated in 
the Vienna project, only Arntz has received substantial attention in publications or 
scholarly research.
30
 Neither Peter Alma nor Augustin Tschinkel has been the subject 
of a monograph. With the exception of a master?s thesis in 1978, and two short 
booklets accompanying solo exhibitions in the 1960s, Alma?s extensive career has 
been treated only in a cursory manner, principally through his inclusion is several 
recent group exhibitions and survey texts.
31
 Tschinkel has received even less 
                                                
29
 See, for example, a bis z, nos. 1 (October 1929) and 12 (November 1930); Wendingen 11, no. 9 
(1930); Augustin Tschinkel, ?Zobrazen? mnostv? a kolektivn? tvary,? vtvarn? snahy 11, no. 8 (1930): 
136-137; and soziale grafik: ein bilderbuch mit internationaler auswahl (Kladno: Nae cesta, 1932). 
 
30
 In addition to the catalog for the 1976 retrospective exhibition at the Gemeentemuseum in The 
Hague and the recent work by Roth, Arntz (together with Kees Broos) published a catalog of his 
woodcuts and linocuts in 1988, for which he wrote an autobiographical account of his artistic career 
and extensive commentary on the works. See Gerd Arntz, De tijd onder het mes: hout- & 
linoleumsneden 1920-1970 (Nijmegen: SUN, 1988); also published in German as Zeit unterm Messer: 
Holz- & Linolschnitte 1920-1970 (Cologne: Leske Verlag, 1988). 
 
31
 See the following works: Erik Luermans, ?Peter Alma. Een documentair verslag van een beeldend 
kunstenaar in het interbellum? (master?s thesis, Universiteit van Amsterdam, 1978); Peter Alma, 1886-
1969 (Amsterdam: Kunsthandel ML de Boer, 1975); H.L.C Jaff?, Overzicht-tentoonstelling van 
schilderijen, gouaches, houtsneden van Peter Alma (Amsterdam: Stedelijk Museum, 1966). For group 
exhibitions and surveys see Magie en zakelijkheid: realistische schilderkunst in Nederland 1925-1945, 
ed. Carel Blotkamp and Ype Koomans (Zwolle: Waanders, 1999); Peter Hofland et al., Die Olympiade 
unter der Diktatur. Rekonstruktion der Amsterdamer Kunstolympiade 1936: Kunst im Widerstand 
(Berlin: Stadtmuseum Berlin, 1996); and Geurt Imanse et al., Van Gogh bis Cobra. Holl?ndische 
Malerei, 1880-1950 (Stuttgart: Verlag Gerd Hatje, 1980). 
 
 
 18 
 
attention. Aside from discussions of his work in Bohnen?s 1975 dissertation and in 
the catalogs accompanying the exhibitions in Cologne and Berlin that same year, only 
one publication?a small pamphlet with a two page biographical sketch by Kees 
Broos, accompanying the 1976 exhibition in The Hague?has thus far been devoted 
exclusively to Tschinkel?s career. 
 
Pictorial Statistics in the Literature 
As with the literature on the Progressives, the first works to provide historical 
accounts of the pictorial statistic method came from the project?s surviving 
participants. Marie Neurath [n?e Reidemeister] (1898-1986), Otto Neurath?s wife and 
long-time collaborator, wrote some of the earlier historical assessments of the project 
in journal articles in the early 1970s.
32
 Marie Neurath also undertook an effort, 
around this same time, to revive the work of her late husband in such fields as 
economics, sociology, and philosophy. To this end, she published in 1973 an English-
language collection of his writings, which included some of his texts on visual 
education.
33
 Marie Neurath can, in fact, be said to have played the key role in 
initiating the first phase of scholarship when, in 1971, she donated the materials of the 
Isotype Institute in London (which comprised nearly a half-century of work and 
                                                
32
 Marie Neurath, ?Otto Neurath and Isotype,? Graphic Design, no. 42 (1971): 11-30; and ?Isotype,? 
Instructional Science 3, no. 2 (1974): 127-50. As early as 1937, Rudolf Modley (1901-1976), a 
member of the museum-team in Vienna and later a designer of pictorial statistics in the United States, 
had produced a short historical account of the method?s origins in his book, How to Use Pictorial 
Statistics (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1937). This book was followed by several reiterations in 
the postwar period, such as Pictographs and Graphs: How to Make and Use Them (New York: Harper, 
1952). As these books? titles suggests, however, Modley?s focus was on the method?s practical 
applications, rather than a historical assessment of the method. 
 
33
 Empiricism and Sociology, eds. Marie Neurath and Robert S. Cohen (Dordrecht; Boston: D. Reidel 
Publishing Company, 1973). 
 
 
 19 
 
documentation) to the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication at the 
University of Reading, housed there today as the Otto & Marie Neurath Isotype 
Collection. 
This collection provided the material for the first major exhibition devoted to 
Isotype, held at the University of Reading from May to October 1975, marking the 
fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum in 
Vienna.
34
 In addition to providing a historical overview of ?the Isotype movement,? 
the accompanying catalog for this exhibition, Graphic Communication through 
ISOTYPE, represented the first attempt to produce an extensive bibliography on the 
subject, listing both pictorial statistic publications, as well as theoretical expositions, 
and appreciations and assessments of the work. Throughout the remaining years of 
the decade, further work on Isotype was carried out by Robin Kinross, who, earlier?
as an undergraduate in the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication?
had assisted with the 1975 exhibition at the University of Reading. As a post-
graduate, Kinross conducted intensive research on Isotype, working in consultation 
with Marie Neurath to catalog the materials in the Isotype Collection, and completing 
an MPhil thesis on the subject in 1979.
35
 This unpublished work remains an 
invaluable source on the subject, and among the most rigorous examinations of the 
Vienna Method?s design principles. 
                                                
34
 Graphic Communication through ISOTYPE, eds. J.A. Edwards and Michael Twyman (Reading: 
Department of Typography & Graphic Communication, University of Reading, 1975). 
 
35
 Robin Kinross, ?Otto Neurath?s contribution to visual communication, 1925-45? MPhil Thesis, 
Department of Typography & Graphic Communication, University of Reading, 1979. 
 
 
 20 
 
At the same time, a project was undertaken at the Gemeentemuseum in The 
Hague, which houses one of the copies of Arntz?s ?symbol dictionary,? a collection 
of proofs from the pictogram-linocuts produced during The Hague period (after 
1934). Under the direction of Kees Broos, an extensive selection of these pictograms 
was published in 1979.
36
 In contrast to the work being conducted at the University of 
Reading, however, which emphasized the collaborative nature of Isotype, this latter 
publication focused on the role of the pictogram designer alone, ?thus underplaying 
the work of transforming and configuring the whole assembly of material,? which, as 
Kinross notes, is ?the essential contribution of Isotype.?
37
 The 1982 exhibition 
catalog, Arbeiterbildung in der Zwischenkriegszeit: Otto Neurath, Gerd Arntz, by 
contrast, takes a more balanced and historically grounded approach. This publication, 
which marks the last major work from this initial phase of scholarship, was produced 
in connection with an exhibition held in Vienna in 1982 at the ?sterreichisches 
Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum [Austrian Social and Economic Museum], the 
descendent of the original museum established by Neurath.
38
 In addition to 
contributions by scholars such as Kinross and Twyman, as well as by such surviving 
participants as Marie Neurath and Gerd Arntz, this book also reproduced sections 
from the 1975 Politische Konstruktivisten catalog, thereby framing the artistic project 
                                                
36
 Gerd Arntz and Kees Broos, Symbolen voor onderwijs en statistiek: 1928-1965 Wenen-Moskou-Den 
Haag = Symbols for education and statistics: 1928-1965 Vienna-Moscow-The Hague (The Hague: 
Spruijt, 1979). 
 
37
 Robin Kinross, ?On the Influence of Isotype,? Information Design Journal 2, no. 2 (1981): 122-130. 
 
38
 Arbeiterbildung in der Zwischenkriegszeit: Otto Neurath, Gerd Arntz, ed. Friedrich Stadler (Vienna: 
L?cker, 1982). 
 
 
 21 
 
of figurative constructivism and social scientific project of pictorial statistics as two 
connected strategies in Arbeiterbildung [worker education]. 
This initial phase of research and publication was followed by two decades of 
relative inactivity. Occasional articles by Robin Kinross (along with a few other 
writers) appeared in design and science journals, but no further exhibition catalogs or 
major research publications on pictorial statistics were produced during these years.
39
 
At the same time, however, this period did witness a sustained effort to recover 
Neurath?s work in a variety of other related fields, including philosophy, political 
economy, and social science, and, in so doing, achieve a better understanding of his 
role in the interwar Vienna Circle. Between 1981 and 1998 a five-volume collection 
of Neurath?s writings in a number of fields was published under the direction Rudolf 
Haller. The third volume in the series, issued in 1991 and co-edited by Robin Kinross, 
was devoted to Neurath?s writings on visual education.
40
 The publication of these 
collected primary texts coincided with a major anthology of new research on Neurath, 
followed by two more scholarly works on Neurath in 1996.
41
 
                                                
39
 See Robin Kinross, ?On the Influence of Isotype,? Information Design Journal 2, no. 2 (1981): 122-
130; and ?The Work of Otto Neurath in Visual Communication,? Fundamenta Scientiae 5, no. 2 
(1984): 185-199; see also Ellen Lupton, ?Reading Isotype,? Design Issues 3, no. 2 (1986): 47-58. 
 
40
 Otto Neurath?s collected writings have been appeared in five volumes, published in Vienna by 
H?lder-Pichler-Tempsky: Gesammelte philosophische und methodologische Schriften (Vol. 1 and Vol. 
2), eds. Rudolf Haller and Heiner Rutte (1981); Gesammelte bildp?dagogische Schriften (Vol. 3), eds. 
Haller and Robin Kinross (1991); Gesammelte ?konomische, soziologische und sozialpolitische 
Schriften (Vol. 4 and Vol. 5), eds. Haller and Ulf H?fer (1998). 
 
41
 Rediscovering the Forgotten Vienna Circle: Austrian Studies on Otto Neurath and the Vienna 
Circle, ed. Thomas E. Uebel (Dordrecht; Boston: Kluwer, 1991); Encyclopedia and Utopia: The Life 
and Work of Otto Neurath, 1882-1945, eds. Elisabeth M. Nemeth and Friedrich Stadler (Dordrecht; 
Boston: Kluwer, 1996); Nancy Cartwright et al., Otto Neurath: Philosophy between Science and 
Politics (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996). 
 
 
 22 
 
Renewed interest concerning Neurath?s pictorial statistic project and its 
relation to modern art, architecture, and design, appears to have come about only in 
the last several years, in large part, as the result of this more broadly construed work 
on the Vienna Circle from the preceding decade. Eve Blau began exploring this 
relationship in her book, The Architecture of Red Vienna (1999), and has 
subsequently pursued the subject in great detail in an essay published in 2006, 
?Isotype and Architecture in Red Vienna: The Modern Projects of Otto Neurath and 
Josef Frank.?
42
 A number of other scholars have recently singled out particular 
aspects of Neurath?s larger visual education project, ranging from exhibition design to 
urban planning, to the implications of Neurath?s work for new media.
43
 Of particular 
significance is the most recent publication, The transformer: principles of making 
Isotype charts (2009), which examined the stages in the design process related to the 
analysis, selection, and ordering of quantitative information, prior to its final visual 
                                                
42
 Eve Blau, The Architecture of Red Vienna, 1919-1934 (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999); and 
?Isotype and Architecture in Red Vienna: The Modern Projects of Otto Neurath and Josef Frank,? 
Austrian Studies 14 (1 October 2006): 227-259. 
 
43
 See Frank Hartmann und E.K. Bauer, Bildersprache: Otto Neurath / Visualisierungen (Vienna: 
WUV Universit?tsverlag, 2002); Nader Vossoughian, Otto Neurath: The Language of the Global Polis 
(Rotterdam: NAi Publishers, 2008); Hadwig Kraeutler, Otto Neurath. Museum and Exhibition Work: 
Spaces (Designed) for Communication (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2008). One recent anthology 
that brought together these and other scholars is European Modernism and the Information Society: 
Informing the Present, Understanding the Past, ed. W. Boyd Rayward (Burlington, VT: Ashgate 
Publishing Company, 2008). In addition to contributions from Hartmann and Vossoughian, this 
compilation included an essay by Sybilla Nikolow (who has published several articles on Neurath?s 
work in recent years), addressing Neurath?s contribution to thematic cartography. See her essay in the 
abovementioned anthology, ?Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft: An Encyclopedia in Otto Neurath?s Pictorial 
Statistics from 1930,? 257-278. Two more recent publications to come out of the Netherlands are: 
Ferdinand Mertens and Lars Kuipers, An idealist in The Hague: Otto Neurath's years in exile (The 
Hague: Municipality of The Hague, 2007); and Ed Annink and Max Bruinsma, Lovely Language 
(Rotterdam: Veenman, 2008), the last of which examines the influence of Arntz and Neurath?s work 
on graphic design. 
 
 
 23 
 
presentation.
44
 Referred to as ?transformation,? this task was performed principally 
by Marie Reidemeister
45
?both at the Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum and 
later at the International Foundation for Visual Education in The Hague. In addition 
to an essay by Kinross, The transformer includes a text written by Marie Neurath in 
1986, the last year of her life, providing a valuable firsthand account of the Isotype-
team?s design approach. In publishing this book, Kinross has sought to counter the 
popular misconception that Isotype merely constitutes a style for drawing pictograms; 
rather, The transformer highlights the method?s unique and multifaceted approach to 
chart design (that is to say, the arrangement of information on the page), which 
Kinross has long maintained to be Isotype?s primary contribution to visual 
communication.  
The transformer was published in conjunction with a four-year research 
project at the University of Reading (set to wrap up in 2011), titled Isotype revisited, 
which promises to ?review the Vienna Method / Isotype approaches to pictorial 
language and visual education by tracking their evolving character between 1925 and 
1970,? and ?consider Isotype?s place in twentieth-century design history, and its 
influence on graphic communication today.?
46
 Another publication connected to 
Isotype revisted, scheduled to appear in September 2010, is Otto Neurath?s previously 
unpublished ?visual autobiography??a manuscript written in the last two years of the 
author?s life, documenting the impact that visual media had on him, from the years of 
                                                
44
 Marie Neurath and Robin Kinross, The transformer: principles of making Isotype charts (London: 
Hyphen Press, 2009). 
 
45
 Since Marie Reidemeister and Otto Neurath were not married until 1941, I have chosen, when 
discussing her in the context of the prewar period, to refer to her by her maiden name. 
 
46
 See the project?s website at http://www.isotyperevisited.org. 
 
 
 24 
 
his childhood through the period of his later work in visual education.
47
 In addition to 
issuing previously unpublished texts, the Isotype revisited project will culminate with 
an exhibition (to be held at the Victoria and Albert Museum from December 2010 to 
March 2011) and an accompanying anthology of new research papers (including a 
contribution from this author). 
 
Historical and Theoretical Objectives 
While the last few years have thus seen a renewed focus on the work of 
certain members of the Group of Progressive Artists on the one hand, and Neurath?s 
pictorial statistic project on the other, the relationship between these two subjects has 
remained outside the scope and focus of the most recent scholarship in both areas. 
Some of the writing from earlier phases in the scholarship suggested a connection 
between figurative constructivism and pictorial statistics, but this connection was 
generally not pursued beyond formal and iconographic comparisons.
48
 In particular, 
the discussion and presentation of pictorial statistics within the avant-garde 
publications affiliated with the Group of Progressive Artists has received little in-
depth treatment. This is an area to which this dissertation devotes considerable 
attention. In so doing, the present investigation will make several contributions to the 
study of the history of modern art and design. First, this dissertation will demonstrate 
                                                
47
 Otto Neurath, From hieroglyphics to Isotype: a visual autobiography, eds. Matthew Eve and 
Christopher Burke (London: Hyphen Press, 2010), forthcoming. 
 
48
 See Bohnen (1976); Bool and Broos (1976); and Eckhart Gillen, ?Von der symbolischen 
Repr?sentation zur Rekonstruktion der Wirklichkeit. Das Verh?ltnis von Bildstatistik und politischer 
Grafik bei Gerd Arntz,? in Politische Konstruktivisten: die?Gruppe progressiver K?nstler? K?ln 
(Berlin: Neue Gesellschaft f?r bildende Kunst, 1975). 
 
 
 
 25 
 
that the widespread ambition among international avant-garde movements in the 
earlier part of the twentieth-century to develop a new visual literacy based on 
universal forms was not exclusively sought in the various languages of abstraction; 
rather, as the cases of figurative constructivism and pictorial statistics suggest, such 
projects were also conceived to accommodate representational content. Second, this 
study will recount the ways in which the pictorial statistic design approach was 
deeply indebted to the figurative constructivist aesthetic, thus providing new insights 
concerning the connections between the artistic avant-garde and visual 
communication in the social sciences during the interwar period. Finally, the 
comparative study of these two areas of production will enrich our general 
understanding of modernism and the historical avant-garde. In contrast to earlier art 
historical narratives which have framed modernism in terms of stylistic dogmatism 
and the rejection of tradition, the Group of Progressive Artists and their members? 
collaboration in Vienna suggest an alternative modernist narrative that accommodates 
stylistic plurality and historical continuity. 
 
 
 
 
 
 26 
 
Chapter 1: The Origins and Development of Figurative 
Constructivism 
 
The ?Stupid? Group 
Already in 1920, as members of the Cologne-based artists? group ?Stupid? (a 
Dadaist precursor to what would eventually become the Group of Progressive 
Artists), Franz Wilhelm Seiwert and Heinrich Hoerle had begun to employ many of 
the features that would later characterize figurative constructivism.
49
 The ?Stupid? 
group developed, in part, as a reaction against the Dadaist circle around Max Ernst 
(1891-1976) and Hans Arp (1886-1966), who, according to Seiwert, were not 
sufficiently politically committed. In a letter drafted the previous autumn to one of his 
colleagues at the expressionist journal, Die Aktion, Seiwert distinguished the ?Stupid? 
artists? position from that of the other Cologne Dadaists, asserting that, ?Our pictures 
stand in the service of the exploited, to whom we belong and with whom we feel 
solidarity. Therefore, we reject the supposedly anti-bourgeois Dadaist harlequinades, 
which are performed to the delight of the bourgeoisie, because we don?t want to point 
                                                
49
 In addition to Seiwert and Hoerle, ?Stupid? included the latter?s wife, Angelika Hoerle (1899-1923), 
her brother Willy Fick (1893-1967), Anton R?derscheidt (1892-1970) and his wife Marta Hegemann 
(1894-1970). The group?s name appears to have been derived from the neologisms ?Oststupidien? and 
?Weststupidien,? which were used in the proto-Dadaist satirical journal, Der Ventilator [The Fan]. The 
journal, published in Cologne between February and March 1919, included among its contributors 
Seiwert, Hoerle, and Max Ernst. The term ?Weststupidien? has been interpreted as a play on the name 
of the province Westphalia, as well as a derisive reference to Germany. See Angelika Littlefield, The 
Dada Period in Cologne: Selections from the Fick-Eggert Collection (Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 
1986), 13; and Sabine T. Kriebel, ?Cologne,? in Dada: Zurich, Berlin, Hannover, Cologne, New York, 
Paris, ed. Leah Dickerman (Washington DC: National Gallery of Art, 2005), 220, 236.  
 
 
 27 
 
out [the bourgeoisie?s] bankruptcy; rather, we want to make visible the creative will 
of the masses.?
50
  
Seiwert?s letter, written prior to the adoption of the name ?Stupid? by the 
abovementioned artists, refers to them instead as the Neuk?lnische Malerschule [New 
Cologne School of Painting], an allusion to the K?lnische Malerschule, the Late-
Gothic painters of fifteenth-century Cologne. Seiwert interpreted these painters? 
anonymous, shared formal language as expressing the sense of community, which he 
imagined characterized pre-capitalist society.
51
 Seiwert?s turn to late-medieval art as a 
source for authentic values finds several parallels in Germany at this moment: Walter 
Gropius (1883-1969), for example, had invoked the concept of the medieval guild and 
the image of the cathedral in the Bauhaus school?s 1919 founding program and 
manifesto.
52
 Additionally, Seiwert and his colleagues often drew upon folk art and 
even prehistoric art in their search for artistic models of collective expression that 
                                                
50
 ?Unsere Bilder stehen in Dienst der Ausgebeuteten, zu denen wir geh?ren und mit denen wir uns 
solidarisch f?hlen, deshalb lehnen wir die zur Erg?tzung des B?rgers vollf?hrte, angeblich anti-
b?rgerliche, dadaistische Harlekinade ab, weil wir nicht den Bankrott des B?rgertums sondern den 
Schaffenswillen der Masse sichtbar zu machen haben.? Franz Wilhelm Seiwert, Letter to Pol Michels, 
in Der Schritt, der einmal getan wurde, wird nicht zur?ckgenommen. Franz W. Seiwert: Schriften, eds. 
Uli Bohnen and Dirk Backes (Berlin: Karin Kramer Verlag, 1978), 79. (All translations are the 
author?s, unless otherwise noted.) 
 
51
 See Uli Bohnen, ?Constructivism Between East and West: The Progressives of Cologne,? in The 
Cologne Progressives, 1919-1933 (New York: Rachel Adler Gallery, 1987). 
 
52
 For Gropius, the guild was an authentic model of community, cooperation, and spiritual unity, and 
the cathedral offered a perfect example of the integration of fine and applied arts in the service of 
society?s collective interests. Gropius observed how this was the opposite of the modern state of 
affairs, in which the arts had grown apart from one another into fragmented, isolated disciplines. The 
contemporary state of the arts, according to Gropius, reflected a society that had itself become 
fragmented and disconnected, in which individuals were increasingly isolated from one another?a 
society in which individuals worked to serve self-interests rather than collective interests. The total 
destruction of the First World War, however, appeared to have created an opening for the 
transformation society. This was the new task for the artist and architect, which, as Gropius explained 
in the school?s founding manifesto, would be achieved through the reintegration of the arts and through 
a return to craft. See Eva Forg?cs, Bauhaus Idea and Bauhaus Politics (Budapest; New York: Central 
European University Press, 1995). 
 
 
 28 
 
could serve as alternatives to post-Renaissance pictorial tradition. In 1920, for 
example, the ?Stupid? group gave Willy Fick a copy of the 1919 book, Schwedische 
Felsbilder [Swedish Rock Pictures], published by Ernst Fuhrmann?s Folkwang 
Company in Hagen [FIGURE 6].
53
 As Dirk Teuber notes, ?One should not overlook 
the importance of [this] book,? which portrayed ?a way of looking at the world not 
through externals, but by focusing only on the important inner realities.?
54
 Teuber 
further explains that Fuhrmann?s interpretation of ancient Scandinavian rock art, 
which held that abstraction served the ancient artists in isolating what was essential 
and discarding what was incidental, ?indicated an interest in simplified means of 
communication? that appealed both to the Cologne ?stupid? group and also later to 
the Progressives.?
55
  
In this regard, these artists were also inheritors of the notion, popularized by 
Wilhelm Worringer?s 1906 text, Abstraktion und Einf?hlung [Abstraction and 
Empathy], that the art of ?primitive? cultures, in its higher degree of abstraction and 
its disregard for the world?s external appearance, comes closer than naturalistic 
approaches to representation in visualizing ?its absolute value.?
56
 Indeed, many of the 
formulations provided within Seiwert and his colleagues? art-theoretical texts reiterate 
                                                
53
 Fick?s copy of the book (now in the Fick-Eggert collection in Toronto) contained an added drawing 
(possibly by Angelika Hoerle) with a dedication inscribed to Willy Fick. See Dirk Teuber, ?Willy Fick 
and his Friends ? A Contribution to Cologne?s Art History of the 1920s,? in Wulf Herzogenrath, Dirk 
Teuber, and Angie Littlefield, Willy Fick, ein K?lner Maler der zwanziger Jahre wiederentdeckt 
(Cologne: Wieland Verlag, 1986), 37.  
 
54
 Dirk Teuber, ?Willy Fick and his Friends ? A Contribution to Cologne?s Art History of the 1920s,? 
in Willy Fick, ein K?lner Maler der zwanziger Jahre wiederentdeckt (Cologne: Wieland Verlag, 1986), 
40. 
 
55
 Teuber, 41. 
 
56
 Wilhelm Worringer, Abstraction and Empathy: A Contribution to the Psychology of Style (Chicago: 
Ivan R. Dee, Inc., 1997), 17. 
 
 
 29 
 
Worringer?s distinction between essence and appearance in art, advancing formal 
simplification and geometric reduction as the primary strategy in distilling essence 
from appearance. These ideas also formed the basis for Paul Westheim?s 1921 
Holzschnittbuch [Woodcut Book],
57
 which Arntz later cited as an important influence 
upon artists of his generation. It was the late-medieval woodcut in particular, with its 
stark contrasts, lack of illusionism, and simplified formal language that, according to 
Westheim, could offer contemporary artists a model of pure and direct expression. 
More than this, German artists of the period were attracted to the medium of woodcut 
on account of its perceived social dimension. In addition to Westheim?s book, Arntz 
cites a lecture by Georg Schmidt, director of the Kunstmuseum in Basel, which 
suggested a historic correlation between ?technically primitive media? and ?artistic 
expressions of the revolutionary classes.?
58
 In its capacity for reproduction and mass 
distribution, woodcut also appeared as a more inclusive and democratic art form than 
the precious medium of easel painting.
59
 
Initially, then, the woodcut medium served a dual function: its material 
properties aided formal abstraction and its technical reproducibility facilitated 
accessibility and distribution. For ?Stupid??and later for the Group of Progressive 
Artists?reaching a mass-audience was paramount, and the creation of a clear and 
simple formal language was seen as critical to this effort. ?Beyond all loquacious 
                                                
57
 See Paul Westheim, Das Holzschnittbuch (Berlin: Gebr. Mann Verlag, 2000).  
 
58
 Gerd Arntz, Zeit unterm Messer, 16. 
 
59
 While all the core members of the Group of Progressive Artists worked in woodcut, Seiwert and 
Hoerle turned increasingly to easel painting after 1923, and the other members of the group?each to a 
varying extent?also worked intermittently with oils throughout their careers. However, as Lynette 
Roth asserts, this painterly practice was not necessarily a contradiction: ?although [Seiwert] harshly 
criticized some aspects of easel painting in his written statements,? she explains, ?[his] criticisms are 
not of oil painting per se, but rather the ways in which the medium had been deployed.? Roth, 24. 
 
 30 
 
intellectuality,? Seiwert continued in his aforementioned letter, ?we want to do simple 
work. [?] We do not want to say more than we know, but we want to say what we 
can so clearly, so simply, that everyone can understand it.?
60
 To this end, ?Stupid? 
published a catalog of its members? work [FIGURE 7], as well as several print series 
by Seiwert and Hoerle, in which the artists reduced their formal vocabulary to basic 
shapes and simplified their page layouts to sparse compositions.
61
 This emphasis 
upon clarity and legibility distinguished the ?Stupid? group?s work from the sensory 
overload characteristic of many other Dadaist publications. Additionally, the group?s 
publications reveal the primary role that print series played in these artists? efforts to 
reach a wider public?a format also embraced later by Arntz and Alma. It is worth 
noting here as well, that the ?Stupid? group?s artistic program as articulated in 
Seiwert?s letter bears similarity to certain later formulations by Otto Neurath?
particularly in its emphasis on simplicity, accessibility, unpretentiousness, and saying 
only what is known and relevant.
62
 Indeed, the passages from Seiwert?s letter quoted 
above would seem to anticipate the design requirements for the pictorial statistic 
symbols produced a decade later by Arntz, Alma, and Tschinkel.
63
  
                                                
60
 ?Wir wollen jenseits von aller schwatzhaften Geistigkeit einfache Arbeit tun. [...] Wir wollen nicht 
mehr aussagen als wir wissen, aber das m?chten wir so klar, so einfach sagen, dass jedermann es 
verstehen kann.? Seiwert, Der Schritt, der einmal getan wurde, wird nicht zur?ckgenommen, 79. 
 
61
 Print series published by the Stupid press include Franz Seiwert?s Gesch?pfe [Beings], Heinrich 
Hoerle?s Frauen [Women], and Angelika Hoerle?s ABC Bilderbuch [ABC Picture Book]. 
 
62
 Neurath discusses the challenge of designing symbols that do not ?say more than one knows? about 
the subject, in ?Schwarzweissgraphik,? in Gesammelte bildp?dagogische Schriften, ed. Rudolf Haller 
and Robin Kinross (Vienna: H?lder-Pichler-Tempsky, 1991), 51-55. The article originally appeared in 
the ?sterreichische Gemeinde-Zeitung 3, no. 10 (1926): 334-338. 
 
63
 Again, in drawing out parallels here between the goals of Seiwert?s artistic circle and those of 
Neurath?s later pictographic project, my intention is not to project the aims of the latter onto the 
former, or to cast pictorial statistics as the logical outcome of the Progressives? work. Rather, the 
 
 31 
 
Heinrich Hoerle and the Automaton Motif 
Of the many pictograms designed by Arntz, Alma, and Tschinkel at the 
Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum, it is in the form of what Arntz has called the 
?standard-figure? that the Vienna Method?s debt to the earliest manifestations of 
figurative constructivism is still most evident?above all, in the drawings and linocuts 
produced by Heinrich Hoerle between 1920 and 1923, during his ?first figurative 
constructivist phase.?
64
 In works like Mann (Konstruktive Figur) [Man (Constructive 
Figure)] [FIGURE 8] and Frau [Woman] Hoerle reduced his figures to a series of 
geometric and mechanized forms?an approach to figuration that was ultimately 
embraced by several other Progressives. The stenciled letters reading ?h20? 
(indicating the artists? name and year of production), echo the simple geometry of the 
figure itself and?though the image is hand drawn in graphite on paper?evoke the 
qualities of mechanical production through its precise and depersonalized execution. 
While Hoerle?s Mann and Frau drawings anticipate the direction that he and 
his colleagues would pursue over the ensuing decade, several other works produced 
in the same year?a linocut series titled Frauen, and an airbrush work titled 
Zeichnung (Frau) [Drawing (Woman)]?reveal more clearly the Dada context out of 
which his pictographic figures first developed [FIGURES 9, 10]. In these works, 
                                                                                                                                      
comparison is intended to highlight certain values shared by both Neurath and the Group of 
Progressive Artists, which later led to such a fruitful collaboration. 
 
64
 Despite Arntz?s later expressions of ambivalence about the Progressives? influence on pictorial 
statistic design?and his assertion that the pictograms he designed in Vienna all ?carried [his] own 
stamp? [tragen meinen Stempel]?Arntz made an exception in the case of this human figure-
pictogram, conceding that ?an exact analysis would perhaps show that works, linocuts, by Hoerle still 
for the most part correspond in their basic form to the later established basic and standard-figure.? 
[Eine genaue Analyse w?rde vielleicht ergeben, dass Arbeiten, Linoleumschnitte, von Hoerle noch am 
meisten korrespondieren mit der sp?ter festgelegten Grund- und Standardfigur, in der Grundform 
etwa.]
 
Gerd Arntz, Manuscript of July 3, 1972, Otto & Marie Neurath Isotype Collection, University of 
Reading. 
 
 
 32 
 
figures are presented in profile with truncated limbs and torsos, and shown in x-ray 
cross-section views, revealing what seem to be internal mechanical organ systems. 
Between the mechanized anatomy, the absence of limbs, and the near-featureless 
heads, the figures are further reminiscent of a dressmaker?s dummy.  
In introducing this mechanized image of the human figure into his work, 
Hoerle was responding to what had by this point become a widespread pictorial 
practice among artists of the international avant-garde, many of whom had recast the 
human image in a variety of uncanny guises, including automaton, puppet, 
mannequin, and tailor?s dummy. Hoerle?s engagement with these themes beginning in 
1920 can be explained, in part, by his encounter with the paintings of Giorgio de 
Chirico (1888-1978) and Carlo Carr? (1881-1966), with whom he had become 
familiar through Max Ernst.
65
 However, Hoerle adapted this mannequin imagery 
(which had been used by the Italian painters to evoke nostalgia for a lost classical 
past) to address a specific contemporary phenomenon: the physical and psychological 
injuries suffered by veterans of the First World War.
66
 The dummy-like figure, for 
example, in Hoerle?s linocut Der Europ?er [FIGURE 11]?with its truncated limbs 
and mechanical parts?directly references the prosthetic anatomy of wounded war 
                                                
65
 In 1920, Hoerle published a portfolio of lithographs by Ernst, Fiat Modes, pereat ars [Let There Be 
Fashion, Down with Art], which featured automaton-type figures. The work was largely inspired by 
Ernst?s encounter with work by Giorgio de Chirico, about whom he had learned during a trip to 
Munich the previous summer, where he came across an issue of the Italian journal, Valori Plastici, 
featuring the Italian artist. See Dirk Backes, Heinrich Hoerle: Leben und Werk, 1895?1936 (Cologne: 
Rheinland-Verlag GmbH, 1981), 24-25, 37-39. See also Kriebel, 226.  
 
66
 In 1917 Hoerle served at the front as a field artillery telephone operator and though he suffered no 
physical injuries himself, he was deeply affected by the experience. See Kriebel, 228. Just prior to his 
first figurative constructivist works in 1920, Hoerle produced a portfolio of 12 lithographs, titled Die 
Kr?ppelmappe [Cripple Portfolio], depicting both the physical and psychological traumas experienced 
by wounded veterans returning from the front. While these works exhibit thematic continuity with 
Hoerle?s figurative constructivist production, the lyrical drawing style and organic, curving forms are 
more evocative of symbolism and expressionism. 
 
 
 33 
 
veterans.
67
 In this work from 1923, one of the more widely reproduced prints by the 
artist,
68
 a figure with the featureless head of a tailor?s dummy strolls through an urban 
space, his left limbs replaced by artificial machine parts, visible once again through a 
kind of x-ray cross-section. The blank faces and empty heads in Hoerle?s automatons 
also referenced a new kind of widespread injury, specific to trench-warfare. Hoerle 
refers to such facial injuries in two woodcuts from approximately 1923 [FIGURES 
12, 13], Kopfprothese [Head prosthesis] and Prothesenkopf [Prosthetic Head], both of 
which later reappeared in one of his best-known works, the 1930 oil painting, 
Denkmal der unbekannten Prothesen [Monument to the Unknown Prostheses] 
[FIGURE 14].  
 In the aftermath of the war, veterans? disfigured faces and prosthetic limbs 
soon became a standard part of antiwar iconography. Such images occur with great 
frequency in prints and drawings by Otto Dix (1891-1965) [FIGURE 15], and in the 
photographs of the 1924 book by Ernst Friedrich (1894-1967), Krieg dem Krieg! 
[War Against War!] [FIGURE 16].
69
 In contrast, however, to the gore and carnage 
that characterize the war injuries in Dix?s drawings, or in Friedrich?s collected 
photographs, Hoerle?s war-wounded are sanitized?their faces are either blank, 
                                                
67
 Indeed, it was the dramatic increase in the visibility of amputees in everyday life after the war?
many of them fitted with prosthetic parts?that in large part accounts for the prevalence of mannequin 
and automaton imagery among the international avant-garde during these years. As Mia Fineman 
notes, ?World War I sent a flood of approximately 80,000 amputees?24,083 with missing arms and 
54,953 with missing legs?streaming back into the German fatherland. Each amputee was entitled by 
law to two working prostheses.? Mia Fineman, ?Ecce Homo Prostheticus,? New German Critique, 
no.76 (Winter, 1999): 88. 
 
68
 Versions of this work appeared in the British journal Worker?s Dreadnought 10, no. 32 (October 27, 
1923): 1; in a bis z 3, no. 21 (January 1932): 83; and in the booklet soziale grafik (Kladno, 1932): 21 
(under the title ?Denkmal des unbekannten Invaliden?). 
 
69
 See Ernst Friedrich, War Against War! (Seattle: The Real Comet Press, 1987). 
 
 
 34 
 
empty surfaces, or they are replaced with mechanical visages of geometric precision. 
Yet it precisely this geometric sanitization that makes Hoerle?s images disconcerting: 
they reveal the extent to which technological violence had transformed the human 
body into something resembling a machine.
70
   
In place of the fragmentation and incompleteness that characterize the 
automaton-amputee in the work of artists like Ernst, Dix, or Grosz [FIGURES 17, 
18], the automaton figure in Hoerle?s work retains a measure of unity and integrity 
that distinguishes it from its Dadaist counterparts. This is reinforced by Hoerle?s use 
of more ?traditional? media?linocut and oil on canvas rather than montage?which 
provides his images a sense of solidity and permanence. This differing attitude 
towards both media and figural composition reflects at its core a differing artistic as 
well as political philosophy?one that by the summer of 1920 had led Hoerle and 
Seiwert to break off from Max Ernst and Cologne Dada in order to pursue an 
alternative direction. The objective of art for both Seiwert and Hoerle was not merely 
to offer a negative critique of society, destroying old values without offering 
alternative ones in their place. Rather, they believed art should have a positive social 
                                                
70
 It was precisely this realization that led both the Berlin Dadaists, as well as Max Ernst, to employ the 
automaton motif as critical tool in their work. In 1920 Max Ernst executed a series of drawings 
depicting automaton-like configurations, portraying these figures as a collection of parts, 
uncomfortably held together. In his drawing, Self-Constructed Small Machine, for example, Ernst 
depicted a figure composed of disparate machine parts, precariously balanced and buckling under its 
own weight. Likewise, Berlin artists such as Raoul Hausmann (1886-1971), George Grosz (1893-
1959) and John Heartfield (1891-1968) assembled automaton-figures from mannequin parts and found 
materials. Heartfield and Grosz?s The Middle-Class Philistine Heartfield Gone Wild (Electro-
Mechanical Tatlin Sculpture), shown at the First International Dada Fair of 1920 along with Dix?s 
(now lost) painting War Cripples (45% Fit for Service), recasts the automaton as an absurd and 
dysfunctional conglomeration of fragments which together still fail to produce a whole. It should be 
noted here that, in contrast to Hoerle?s automatons, this motif was for most Dadaists intrinsically 
bound up with the artistic practices of montage and assemblage. See Matthew Biro, ?The New Man as 
Cyborg: Figures of Technology in Weimar Visual Culture,? New German Critique, no. 62 (Spring-
Summer, 1994): 71-110. 
 
 
 35 
 
function, fostering solidarity among an imagined working class audience. The broken 
bodies of the Dadaists? automatons offered no hope of reconstruction or future 
progress. In the same way that Hoerle and Seiwert hoped socialism would repair and 
make a fragmented society whole again, Hoerle?s image suggests that the veteran?s 
fragmented body could be reassembled and reconstituted through his reintegration 
into the work force.
71
 
This was precisely the hope of social and scientific reformers in the postwar 
years, and it was assembly line labor, in particular, that played a key role in these 
efforts. Through redesigned prostheses, disabled veterans could perform assembly 
line tasks.
72
 Hoerle appears to have been responding to these developments with his 
1922 oil painting Fabrikarbeiter [Factory Worker] [FIGURE 19], wherein he 
depicted a mechanical worker?limbs replaced with tools and face replaced with 
what appears to be a pressure gauge?standing against a background of factory 
machinery. Thus, the realm of labor, industry, and assembly line production provided 
yet another context (though one inextricably bound with the context of prosthetic 
anatomies) from which the automaton motif in Hoerle?s work emerged.  
                                                
71
 This perspective coincided with ?the discourse of postwar rehabilitation in Germany.? As Fineman 
explains, ?The primary goal of [postwar] rehabilitation programs was to put the army of disabled 
veterans? ?war cripples? in the jargon of the day?back to work.  [?]  Arbeit became the key to 
overcoming the psychic disability that followed the loss of a limb.? Fineman, 90. 
 
72
 The attempt at this time to reintegrate amputees into the workforce, led to what Fineman has 
described as a change from ?the dominant conception of the prosthesis as the cosmetic replacement of 
a missing limb? to a new model of prosthetic technology conceived as the mechanical 
supplementation of a lost or weakened function.? See Fineman, 103. This new, instrumental 
conception of the prosthetic limb was best illustrated, as Fineman points out, by a 1919 German 
medical publication titled Ersatzglieder und Arbeitshilfen f?r Kriegbesch?digte und Unfallverletzte 
[Artificial Limbs and Work Aids for War Cripples and Accident Victims] (Berlin: Julius Springer, 
1919), which featured photographs of amputees fitted with prosthetic devices designed to perform 
specific assembly line tasks. Similar photographs later appeared in Friedrich?s Krieg dem Krieg!, 
though in this context, the images were framed in terms of the exploitation of veterans. 
 
 
 36 
 
The image of the factory, of course, had particular significance for artists and 
audiences in the Rhineland?a region which, over the previous half-century, had 
become among the densest and most rapidly industrialized on the European continent. 
Hoerle?s oft-quoted artistic statement of this time, that one must ?depersonalize 
everything, use stencils, be an engineer,?
73
 suggested a positive estimation of 
rationalized production. His automatons seem invincible, and their functional and 
fully integrated character suggests an overcoming of human frailty through 
technology.
74
 However, the dehumanized character of the automaton also registers 
ambivalence. For what became clear through the reincorporation of wounded 
veterans? bodies into the mechanism of industrial production was the extent to which 
life in general had become increasingly subordinated to the demands of factory labor. 
This critique is echoed in Seiwert?s 1923 woodcut, Die Fabrik [FIGURE 20], as well 
as in Arntz?s 1926 woodcut, Ruhe und Ordnung [FIGURE 21], wherein workers 
become increasingly indistinguishable from the machinery of the factory. 
Furthermore, other woodcuts by Arntz from 1926 and 1927, such as Die Ordnung and 
Fabrik [FIGURES 22, 23], depict factory workers whose limbs have been replaced 
by tools, again suggesting a blurring of the boundaries between human and machine. 
 While the amputee constitutes a more frequent presence in Hoerle?s work than 
any other artist in his circle, wounded veterans do make occasional appearances in 
works by Arntz and Alma. The amputees, for example, in Arntz?s 1927 woodcut, 
Krankenhaus [Hospital] [FIGURE 24]?some of them missing multiple limbs and 
                                                
73
 ?Alles entpers?nlichen, Schablone benutzen, Konstrukteur sein.? Quoted in Bohnen (1976), 54. 
 
74
 This interpretation is suggested by Michael Mackenzie in his dissertation, ?Maschinenmenschen: 
Images of the Body as a Machine in the Art and Culture of Weimar Germany? (University of Chicago, 
1999). 
 
 37 
 
one with a bandage across his eyes?as well as the truncated figures in his earlier 
woodcut Matrosen [Sailors] (1925), were intended, as Arntz later recalled, as a direct 
reference to the victims of the First World War.
75
 Additionally, the veteran-amputee 
reappeared years later in Alma?s 1937 oil painting, Oorlog [War] [FIGURE 25], as 
well as in his anti-war (and anti-fascist) poster design of the previous year, De oorlog 
maakt de man [War Makes the Man] [FIGURE 26], the title of which he attributed to 
a quote from Mussolini. 
 
Franz Wilhelm Seiwert and the Council Movement 
Beyond a critique of the dehumanizing impact of modern warfare and the 
mechanized production process, this ?constructivist? figure also emerged as the 
expression of an ideological position. For Seiwert especially (and later for Arntz and 
Tschinkel) the deployment of ?constructivist? forms in the depiction of factory 
workers was linked to the political project of council communism. This movement 
emerged in the aftermath of Germany?s November Revolution and promoted a system 
in which local councils, elected from within factories and other workplaces, would 
manage both government and economy, independent of any centralized party or state 
bureaucracy.
76
 The grassroots character and participatory political structure of the 
                                                
75
 Arntz, Zeit unterm Messer, 60.  
 
76
 Council communism was an offshoot of the larger workers? council movement, which enjoyed mass 
support among the working class throughout Central Europe in the days leading up to and following 
the end of the First World War, and had gathered particular strength within the Rhine and Ruhr regions 
of Germany. Modeled on the Russian soviets that had emerged in the revolutions of 1905 and 1917, 
German soldiers? and workers? councils quickly spread in the early days of November 1918 and seized 
power in cities throughout Germany. In addition to briefly assuming the functions of local 
governments, soldiers? and workers? councils pressed for a wide range of social reforms. These 
councils?though at times supported by or connected with various parties on the political left?were, 
by and large, the spontaneous creations of the working class and had as their primary goal the 
introduction of greater democracy and equality in the workplace and in society at large. Fearing that 
they would carry out a repeat of the Bolshevik revolution, the Social Democrat-led provisional 
 
 38 
 
council system had great appeal for artists like Seiwert, who aimed in his art and his 
writing to promote a more inclusive, egalitarian, and radically democratic social 
order.  
Throughout the early 1920s Seiwert articulated his commitment to the council 
movement in journals like Die Aktion and Der Ziegelbrenner,
77
 both through the 
reproduction of his graphic works, as well as the publication of critical and theoretical 
texts. It would have been clear to informed observers, however, as early as 1920, that 
the permanent institutionalization of workers? councils was no longer a realistic 
possibility. In his ink-drawing series Sieben Antlitze der Zeit [Seven Faces of the 
Times] [FIGURE 27], published in the last issue of Der Ziegelbrenner in December 
1921,
78
 Seiwert expressed anger and disappointment at the social and political leaders 
who, in his view, had compromised the revolution. One of the drawings, for example, 
titled Die Arbeitsgemeinschaft [Working Association], features two well-dressed 
                                                                                                                                      
government (who had initially cooperated with and participated in the local councils) ultimately took a 
position against the councils, in some cases suppressing them with military force. The councils, in 
actuality, were much more moderate and reformist in their aims than was perceived by either their 
opponents or their more radical supporters. The council communist ideology to which Seiwert and 
other Progressives subscribed, which had as its goal the socialization of the economy and the 
permanent institutionalization of the councils, was always a minority position within the councils?
articulated by intellectuals outside the councils and largely developed after the councils? suppression. 
On this last point, see Eberhard Kolb, The Weimar Republic (New York: Routledge, 2005), 151-154. 
 
77
 Die Aktion, founded in Berlin in 1911 by the critic and publisher, Franz Pfemfert (1879-1954), was 
one of the few avant-garde journals to take an explicit antiwar stance from the very start of the First 
World War. Der Ziegelbrenner, published in Munich between 1917 and 1919 by the journalist Ret 
Marut (1890-1969), took a similarly anti-establishment position. Following the collapse of the 
Bavarian Council Republic Marut fled to Cologne, where he collaborated with Seiwert on a number of 
publications, including the last issue of Der Ziegelbrenner, published in December 1921. 
 
78
 With Sieben Antlitze der Zeit Seiwert appears to have anticipated other series-based works by 
members of the Progressives circle, including Gerd Arntz?s 1927 woodcut series, Zw?lf H?user der 
Zeit [Twelve Houses of the Times]; Gottfried Brockman?s 1927 linocut series, Bilderbogen der Zeit 
[Pictures of the Times]; Peter Alma?s 1929 woodcut series, Acht sociale portretten [Eight Social 
Portraits]; and August Sander?s photographic publication of 1929, Antlitz der Zeit: Sechzig Aufnahmen 
deutscher Menschen des 20. Jahrhunderts [Face of Our Time: Sixty Portraits of 20
th
 Century 
Germans]. 
 
 
 39 
 
figures in the foreground greeting one another as a mass of workers clusters around a 
factory in the background. A caption, running along the lower edge and right side of 
the image reads: ?Guten morgen, Herr Gewerkschaftsbonze, sie werden die Sache 
schon wieder in Gang bringen!? [Good morning, Mr. union fat cat. They will surely 
get the business back in operation!] 
The image appears to depict the deal making that characterized the aftermath 
of the November Revolution, where, in return for concessions from industry leaders 
(such as the eight-hour workday and collective wage bargaining) trade union officials 
agreed to abandon the demand for the nationalization of heavy industries.
79
 For 
supporters of the council movement, such actions on the part of trade union 
leadership signified a betrayal of the revolution, since they not only preserved the 
private ownership of industries, but also served to keep power in the hands of union 
leadership, effectively shutting out the mass of ordinary union members from the 
decision-making process. 
Beyond industry and labor leaders, Seiwert?s Sieben Antlitze series vilifies a 
variety of authority figures and institutions, ranging from the educational system, to 
the clergy, the military, and the government, all of whom are depicted engaging in 
self-serving deal making at the expense of the working class. Each of the seven 
vignettes, accompanied by satirical captions, highlights the perceived hypocrisy and 
self-interest of the social and political leadership. In addition to presenting a typology 
                                                
79
 The most important development in this regard was the agreement of the Zentralarbeitsgemeinschaft 
[Central Working Association], which was concluded on November 15, 1918. This agreement, which, 
according to the historian Detlev Peukert, defined ?the new social and economic order? of the Weimar 
Republic, essentially ?constituted an insurance policy for employers against nationalization and gave 
the unions a guarantee that the leaderships would not have to surrender control over social and 
economic issues to the mass rank and file whom they distrusted.? Detlev J. Peukert, The Weimar 
Republic: The Crisis of Classical Modernity (New York: Hill and Wang, 1992), 109. 
 
 
 40 
 
of the institutions?the ?seven faces of the times??that had undermined the 
revolution, Seiwert?s series also served to establish a graphic language and typology 
of forms, that was soon embraced by members of Seiwert?s artistic circle. Above all, 
this iconography consisted of forms related to factory architecture: saw-tooth 
rooftops, smokestacks, wheels and transmission belts, and window-crossbars. 
Additionally, the image of the collective masses, represented by clusters of identical, 
anonymous, worker-figures?a motif that Seiwert employed with increasing 
frequency in woodcuts and linocuts over the next two years?makes one of its earlier 
appearances in this series. 
For Seiwert as well as for Hoerle, 1922 and 1923 marked the peak years of 
their graphic production, after which both artists turned increasingly to oil painting. 
The woodcuts and linocuts they produced during this period had a great impact on the 
stylistic development of the other members who would later join their circle, 
particularly through their reproduction in Die Aktion. This journal was one of the 
most important channels through which Seiwert expressed his support for the project 
of council communism and, along with many other artists and intellectuals, debated 
the role that art should play in the cause.
80
 Between 1922 and 1926 Seiwert?s prints 
appeared on Die Aktion?s cover on nine separate occasions, while Hoerle?s work was 
featured on four journal covers during this period?and works by both artists 
appeared with even greater frequency within the journal?s pages. These reproductions 
                                                
80
 After 1920 Die Aktion became an important advocate of council communism, publishing the 
manifestos and guidelines of council communist factions like the Allgemeine Arbeiter Union ? 
Einheitsorganisation (AAU-E) [General Workers? Union ? Unity Organization], of which Seiwert and 
Arntz were both supporters. While the actual council movement had all but disintegrated by 1923 (and 
had reached the height of its political relevance in the period immediately following the November 
Revolution), Die Aktion continued to advance the cause of council communism well into the later part 
of the decade. 
 
 
 41 
 
were of tremendous importance for the artistic development of other members of the 
Group of Progressive Artists, who first became acquainted with Seiwert and Hoerle?s 
graphic work, as well as with the tenets of the council movement, through this 
source.
81
 
With works, for example, like the 1922 woodcut Betriebsorganisation 
[Factory Organization] [FIGURE 28], which first appeared on a 1923 cover of Die 
Aktion (later becoming one of the artist?s most circulated graphic works),
82
 Seiwert 
attempted to articulate the political reality facing the council movement while 
simultaneously suggesting possibilities still open to it. In this work, a cluster of near-
identical factory workers appears crammed into the space between factory 
transmission belts, ?caught up in the machinery of capital as exploited and de-
subjectivized human material,? as art historian Uli Bohnen has described them. Yet, 
Bohnen also observes that Seiwert has invested this image with a certain tension, 
since the workers?in their position as an organized and collective body within the 
machine?appear ?capable of tearing through the strained movements of the 
transmission belts, which encompass them.?
83
 As Bohnen?s reading implies, the 
formal arrangement here is as critical to the print?s message as the narrative elements. 
                                                
81
 See Arntz, Zeit unterm Messer, 15; Tschinkel, ?Parallelen und Nachwirken,? in Hoerle und sein 
Kreis (Frechen: Kunstverein zu Frechen, 1971); and Kees Broos, Augustin Tschinkel (The Hague: 
Haags Gemeentemuseum, 1976).  
 
82
 This work was first reproduced on the Aktion cover of vol. 13, no. 10 (1923), and was later 
reproduced in several Czech publications including the journal nae cesta (1932), and the booklet 
soziale grafik (1932). It also served as the cover for the compilation f.w. seiwert ? gem?lde ? grafik ? 
schriften (Prague, 1934). 
 
83
 ??einerseits sind sie ins R?derwerk des Kapitals einbezogen als ausgebeutetes und 
entsubjektiviertes Menschenmaterial, anderseits sind sie die organisatorisch gebundene menschliche 
Kraft ? imstande, durch eine angestrengte Bewegung den Transmissionsriemen zu zerrei?en, die sie 
umspannt.? Bohnen (1976), 71.  
 
 
 42 
 
The collective strength of the workers, for example, is communicated through their 
formal organization?through the overlapping of figures and the repetition of 
shapes?into a single monolithic form. Additionally, the image is composed 
according to a diagrammatic logic, in that it expresses structural relationships through 
the placement of forms: while the gears and transmission belts are superimposed upon 
the workers and image of the factory looms above their heads, the group?s position at 
the center of the production apparatus suggests a tactical advantage. The placement of 
the letters ?BO? (an abbreviation for Betriebsorganisation) further serves to 
emphasize this point: integrated into the factory gears, the letters? position might 
remind one of the councils? ability to jam up the wheels of production through 
organized strikes. 
Seiwert, then, in his promotion of the council ideology, did not show a 
victorious proletariat or depict the revolution as a fait accompli. Instead, his work 
presented the revolution as a yet unrealized, though possible, outcome. In this way, 
his images left the audience to reach an independent conclusion, and invited their 
participation in the completion and fulfillment of the revolutionary project. This 
conformed to Seiwert?s understanding of the revolution, which?rather than a vision 
dictated to the masses from above, to which they were expected to conform?would 
have to be a participatory event, created by the masses themselves, and organized 
from the ground up. The Betriebsorganisationen were, for Seiwert, emblematic of 
such grassroots participation: comprised of all workers in a factory and created to 
serve their interests, these organizations elected their leaders through a democratic 
process and constituted the basic units forming the larger workers? councils.  
 
 43 
 
In works like Betriebsorganisation, which continue to employ the 
standardized factory symbols of saw-tooth rooftops, smokestacks, and transmission 
belts, the image of the masses, or worker-groups (which had appeared only as a 
peripheral motif in Sieben Antlitze der Zeit), now figures as a central feature. In this 
motif, clusters of near identical figures, presented frontally or in profile with facial 
features described by discs and dashes, are clustered in dense configurations?almost 
piled up on one another in a compressed spatiality reminiscent of pre-Renaissance 
paintings?in order to suggest unity and solidarity. Indeed, another woodcut of 1922, 
which also appeared in Die Aktion, titled Solidarit?t [Solidarity] [FIGURE 29], goes 
as far as to intersect the figures? heads, so that one face?s right eye becomes another?s 
left eye?a literal visualization of connectedness.
84
  
In these later graphic works, the social typology that Seiwert had begun to 
develop in Sieben Antlitze der Zeit also appears with greater clarity. In Feierabend 
[Quitting Time] [FIGURE 30], for example, workers, with their plain, simple, 
unadorned and near identical uniforms, are less differentiated than other social types. 
The bourgeois couple in the left margin of the image are given more space (as well as 
more accessories), and described in greater detail than the mass of unemployed 
workers at the center of the image. This is evident, for example, in the addition of 
walking sticks, the depiction of more elaborate hats, the greater detail and 
differentiation in the faces and hairstyles of the bourgeois couple, and the more 
complicated contours of the man?s suit jacket.  
                                                
84
 El Lissitzky (1890-1941) later employed this device in his well known photomontage for the cover 
of the catalogue of the 1929 Russian Exhibition at Kunstgewerbemuseum in Zurich.  
 
 
 44 
 
Again evident in this work is the tendency towards diagrammatic 
compositions that characterize figurative constructivist pictures, in which social 
relations are expressed through formal relationships. Thus, the bourgeois couple in 
the left margin occupies a superior position to the worker-figures, and look down 
upon the mass from their elevated position. The mass of workers, meanwhile, 
occupies a central position within the image, confronting the viewer directly and 
advancing towards the picture plane?suggesting that, on the stage of history, the 
proletariat is the advancing class.
85
 
 
The Factory Council Motif in the Work of Gerd Arntz and Augustin Tschinkel 
In later prints by Arntz and Tschinkel, the factory organization is also featured 
as a recurring theme. In Arntz?s 1926 woodcut, Spartakusbund [Spartacus League] 
[FIGURE 31], which was featured on a cover of Die Aktion that same year, the 
initials BO reappear in stenciled form, hovering above a cluster of armed workers 
who appear to be storming the gates of a factory. The initials made another 
appearance in a widely reproduced woodcut of the following year, Tag der Freiheit 
[Day of Freedom] [FIGURE 32], in which Arntz depicted armed workers breaking 
into a prison to free the languishing prisoners, the letters BO emerging once again 
from the armed masses at the gates. (That the workers in these later images take on 
more active and militant roles, may be read more as an expression of frustration than 
                                                
85
 Roth suggests a similar diagrammatic reading of Seiwert?s 1925 oil painting, Demonstration, which 
she explains, ?depicts the division of society? as imposing from the side. The demonstrating mass is 
literally squeezed out into the space in front of the canvas, the space ideally occupied by the worker-
viewer.? See Roth, 87. 
 
 
 45 
 
as a reflection of reality, as the real possibilities for revolutionary action had by this 
point largely evaporated.) 
This latter image first appeared in 1927 in Die proletarische Revolution, the 
journal published in Frankfurt by the council communist General Workers? Union ? 
Unitary Organization (AAU-E).
86
 Throughout 1927 and 1928, both Seiwert and Arntz 
contributed graphic work to this publication. The two linocuts by Seiwert (produced 
around 1924 but appearing in 1927) featured all of the typical graphic devices 
[FIGURES 33, 34]: a central mass of figures representing the revolutionary working 
class, framed by standardized iconography denoting social institutions?factories or 
prisons?and the addition of hand-carved text, set against the field of a waving 
banner. One banner, extending from the central grouping of three workers and 
hovering above a background factory structure reads: ?Erkenntnis der Welt treibt zur 
?nderung der Welt? [Awareness of the World Drives the Transformation of the 
World]. In a second linocut, the banner-text frames a typical grouping of heads along 
                                                
86
 The AAU-E (Allgemeine Arbeiter Union ? Einheitsorganisation) was established in October 1921 
under the leadership of the former Social Democrat Otto R?hle and the Aktion publisher Franz 
Pfemfert, who printed the group?s guidelines later that year in his journal. The organization was 
intended to supersede both party and union organizations, combining the political activities of the 
former and the economic role of the latter within a single body. It was formed as a splinter group of the 
revolutionary General Workers? Union of Germany (AAUD), which had emerged two years earlier in 
opposition to the German Communist Party (KPD), but had since fallen under the domination of 
German Communist Workers? Party (KAPD)?itself a splinter group of the KPD. Ultimately, such 
splits and infighting were ?quite artificial,? as one early supporter of the council movement, the writer 
Paul Mattick, would later recall. ?Neither the Communist Workers? Party nor the two General Labor 
Unions overcame their status of being ?ultra-left? sects. [?] [T]here was actually no difference 
between [them]. [?] Both unions indulged in the same activities. Hence all theoretical divergences 
had no practical meaning.? While the AAU-E and similar organizations continued to exist through the 
end of the Weimar period ?in the form of weekly and monthly publications, pamphlets and books,? 
Mattick continues, ?their functions were restricted to that of discussion clubs trying to understand their 
own failures and that of the German revolution.? See Paul Mattick, ?Otto R?hle and the German 
Labour Movement,? in Anti-Bolshevik Communism (White Plains, NY: M.E. Sharpe, Inc., 1978), 108. 
See also Hans Manfred Bock, Geschichte des ?linken Radikalismus? in Deutschland. Ein Versuch 
(Frankfurt: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1976); and Uli Bohnen, ?Zum Verst?ndnis der politischen Vorstellungen 
der rheinischen ?Gruppe progressiver K?nstler,? in Politische Konstruktivisten: die?Gruppe 
progressiver K?nstler? K?ln (Berlin: Neue Gesellschaft f?r bildende Kunst, 1975). 
 
 
 46 
 
with symbols denoting a globe and a prison building (indicated by the window 
crossbars), reading: ?Die Weltrevolution zerst?rt die Gef?ngnisse der Welt? [The 
World Revolution Destroys the Prisons of the World]. The factory and the prison 
comprised two of the main social institutions at which Seiwert, Arntz, and their 
colleagues aimed their critiques; indeed, connections between the two institutions 
were frequently suggested in the publications to which these artists contributed 
graphics.
87
 
 In total, Arntz contributed seven woodcut graphics to Die proletarische 
Revolution between 1927 and 1928, all of which use various diagrammatic 
compositions combined with text in the promotion of the council ideology. One such 
woodcut features a worker-type standing on the left, the figures of Hindenburg and 
Ebert standing on the right, and a figure holding a sign reading ?Partei,? blocking the 
worker access to the politicians [FIGURE 35]. The accompanying text reads, ?Die 
Partei sch?tzt den Staat!? [The Party Protects the State!], expressing the council 
communist argument that political parties serve the interests of the state government 
rather than the needs of their constituents. A woodcut which appeared in the journal 
the following year, titled R?temandat oder Di?tenmandat? [Council Mandate or 
Salary Mandate?], makes this point even more clearly [FIGURE 36].
88
 The image is 
divided into two halves: on the left a cluster of workers stands before a factory (the 
printed word R?temandat hovering above them), facing forward with hands linked in 
                                                
87
 In the text accompanying Hoerle?s Europ?er linocut in the Workers? Dreadnought, for example, the 
author speculates on whether the depicted brick wall in the image belongs to a factory or prison, 
concluding: ?there is little difference.? See the Workers? Dreadnought 10, no. 32 (October 27, 1923). 
 
88
 See Die proletarische Revolution 3 (1928), 9. This print was later reproduced in the Dutch journal, 
De Zaterdagavond (January 18, 1930), 10. 
 
 
 47 
 
a show of unity; on the right stand several workers (seemingly unaware of one 
another) with their backs towards the viewer, turned in attention to the bourgeois 
parliamentarian who addresses them from the door of train car. The council mandate, 
the print suggests, is the product of the local factory workers themselves, designed to 
serve and promote their own interests. The parliamentary mandate, in contrast, is 
created from the top down, and serves the interests of the party leaders in the form of 
their sessional allowances [Di?ten]. That the party leader addresses his constituents 
from the door of a train car suggests a lack of connection to or investment in local 
issues?for the parliamentarian this is only one stop among many.  
The diagrammatic character, prevalent in so many figurative constructivist 
prints and drawings, is even more pronounced in another woodcut by Arntz, R?te- 
und Betrieb Organisation [Council and Factory Organization] [FIGURE 37], which 
appeared on the cover of a 1928 issue of Die proletarische Revolution.
 
Here, at the 
ground level is the familiar cluster of workers framed by their factory environment of 
fences and industrial structures, upon which the words ?R?te u. Betrieb Organisation? 
are inscribed. The accompanying caption reads: ?The revolutionary program remains 
a mere piece of paper if it lacks the instrument to implement it. The instruments are 
the industrial organizations and the council system.?
89
 This print?s composition 
functions similarly to a flow chart, suggesting a structural organization whereby 
workers are organized (literally from the ground up) through local factory 
organizations, and then connected to one another through larger workers? councils. 
                                                
89
 ?Das revolution?re Programm bleibt ein armseliges St?ck Papier, wenn das Mittel fehlt, es zu 
verwirklichen. Das Mittel sind die Betriebsorganisationen und das R?tesystem!!? Die proletarische 
Revolution 3 (1928), 1. 
 
 
 48 
 
The woodcut, in fact, shares a compositional logic with an actual flow chart diagram 
designed by Seiwert, representing the structure of the council system [FIGURE 38], 
which appeared four years later in one of the last issues of a bis z, to accompany an 
essay distinguishing the principles of state socialism from those of the council 
movement.
90
 
 The Betriebsorganization was also a repeating subject in Tschinkel?s work. 
Tschinkel?s 1928 linocut, BO (Fabrik) [BO (Factory)] [FIGURE 39], with its 
grouping of abstracted worker-heads at the lower edge of the image, framed above by 
factory wheels and transmission belts, reads like an abstracted version of Seiwert?s 
woodcut from several years earlier. Bohnen has, once again, interpreted this work in a 
way that highlights the diagrammatic character of these figurative constructivist 
images: here the two transmission belts form a triangle at the picture?s right edge, 
which encapsulate the initials ?bo? (the placement of which is nearly identical to that 
in the earlier Seiwert print) and effectively drives a wedge between the workers at the 
lower part of the image and the factory machinery which subjugates them from 
above.
91
 A highly abstracted oil painting from the following year [FIGURE 40], later 
reproduced in an issue of a bis z, follows a similar format: three highly abstracted 
figures occupy the central ground, surrounded by factory architecture and flanked by 
the letters ?BO.? This format was repeated in an oil painting of three years later 
[FIGURE 41], though this time with far less abstraction, wherein a cluster of nine 
near identical worker figures stand before a factory landscape, a red flag held above 
                                                
90
 See Seiwert?s drawing ?Schema des R?tesystems,? in conjunction with the article ?Staat und 
R?tesystem? in a bis z 3, no. 27 (September 1932): 107-108. 
 
91
 See Bohnen, 72. 
 
 
 49 
 
them by the figure at the far left, and the stenciled letters ?BO? printed over the 
bodies of the two most central figures. 
 
Gerd Arntz 
By 1924 (after only four years of formal artistic training and development), 
Arntz had reached a stage approaching his mature style, for which his initial 
encounters with Seiwert and Hoerle during these early years were crucial.
92
 As with 
the work of Seiwert and Hoerle, the factory constituted the central motif within 
Arntz?s work.
93
 His factory depictions are unique when compared with those of his 
colleagues, however, in their incorporation of popular culture references?
particularly in his allusions to fashion and entertainment imported from the United 
States. These two realms of culture?the rationalized production process of the 
factory assembly line and the synchronized performances of American 
entertainment?intersect, for example, in Arntz?s 1924 woodcut, Amerikanisches 
[Things American] [FIGURE 42].
94
 Here each motif occupies its own horizontal 
register: the lower band depicts six female figures?faceless bodies in bathing suits 
arranged in a chorus-line formation?while a row of cars resembling Ford Model-Ts 
fills the space above. Additionally, the figure of hanged man?the victim of a 
                                                
92
 Gerd Arntz, Zeit unterm Messer, 18. 
 
93
 For Arntz especially, who descended from a family of local industrialists and for a time had worked 
in his father?s Remscheid factory, the subject had personal significance. See Bool and Broos (1976), 7. 
 
94
 Though it was not widely reproduced in the interwar years, it became in subsequent years one of 
Arntz?s most well known works. See for example Eberhard Kolb, Eberhard Roters and Wieland 
Schmied, Kritische Grafik in der Weimarer Zeit (Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 1985); Envisioning America: 
Prints, Drawings, and Photographs by George Grosz and his Contemporaries 1915-1933 (Cambridge: 
Busch-Reisinger Museum, Havard University, 1990). 
 
 
 50 
 
lynching?overlaps and connects the two registers at the left side of the image, 
representing yet another aspect of American culture. Already in this early print, the 
tendency towards diagrammatic presentation is clear: each element?the showgirls, 
the cars, the hanged man?are isolated in separate compartments, as if to facilitate 
comparison between them. The work, as Arntz later explained, was a response to the 
literature, films, and illustrated magazines then flooding into Germany from the US, 
through which he became familiar with images of both racial violence and ?bathing 
beauties.?
95
 Above all, Arntz cited as an inspiration Henry Ford?s autobiography My 
Life and Work (1922), which had become an instant bestseller in Germany after the 
publication of the German edition in 1923.
96
 Through standardized forms and precise, 
geometric execution Arntz sought to evoke Ford?s rationalized assembly line 
production process, while his comparison of Model-Ts and showgirls, facilitated by 
their diagrammatic arrangement in separate registers, suggests a general equivalence 
between the mechanized character of production and the standardized forms of 
consumption. In this equation of production and consumption, work and leisure, 
Arntz?s image also foreshadows the analyses of critics like Siegfried Kracauer, who 
later described chorus line performances and other forms of popular entertainment as 
?the aesthetic reflex of the rationality to which the prevailing economic system 
aspires.?
97
  
                                                
95
 See Arntz, Zeit unterm Messer, 60. 
 
96
 On the impact of Henry Ford and the popularity of his autobiography in Germany, see Mary Nolan, 
Visions of Modernity: American Business and the Modernization of Germany (New York: Oxford 
University Press, 1994), 34. 
 
97
 Siegfried Kracauer, ?The Mass Ornament,? in The Mass Ornament: Weimar Essays (Harvard 
University Press, 1995), 75-86. 
 
 
 51 
 
This notion that life outside the factory might become indistinguishable from 
time spent inside was articulated with even greater clarity in a woodcut from two 
years later, titled Ruhe und Ordnung [Calm and Order] [FIGURE 43]. The figures 
distributed throughout the image, representing a variety of professions and activities, 
all echo the forms and rhythms of the factory operations depicted in the lower right 
register; meanwhile, the repeating figures within the factory compartment have 
become nearly indistinguishable from the machines at which they are stationed. This 
conflation of the body and machine was depicted in still more literal terms in a 
woodcut produced the following year titled Fabrik [Factory] [FIGURE 44], where, 
in a chilling synthesis of the amputee and assembly line motifs, workers? limbs are 
replaced with tools. 
Between 1924 and 1926 Arntz?s figuration went through numerous stylistic 
fluctuations, as he worked further to refine his formal language. Woodcuts like 
Erschossen um nichts [Shot for Nothing] (1924) and Beschissen um alles [Cheated 
Out of Everything] (1925) [FIGURES 45, 46] exhibit far greater levels of figural 
distortion and stylization than Amerikanisches. The bodies in these works are 
comprised entirely of rectangles and triangles, with large, perfect circles for heads 
and horizontal dashes in place of facial features. The figures are, furthermore, 
depicted at a far greater scale than in most of his other works; indeed, the scale of the 
figures in these works recalls Seiwert?s work.
98
 Other woodcuts, like Les Baigneuses 
[Bathers] of 1926 [FIGURE 47], use more organic, anatomically naturalistic forms to 
depict bodies, which both display more complex gestures and inhabit semi-
                                                
98
 In fact, Arntz attributes this stylistic departure to the influence of Seiwert. See Arntz, Zeit unterm 
Messer (1988), 66. 
 
 
 52 
 
perspectival spaces. Ultimately, Arntz settled on a mode of figuration more along 
these lines. The figures still conform to standardized types, and are generally depicted 
frontally and composed along vertical and horizontal axes to reinforce the overall grid 
arrangement, but they do contain a level of dimensionality, naturalistic proportion, 
and gestural complexity, which sets them apart from the work of Seiwert and other 
members of the Progressives circle. 
In the two years between Neurath?s discovery of Arntz in 1926 and the latter?s 
move to Vienna in 1928, Arntz became increasingly engaged with leftist publications, 
contributing to both the Berlin-based Aktion and the Frankfurt-based Proletarische 
Revolution. Furthermore, in these years, during which Arntz collaborated with 
Neurath intermittently and from afar, he produced his best-known series, Zw?lf 
H?user der Zeit [Twelve Houses of the Times] [FIGURE 48]. This woodcut 
portfolio, the first of Arntz?s series-based works, featured twelve three-level 
architectural cross-sections, each representing a different social institution. As Arntz 
explained, the decision to use twelve houses was a reference to the twelve celestial 
?houses? of the astrological horoscope. The work was a critique of transcendental 
worldviews, meant to counter metaphysical thinking with concrete, empirical facts.
99
 
The types of institutions chosen by Arntz vary greatly and depict the prevailing social 
order in a variety of ways. Generally speaking, though, the depicted settings seem to 
fall into two broad categories: the first category, into which half of the woodcuts fall, 
relates directly to fundamental relations of production, power, and authority; this 
category includes a factory, a prison, an army barracks, a bank, a hospital, and an 
                                                
99
 Arntz, Zeit unterm Messer, 22 
 
 
 53 
 
apartment house (conspicuously absent from the series, as Arntz himself later 
remarked, are educational and religious institutions).
100
 The second category, to 
which the other half of the series belongs, relates more obliquely to relations of 
production and power; this category revolves around culture, consumption, and 
entertainment, and includes a department store, a stadium, a ?theater,? a hotel, a bar, 
and a bordello. There is some redundancy, especially among the last four listed 
institutions, wherein social and sexual intimacy appears to be always mediated by 
economic exchanges.
101
  
The following year, 1928, would be Arntz?s last year of woodcut production 
until 1931, when he once again resumed printmaking. In this year Arntz produced one 
of his more unusual woodcuts of the interwar period, B?rgerkrieg [Civil War] 
[FIGURE 49].
102
 As Roth points out, B?rgerkrieg departs from the Zw?lf H?user 
series, both in physical scale?the former print is more than three times the size of a 
single print from latter series?as well as in composition: Arntz abandoned the linear 
compositions of the Zw?lf H?user, which served to isolate individual themes, and 
instead, with B?rgerkrieg, combined several disparate themes in a circular 
composition from which the center has been extracted.
103
 This woodcut, as Arntz later 
                                                
100
 Arntz, Zeit unterm Messer, 82. 
 
101
 Only for Arntz did figurative constructivism occasionally accommodate sexual content. For the 
other members the circle, only themes directly related to labor and class struggle seem to have been 
considered appropriate to the style. Hoerle, incidentally, did produce a series of six ?pornographic? 
linocuts in the early thirties, a series titled Pornomappe, but these were executed in a style that might 
be described alternatively as expressionist or surrealist. See Dirk Backes, Heinrich Hoerle: Leben und 
Werk, 1895?1936 (Cologne: Rheinland-Verlag GmbH, 1981, 217-218.  
 
102
 This print appeared in a bis z 1, no. 4 (January 1930), under the title Strassenkampf [Street 
Fighting]. 
 
103
 See Roth, 122. 
 
 
 54 
 
noted, also marked the end of his D?sseldorf period and served to summarize his 
experience and memories of the Rhine and Ruhr regions in the period in the aftermath 
of the First World War.
104
 It is of particular interest, moreover, to note that 
B?rgerkrieg features what is likely the only depiction of an artist in a figurative 
constructivist artwork?indeed, depictions of artistic production appear even less 
frequently in work by the Progressives than depictions of sex. That the artist, standing 
with his palette and easel before a scene of carnage and destruction, opts to paint a 
still life with flowers, reflects the prevailing attitude among the Group of Progressive 
Artists: namely, that the art world was willfully blind to the class struggle, and that 
the commodity status of the easel paintings served only to entrench the artist in the 
reactionary camp of the bourgeoisie.
105
 In the case of Arntz?as well as Tschinkel 
and Alma?his work in pictorial statistics and design afforded him an alternative 
means of income, and lifted the pressures of earning a livelihood by means of his 
?free? work alone.
106
 
While Arntz?s graphic production was interrupted during his first years 
working at the museum in Vienna, these years mark the height of his activity as a 
painter: twelve of Arntz?s fourteen oil paintings were produced between 1928 and 
1931. As Arntz later explained, his work for the museum did not afford him the time 
and concentration required for his primary medium of woodcut; he turned to painting 
during these years because he felt the medium demanded less of him, that he could 
                                                
104
 Arntz, Zeit unterm Messer, 89. 
 
105
 On the status of easel painting within the Group of Progressive Artists, see the earlier discussion in 
footnote 57. 
 
106
 See Arntz, ?Otto Neurath, ich und die Bildstatistik,? in Arbeiterbildung in der Zwischenkriegszeit: 
Otto Neurath, Gerd Arntz (Wien: L?cker, 1982), 32.  
 
 
 55 
 
approach it more, in his words, as a ?Sunday painter.?
107
 That painting was, in fact, 
more than just a hobby for Arntz is evident in his practice of painting his woodblocks; 
of his interwar woodcut production, Arntz produced a total 40 painted woodblocks.
108
 
Nonetheless, following his return to woodcut in 1931, Arntz gave up painting and 
devoted himself again exclusively to printmaking. Once again Arntz returned to 
concepts he had explored in his Zw?lf H?user series. Of the ten woodcuts he 
produced in the ensuing two years, which together constitute an unfinished series that 
he had initially planned to call Klassengesellschaft [Class Society], six conform 
explicitly to the earlier tripartite scheme of Zw?lf H?user, and all ten employ at least a 
loose version of this format [FIGURE 50]. These works, as Arntz described them, 
were ?part backward- and part forward-looking.?
109
 They handled such themes as 
war, revolution and counter-revolution, unemployment, and economic crisis, which 
both evoked the earlier postwar period as well as the situation of the early 1930s, with 
the looming threat of rising fascism. More so than Zw?lf H?user, however, which 
(produced at the height of the Weimar Republic?s ?relative stability phase?) portrayed 
the social order as a static hierarchy, the Klassengesellschaft series (produced in the 
midst of the world economic crisis) emphasized organized class struggle and 
resistance. 
 
 
                                                
107
 Arntz, Zeit unterm Messer, 29.  
 
108
 See Bool and Broos (1976). 
 
109
 Arntz, Zeit unterm Messer, 30. 
 
 
 56 
 
Augustin Tschinkel 
Just as Seiwert had played an important role in Gerd Arntz?s artistic evolution, 
Tschinkel?s discovery of Seiwert?s work in Die Aktion in 1922 was also critical for 
his own development. While Tschinkel?s earliest known graphics, published two 
years later in Die Aktion, had not yet fully absorbed the figurative constructivist 
tendencies of Seiwert?s work, they did express a political position in common with 
Seiwert and Die Aktion [FIGURES 51, 52]. Graphics like Tschinkel?s Solowetzky 
and Der Kapitalismus im ehemaligen Sowjet-Russland [Capitalism in the Former 
Soviet Russia] were, like the position articulated by Die Aktion, both pro-socialist and 
anti-Bolshevik. The drawing Solowetzky, for example, the title of which refers to one 
of the earliest established prison camps of the Soviet Gulag, accompanied an article in 
Die Aktion exposing the imprisonment and brutal treatment there of the Socialist 
Revolutionaries by the Bolsheviks.
110
 This drawing employed both a geometrizing 
and depersonalized style of figuration, as well as the prison theme, by then quite 
common to Seiwert?s work. Tschinkel?s drawing Der Kapitalismus im ehemaligen 
Sowjet-Russland, was also critical of the Bolsheviks. Depicted in a caricatured 
manner, a fat bourgeois industrialist sits atop a complex of factory buildings, 
clutching greedily at the smokestacks, with sub-caption reading, ?Lang lebe die NEP-
Politik der Bolschewicki? [Long Live the New Economic Policy of the Bolsheviks]. 
This drawing, however, in contrast to Solowetzky and other graphics by Tschinkel 
published in Die Aktion that year, had much more in common with political cartoons 
                                                
110
 ?Die revolution?ren Genossen, die auf Solowetzki gefangen sind, ?ber Lenin-Inseln,? Die Aktion 
14, nos. 17-18 (September 1924): 499-506. 
 
 
 57 
 
and popular illustration. The same can be said of Tschinkel?s graphics featured the 
following year in the Czech theater journal Loutk?r [Puppeteer]. 
Tendencies that might be described as figurative constructivist began 
appearing with greater frequency in Tschinkel?s work around 1927, though woodcuts 
and linocuts from this year still exhibit mixed stylistic tendencies.
111
 While 
Tschinkel?s 1927 woodcut, Leben und Tod [Life and Death] [FIGURE 53], for 
example, reveals the grain of the woodblock and employs a rough, expressionist 
technique, linocuts of the same year [FIGURES 54, 55, 56], like Menschen [People], 
Alltag [Daily Life], and Auswanderer [Emigrants], use geometric and standardized 
forms, executed with varying degrees of precision. Despite the stylistic diversity of 
these prints, there are some telling similarities among them, including the frontal 
presentation of figures arranged along vertical and horizontal axes, and a tendency 
towards generality?that is to say, symbols representing general rather than particular 
objects. The upright, non-descript figure in Leben und Tod, for example, represents 
living human beings generally, juxtaposed with the symbol of death across the print?s 
lower register in the form of the skeleton within a black horizontal rectangle. This 
upright figure, occupying the realm of life, is further flanked by two generalized 
symbols: at the left a smokestack (symbolizing the factory, and labor in general) and 
at the right a steepled-structure (its proportions, storied divisions, clock, and faint 
indication of a cross at the top suggesting a church). The binary logic at work in this 
image, which?besides life and death?suggests such oppositions as work and rest, 
                                                
111
 This statement is based on the evidence of Tschinkel?s extant work, of which the only known pre-
1927 works are six graphics from 1924, which appeared in Die Aktion and Loutk?r. 
 
 
 58 
 
past and present, spiritual and material, is typical of Tschinkel?s work in particular, 
and the Group of Progressive Artists generally. 
Tschinkel?s linocut of the following year, Profitgesellschaft [Profit Society] 
[FIGURE 57], employs?along with this frontal, cross-section presentation?a 
hierarchical structure that recurs throughout his work. In this linocut a highly 
abstracted figure composed of reduced, geometric forms and holding a sack of money 
in each hand, stands atop a column of horizontally stacked skeletons, flanked by 
factory architecture at the left and right. The motif recalls the Leben und Tod woodcut 
of the previous year. The same compositional device was used four years later in 
Tschinkel?s linocut Kohle [Coal] [FIGURE 58], which depicts a coalmine owner?
his industry indicated by the crossed hammers on his chest and his position indicated 
by both his fedora hat and his relative size and placement with regard to the other 
figures?standing atop a column of toiling, bent-over mineworkers, arranged in 
identical rows with pick axes raised. Again, industrial structures?the saw-tooth roof, 
factory smokestacks, and mining tower?flank the column. Both images use 
hierarchical compositions to express in spatial terms the idea that profit is 
expropriated from the producers of that profit, and that the expropriators stand on the 
backs of producers. Tschinkel employed a similar hierarchical device to critique the 
education system an ink drawing from 1928, titled Schema der zeitgen?ssischen 
P?dagogik [Scheme of Contemporary Pedagogy] [FIGURE 59] (which was included 
along with Kohle in the 1932 booklet soziale grafik). In this drawing, a large figure?
stereotypically bourgeois in his appearance with his bowler hat, overcoat, and cigar?
pours liquid from a bottle into a funnel atop the head of the smaller, bureaucratic 
 
 59 
 
looking figure of the teacher, who in turn pours a bottle into funnels on the heads of 
two rows of yet smaller, identical school children. Tschinkel?s work, as is evident in 
this last example, possessed a humoristic element that set his work apart from that of 
his colleagues, whose temperament generally ranged from melancholic to ironic, but 
rarely playful.  
 
Peter Alma 
Of the figurative constructivist wing of the Group of Progressive Artists, Peter 
Alma?s work was likely the most stylistically diverse, up to and through the interwar 
period. Alma was the oldest of the artists in this circle and had worked in a variety of 
styles prior to adopting a figurative constructivist vocabulary around 1927.
112
 The 
stylistic breadth of his work is evident in merely browsing the numerous woodcuts 
and ink drawings that Alma contributed to the left-communist publication, De 
Tribune, between 1920 and the early 1930s [FIGURE 60]. These graphic works 
range in style from expressionist to social realist, and many, which do not seem to 
draw directly upon any avant-garde tendencies, could be characterized as political 
cartoons or popular illustrations. Alma?s diverse stylistic range is also apparent in his 
1923 woodcut portfolio, Colijn-iade,
113
 which combines expressionist characteristics 
with geometric tendencies of De Stijl [FIGURE 61]. 
                                                
112
 Alma had been a participant in cubist-influenced circles in prewar Paris, and during the war was 
involved with the artists who would establish De Stijl in 1917. 
 
113
 Colyn-iade was published as a booklet, and individual prints appeared in De Tribune. The title is a 
reference to the right-wing Dutch politician, Hendrikus Colijn (1869-1944), from 1922 the leader of 
the Anti-Revolutionaire Partij [Anti-Revolutionary Party], and from 1925 CEO of Royal Dutch Shell. 
 
 
 60 
 
Like Tschinkel, Alma became directly involved with the Group of Progressive 
Artists after meeting Seiwert during the 1928 Pressa exhibition in Cologne, though he 
would have been aware of the group from at least 1926, when he participated along 
with the German Progressive members in the Western Revolutionary Art Exhibition 
in Moscow,
114
 and possibly even earlier, as an exhibiting member of the Berlin-based 
Novembergruppe, to which several members of the group?s larger circle belonged, 
including Otto Freundlich and Jankel Adler.
115
 
Even before his involvement with the Progressives, however, and his adoption 
of figurative constructivist tendencies, Alma?s work already exhibited certain 
strategies common to the group. In woodcuts like Een huis [A House] [FIGURE 62] 
or De straat [The Street] [FIGURE 63], Alma employed the structure of the 
architectural elevation as a framework for the presentation of social content. This 
form, which allowed both for the compartmentalization of different thematic elements 
and their arrangement according to an overall grid composition, appeared with 
increasingly frequency in Alma?s work by the later 1920s. Three woodcuts from 1928 
[FIGURES 64, 65, 66], for example, Acht uur [Eight Hours], Militaire [Military], 
and De Bankier [The Banker],
116
 use the grid framework of architectural elevations to 
organize variously depicted social actors according to a hierarchical scheme.  
                                                
114
 See Katalog vystavki revoliutsionnogo iskusstva Zapada [Catalog of an Exhibition of Revolutionary 
Western Art] (Moscow, 1926). 
 
115
 Helga Kliemann, Die Novembergruppe (Berlin: Berlinische Galerie, 1969).  
 
116
 These prints appeared in 1930, along with work by Arntz, in the Dutch socialist newspaper, De 
Zaterdagavond [Saturday Evening]. In addition, a detail of Acht uur was reproduced in a bis z 1, no. 1 
(October 1929): 2. 
 
 
 61 
 
Even approaching the period of Alma?s closest involvement with the 
Progressives, however, his work usually exhibited a greater degree of naturalism than 
the other members. Alma?s 1927 woodcut, Werkelozen in wachtzaal [Unemployed in 
the Waiting Room] [FIGURE 67], reproduced in the journal i10, alongside his essay 
of that year, ?Kunst en Samenleving? [Art and Society],
117
 reveals this greater 
tendency towards naturalism. While the figures?in their sparse detail, frontal or 
profile presentation, and near identical appearance?exhibit the typological reduction 
characteristic of the other Progressives? prints and drawings, they lack the imposition 
of strict geometric forms that would lend them the quality of standardization. 
Furthermore, the figures are situated in a perspectival space, diminishing in 
proportion as the space of the room recedes. Again, in contrast to Seiwert?s mass-
image, wherein the setting is merely a distant backdrop?flanking the figures that 
occupy the central space of the image?the setting in Alma?s picture is a space for the 
figures to inhabit. The atmosphere in Alma?s waiting room is?in further contrast to 
Seiwert?s images of working class solidarity?rather melancholy: the figures stand 
with heads sunk below their shoulders or sit slumped in their chairs, looking forlorn 
and demoralized.  
Alma?s woodcut, Acht uur, published the following year as part of the 
International Workers? Relief campaign,
118
 projects less sentiment and exhibits 
stronger figurative constructivist tendencies. The perspectival dimension present in 
the Werkelozen woodcut of the previous year has been eliminated. Figures have been 
                                                
117
 Peter Alma, ?Kunst en Samenleving,? i10 Internationale Revue 1, no. 7 (1927): 241-244. 
 
118
 See Bohnen (1976), 117. 
 
 
 62 
 
reduced further, their blank round faces similar to those populating Arntz?s woodcuts. 
They still possess a certain degree of naturalism in their sense of proportionality, as 
well as a level of naturalism in the description of their anatomy?the articulation of 
the calf muscles in the legs of the two figures on the right, for example. These figures 
reappeared in a different arrangement the following year in Maschinefabriek 
[Machine Factory] [FIGURE 68], a woodcut, which?in its rigid composition and 
pictographic figuration?possesses the clearest articulation of figurative constructivist 
tendencies. 
Nineteen twenty-nine was an especially productive year for Alma with regard 
to graphic work. This year saw the production of two woodcut series [FIGURES 69, 
70], Acht portretten [Eight Portraits] and Het Geld [Money] (elsewhere titled Vier 
Marxistische Leerstellingen [Four Marxist Doctrines]). The Acht portretten series, to 
which two further woodcuts were added in 1931, was published in the following year 
by the Socialistische Kunstenaarskring [Socialist Artists? Circle] as a small, ten-part 
accordion-format booklet, and remains Alma?s best known and most widely 
reproduced work. The series? social-typological theme coincides, in some respects, 
with August Sander?s 1929 publication, Antlitz der Zeit [Face of Our Time], which 
presented a cross-section of German society, organized according to social position. 
Like Sander?s photographic portraits, Alma?s woodcuts present figures that function 
as signs for their respective professions and classes, indicated by uniform, setting, and 
various accoutrements. In contrast to Sander?s broad survey, Alma?s typology is 
limited to figures of power, authority, and wealth: military general, government 
minister, diplomat, banker, priest, lawyer, judge, and jailer. To these original eight 
 
 63 
 
portraits were later added a bishop and a pensioner.
119
 All of the portraits share the 
same format, with its centered, frontal, and iconic presentation of a single 
pictographic figure, flanked by underlings and associated symbols of power, arranged 
in symmetrical rows and configurations. 
 
Concluding Remarks 
The features of figurative constructivism as they appear in works by Arntz, 
Tschinkel, and Alma can be seen, in part, as a synthesis of Hoerle and Seiwert?s 
respective approaches. With regard to their precise execution and geometric approach 
to figuration, these works draw upon Hoerle?s images of mechanized automatons. At 
the level of iconography and pictorial structure they are undoubtedly informed by 
Seiwert?s work?particularly in his efforts to visualize a mass subject. It should be 
understood that these features?the geometrized figuration, the tendency towards 
diagrammatic compositions, and the typological treatment of subject matter?were 
developed to serve a communicative and educational function. This is, indeed, how 
contemporaneous critics discussed these works. Writing about figurative 
constructivist prints and drawings in the introduction to the 1932 publication, soziale 
grafik, the Czech poet Betislav Menc?k described how the clarity and simplicity of 
the style?s formal language was intended to guarantee accessibility to a broad 
audience: ?A graphic expression is sought here, which should immediately reveal the 
class-mediated contexts and contradictions to the masses in a clear, symbolic, and 
generally understandable artistic language. These drawings are as simple as building 
                                                
119
 Like Arntz?s Zw?lf H?user, the logic behind the chosen categories is not entirely clear. 
Conspicuously absent are some of the figures frequently vilified in other works by these artists, such as 
industrialists, police officers, and elected politicians.  
 
 64 
 
blocks and elementary textbooks, so that children, young and old, can at least develop 
the most basic socialist attitude towards society and learn the ABCs of the new face 
of the world.?
120
 More than this, the language of figurative constructivism functioned 
to frame subjects in collective terms, since the images were meant to depict social 
phenomena, rather than isolated, individual experiences. In this way, these artists 
hoped to cultivate a sense of collective identity among their intended working-class 
audience, and, at the same time, provide them with analytical tools with which to 
contemplate their place in the social order. In particular, it was through the 
elimination of sentiment and emotion, which were linked in the minds of the 
Progressives with individual subjectivity, that the formal language of figurative 
constructivism was perceived to serve this collective expression. Thus Seiwert, in the 
short autobiographical sketch in which he coined the term ?figurative 
constructivism,? described his intention ?to present a reality divested of all sentiments 
and particularities, and to make visible within the frame and laws of the picture, the 
functions, the lawfulness, the relationships, and the tensions of this reality.?
121
 In 
taking this analytical (and, one might add, somewhat clinical) approach with regard to 
social content, the Progressives hoped to transcend the sentimentality that 
                                                
120
 ?F?r solche Abschnitte dieser sozialen Wirklichkeit wird hier der grafische Ausdruck gesucht, der 
die klassenm??igen Zusammenh?nge und Gegens?tze unmittelbar aufzeigen soll, in einer klaren, 
zeichenartigen und allen verst?ndlichen Sprache des Malers zur Masse. Es sind Zeichnungen, einfach 
wie Baukasten und Fibel, dass die gro?en und kleinen Menschenkinder wenigstens die einfachste 
sozialistische Einstellung zur Gesellschaft sich aufbauen k?nnen und dass sie das ABC des neuen 
Weltgesichtes erlernen.? Betislav Menc?k, Foreword to soziale grafik (Kladno: Nae cesta, 1932), 1. 
 
121
 ?Ich versuche mit dieser [gegenst?ndlichen konstruktiven] Bildform eine allem Sentimentalen und 
allem Zuf?lligen entkleidete Wirklichkeit darzustellen, ihre Funktionen, ihre Gesetzlichkeit, ihre 
Beziehungen und ihre Spannungen innerhalb des Bildrahmes und seiner Gesetzm??igkeit sichtbar 
werden zu lassen.? Franz Wilhelm Seiwert, Autobiographical sketch in Kunst der Zeit 3, no. 6, 
Sonderheft Rheinland (1929): 171.  
 
 
 65 
 
characterized social realism and other artistic currents affiliated with the political left, 
and to appeal to audiences at an intellectual level.   
 
 66 
 
Chapter 2: Figurative Constructivism and the International 
Avant-garde 
 
Figurative Constructivism as a Movement 
Though the basic features of figurative constructivism originated in Cologne 
around 1920, it was only with the publication in 1929 of a bis z, the Progressives? 
official journal, that the loosely shared character of the style and the international 
dimensions of the movement were self-consciously articulated. The journal?s first 
issue, which appeared in October of that year, featured five woodcuts and linocuts by 
members of the group who worked in a figurative constructivist style, arranged 
mostly in a column along the left side of the issue?s second page [FIGURE 71]. The 
accompanying text states that the five prints were produced over the previous decade 
by ?five different painters in four different countries,?
122
 and the corresponding 
numbered key lists the authors and their affiliated cities as follows: Arntz (Vienna); 
Seiwert (Cologne); Tschinkel (Prague); Alma (Amsterdam); and Hoerle (Cologne). 
Arntz had, in fact, only moved earlier that year from D?sseldorf to live in Vienna on a 
permanent basis, but the editors of the new journal (who, in addition to the author of 
the accompanying text, Walter Stern, also included Seiwert and Hoerle) appear to 
have leapt at the opportunity to link themselves with yet one more international 
center?thereby emphasizing the international breadth of the artistic movement 
represented by these artists.  
                                                
122
 Walter Stern, ?Zu f?nf Schnitten,? a bis z 1, no. 1 (October 1929): 2. The later-established titles, 
dates, and media for the works are as follows: Arntz, Warenhaus [Department Store], 1925, woodcut; 
Seiwert, Arbeiter [Worker], 1924, linocut; Tschinkel, Frau [Woman], 1928, woodcut; Alma, 8 uur [8 
Hours], 1928, linocut; Hoerle, Prothesenkopf [Prosthetic Head], 1923, linocut. 
 
 
 67 
 
Beyond serving to solidify the Progressives as an artists? organization, the first 
issue of a bis z also served to introduce this formal language (shared by a portion of 
the group?s members) as something approaching an international stylistic movement. 
Indeed, the claim that this work represented an international avant-garde tendency, 
unified by a shared formal vocabulary, a shared worldview, and common political 
aims, would be reasserted in the ensuing months and years by both critics and the 
artists themselves. 
One component of this shared worldview, as Stern formulates it in his brief 
accompanying text, held that in the modern era, human beings could only achieve 
their full potential as members of a collective; as an individual the human being was 
merely ?a dummy, a lever, a joint, material.?
123
 The five prints, according to Stern, 
?expressed [the fact] that human beings have lost their individuality; that the private 
individual has been absorbed into the collective through work and social 
organization.?
124
  
The critic Hans Schmitt-Rost (1901-1978), writing in a later issue of a bis z 
(under the pseudonym Hans Faber), echoed Stern?s interpretation, emphasizing both 
the collective character of the style within which these five artists worked, as well as 
that of the figures depicted within their artworks. ?These works,? Schmitt-Rost 
writes, ?present something but not individual traits; rather [they show] the collective, 
                                                
123
 Here is the full quote: ?Der Begriff Mensch wird nur noch sichtbar in der Vervielf?ltigung seiner 
selbst, er wird sch?pferisch im Kollektivbegriff der Masse. Als Individuum ist er Attrappe, Hebel, 
Gelenk, Material.? [The concept of the human being is only still visible in the multiplication of itself; it 
becomes creative in the collective concept of the masses. As an individual it is a dummy, a lever, a 
joint, material.] Stern, ?Zu f?nf Schnitten,? 2.  
 
124
 ?Sie dr?cken aus, dass der Mensch seine Individualit?t verloren hat, dass das private Individuum im 
Kollektiv der Arbeit und der gesellschaftlichen Organisation aufgegangen ist.? Stern, ?Zu f?nf 
Schnitten,? 2. 
 
 
 68 
 
the typical and this is essential.? This collective character, Schmitt-Rost continues, is 
achieved through the employment of ?universal? form?that is to say, form 
?subordinated to the law of perpendiculars, partition, and rigorous pictorial 
calculation.?
125
 Adherence to pictorial ?lawfulness,? according to Schmitt-Rost, 
distinguishes the work of these artists from that of other socially oriented tendencies. 
As examples he compares two paintings?one by Seiwert and one by Otto Dix?both 
depicting brothel scenes. In contrast to Dix?s detailed and illustrative approach, which 
Schmitt-Rost compares to ?a moralizing bourgeois satirist? [einen moralisierenden 
b?rgerlichen Satiriker], Seiwert?s ?bordello street scene is first and foremost a 
painting; that is to say, surfaces and rigorous arrangement.?
126
 In further contrast to 
Dix?s sentimental portrayal, Schmitt-Rost continues, Seiwert ?paints no prostitutes? 
portraits, but rather empty facial surfaces.? In this way, ?no lyricism disturbs the 
clarity of the social power positions? and ?the formal law of the picture? is free to 
reveal ?the formal law of social structure.?
127
 Indeed, it was this ?clear lawfulness? 
that, according to Schmitt-Rost, accounted for these five artists? ?precision of 
composition and form? and their ?correspondence in character.?
128
 
                                                
125
 ?Diese Arbeiten... stellen etwas dar, aber nicht individuelle Z?ge, sondern das Gemeinsame, 
Typische und entscheidend: die Form ist eine universale, eine, die dem Gesetz der Senkrechten, der 
Teilung, der strengen bildm??igen Berechnung unterworfen ist.? Hans Faber (= Schmitt-Rost), ?Inhalt 
und Form,? a bis z 2, no. 20 (December 1931): 77. 
 
126
 ??seine Bordellstrasse ist zuerst Malerei, d.h. Fl?che und strengste Gliederung.? Ibid. 
 
127
 ?Er malt keine Dirnenportr?ts, sondern nur leere Gesichtsfl?chen. Kein Lyrismus st?rt die Klarheit 
der sozialen Machtlagen... Im Formgesetz des Bildes offenbart sich das Formgesetz der 
gesellschaftlichen Struktur...? Ibid. 
 
128
 Thus, Schmitt-Rost concludes, ?Es ist sicherlich kein verabredeter Manierismus, sondern klare 
Gesetzlichkeit, dass sich die Bilder von K?nstlern wie: Arntz aus Wien, Tschinkel aus Prag, Alma aus 
Amsterdam und Hoerle und Seiwert aus K?ln in der Strenge von Aufbau und Form ?u?erlich ?hnlich 
sind und ihrem Wesen nach durchaus entsprechen.? [It is surely no prearranged mannerism, but rather 
clear lawfulness, that the pictures of artists like Arntz from Vienna, Tschinkel from Prague, Alma from 
 
 69 
 
Aside from pointing to the formal and conceptual affinities between these 
members of the Group of Progressive Artists, neither Stern nor Schmitt-Rost offered 
any stylistic label or terminology under which to classify these artworks. Seiwert, in 
his short autobiographical sketch of 1929,
129
 had described his work in terms of a 
?figurative constructive [gegenst?ndlichen konstruktiven] pictorial form,? though the 
term appears to have been adopted by others only retroactively, in postwar 
scholarship.
130
 The term ?sociological graphics,? employed on occasion by Alma and 
Tschinkel, among others, appears to have been used in a somewhat different context 
than ?figurative constructivism?: while the latter included painterly practice, the 
former was generally used to designate prints and drawings.
131
 Nonetheless, Alma?s 
definition of ?sociological graphics? shares a great deal with Seiwert?s description of 
?figurative constructivism.? ?Sociological graphics,? Alma explains, are 
characterized by ?an objective, investigative, and orderly approach in relation to the 
                                                                                                                                      
Amsterdam, and Hoerle and Seiwert from Cologne, are outwardly similar in the precision of their 
composition and form, and correspond throughout in their character.] Faber, 78.  
 
129
 Franz Wilhelm Seiwert, Biographical sketch in Kunst der Zeit 3, no. 6, Sonderheft Rheinland 
(1929): 171. 
 
130
 See, for example: Ulrich Fernkorn, ?Der gegenst?ndliche Konstruktivismus der Progressiven am 
Beispiel von Seiwerts Arbeitsm?nnern,? in Konstruktivistische internationale Arbeitsgemeinschaft 
1922-1927 ? Utopien f?r eine europ?ische Kultur (Stuttgart: G. Hatje, 1992), 207-210; and Ingeborg 
G?ssow, ?Die Malerei des Gegest?ndlichen Konstruktivismus,? in Kunst und Technik in den 20er 
Jahren: Neue Sachlichkeit und Gegenst?ndlicher Konstruktivismus (Munich: St?dtische Galerie im 
Lenbachhaus, 1980), 74-93. 
 
131
 The term appears to have been introduced by Otto Neurath in 1930 in an article in Die Form, the 
journal of the Deutscher Werkbund [German Work Federation], which featured a reproduction of 
Arntz?s woodcut Bank, from his Zw?lf H?user series. See ?Das Sachbild. 1: Bildhafte P?dagogik,? Die 
Form 5, no. 2 (1930): 34. Alma and Tschinkel quickly followed suit, employing the term in several 
articles published that same year. See, for example, Alma, ?Beeldstatistiek en sociologische grafiek,? 
Wendingen 11, no. 9 (1930): 3-7; and Tschinkel, ?Zobrazen? mnostv? a kolektivn? tvary: k vb	ru ze 
sb?rky sociologick? grafiky sociologick?ho a hospod?
sk?ho musea ve V?dni? [Quantitative Pictures 
and Collective Form: A Selection of Sociological Graphics from the Sociological and Economic 
Museum in Vienna], vtvarn? snahy 11, no. 8 (1930): 136-137. 
 
 
 70 
 
object? [een objectieve, onderzoekende en ordenende instelling ten opzichte van het 
object], wherein ?objectivity,? means the ?simplification and elimination of that 
which is extraneous and contingent, in order to clarify that which is essential.?
132
 
Alma?s description echoes that of Seiwert, who aimed through his ?figurative 
constructive pictorial form to present a reality divested of all sentiments and 
particularities.? Thus, the shared iconographic and stylistic characteristics designated 
by the labels ?figurative constructivism? and ?sociological graphics? emerged as a 
solution to the problem of how to ?objectively? represent social conditions in pictorial 
form; that is to say, how to depict concepts (such as social stratification or economic 
exploitation) in a way that represented these phenomena as collective, rather than as 
disconnected, isolated, and individual experiences. 
 
Avant-garde Publications 
In introducing the features of this shared formal language and in gaining 
exposure for this work among an international avant-garde audience, a bis z was 
arguably the most important publication for the figurative constructivist wing of the 
Group of Progressive Artists. Along with work by Arntz, Alma, Tschinkel, Seiwert, 
and Hoerle, a bis z featured graphics by artists whose work also exhibited figurative 
constructivist tendencies, such as Hans Schmitz, Vladimir Krinski (1890-1971), 
Helios G?mez (1905-1956), and Walter Heinz Allner (1909-2006). Yet this work 
                                                
132
 ??Zakelijk? moet zijn uitbeelding zijn... door vereenvoudiging, weglaten van bijkomstigheden en 
toevalligheden, om het essentieele duidelijk tot zijn recht te doen komen.? [?Objectivity? should be 
represented? through simplification and elimination of that which is extraneous and contingent, in 
order to clarify that which is essential.] Alma, ?Beeldstatistiek en sociologische grafiek,? 6. 
 
 
 71 
 
only comprised a fraction of the journal?s total content, which was actually much 
broader in scope than the rather narrow stylistic category of figurative constructivism. 
Furthermore, a bis z featured articles on subjects as wide-ranging as film, 
photography, sculpture, architecture, typography, exhibition design, medieval art, and 
folk art; it treated movements as varied as Expressionism, Futurism, Cubism, 
Suprematism, Constructivism, Purism, and the Neue Sachlichkeit; and included artists 
as diverse as Kazimir Malevich (1879-1935), Gino Severini (1883-1966), Constantin 
Br?ncui (1876-1957), Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920), and Theo van Doesburg 
(1883-1931). In addition to texts by such Cologne-based members of the 
Progressives? inner circle as Seiwert, Walter Stern, Hans Schmitt-Rost, and Carl 
Oskar Jatho (1884-1971), frequent contributions came from Raoul Hausmann and 
Otto Freundlich, as well as occasional contributions from Arntz, Tschinkel, Stanislaw 
Kubicki (1889-1943), Ernst Kallai (1890-1954), Jan Tschichold (1902-1974), Laszlo 
Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946), and Josef Albers (1888-1972), to name but a few.
133
 
Finally, the journal featured excerpts from the writings of such political thinkers and 
activists as Rosa Luxemburg, Erich M?hsam, and Franz Mehring, among others.  
Despite the thematic breadth of the journal, however, and the stylistic 
diversity of its contributors, a bis z remains one of the most valuable resources with 
regard to the figurative constructivist branch of the Progressives. During its three-
and-a-half-year run, the journal reproduced more than sixty works by the members of 
the group who worked in this manner?with Seiwert, Hoerle, and Arntz represented 
                                                
133
 By far the greatest number of contributions came from Seiwert, who published a total of 27 articles 
and 20 artwork reproductions over the course of the journal?s three-year and a half run.  
 
 
 72 
 
in greatest proportion.
134
 These reproductions were fairly evenly dispersed throughout 
the thirty issues of the journal; however, there are particular issues that focus on 
figurative constructivist works with greater emphasis. In addition to the 
aforementioned first issue, which introduced figurative constructivism as a shared 
international tendency, the twelfth issue of a bis z, from November of 1930, is 
especially significant [FIGURES 72, 73]. This issue was introduced with an essay by 
Augustin Tschinkel, titled ?Tendenz und Form? [Tendency and Form], which 
promoted ?progressive social art??that is, figurative constructivist artworks?as an 
alternative to the current left-tendentious [linkstendenzi?se] art, and featured eight 
graphic works by seven of the artists who represented this alternative tendency: 
Arntz, Alma, Tschinkel, Seiwert, Hoerle, Krinksi, and Schmitz. 
It is worth taking note, as well, of the announcements and advertisements on 
the last page of the issue [FIGURE 74], which are quite typical for the journal and 
provide a sense of the extent to which the Progressives?in part, through the journal 
itself?were engaged with the wider world of modernist visual culture, both within 
Cologne and internationally. Beneath Seiwert?s drawing, an announcement for the 
upcoming ?Socialist Art of Today? exhibition in Amsterdam listed those members 
who would be participating, as well as an announcement in the adjacent column for 
                                                
134
 Of the selected works by Hoerle, however, it must be said that the majority reflect his move away 
from a figurative constructive approach in the later 1920s; they share more stylistically with the Purist 
paintings of Jeanneret and Ozenfant (both of whose work was reproduced in a bis z). That Hoerle had 
turned almost exclusively to oil painting by the mid-1920s is also reflected in the journal?s selection of 
reproduced work, of which oil paintings produced around the years of the publication comprise the 
majority; only a fraction of Hoerle?s selected works are graphics, and these works come, for the most 
part, from the early 1920s. Seiwert had also turned in increasingly to painting by the later 1920s, 
although the works chosen for reproduction in a bis z do not entirely reflect this development. More 
than half of the works by Seiwert that appears in the journal are prints and drawings, the majority of 
them produced between 1922 and 1924. 
 
 
 73 
 
the third Paris exhibition of the ?Surind?pendants,? in which Seiwert and Hoerle were 
included. Lower on the page were advertisements for August Sander?s photography 
studio in Cologne-Lindenthal, as well as an announcement for the upcoming 
publication of the twelfth installment of the Bauhausb?cher on the subject of 
Gropius? Dessau buildings, and even a birthday announcement for the Austrian 
architect, Adolf Loos.  
Moreover, the design of the journal itself reveals the group?s engagement with 
the international avant-garde?in particular, with the ideas of the ?new typography? 
movement. This movement, like other contemporaneous developments in modern 
design and architecture, embraced mechanical reproduction and standardization, and 
was guided by the demand that function (rather than aesthetic considerations) dictate 
form. Jan Tschichold, an occasional contributor to a bis z, had earlier emerged as one 
the of the movement?s most important spokesmen with the 1928 publication of his 
book, Die neue Typographie. Among his numerous prescriptions, Tschichold 
advocated the use of sans-serif type as ?the only one in spiritual accordance with our 
time.?
135
 A bis z embodied many of the principles of the new typography espoused by 
Tschichold in his book: the exclusive use of lowercase; justified text columns; 
dynamic, asymmetrically balanced arrangements of text and image; the division of 
sections with horizontal bars; and the frequent inclusion of photographic 
                                                
135
 See Jan Tschichold, The New Typography: A Handbook for Modern Designers, trans. Ruari 
McLean (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995), 73. See also Christopher Burke, Active 
Literature: Jan Tschichold and New Typography (London: Hyphen Press, 2007), 119. Seiwert?s 
typographic work was, in fact, reproduced in Jan Tschichold?s 1928 publication. He also participated 
with Tschichold in the seminal 1932 ?Modern Typography? exhibition in ?d and Warsaw. This 
exhibition, hosted by the ?d-based avant-garde group, ?a.r.,? was advertised in a bis z 3, no. 25 (July 
1932): 100. Other participants included Henryk Berlewi (1894-1967), Walter Dexel (1890-1973), Theo 
Van Doesburg (1883-1931), Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, and Kurt Schwitters (1887-1948). 
 
 
 74 
 
reproductions of artworks.
136
 Many of these features became even more pronounced 
with the second volume beginning in October 1930 and with the adoption of the 
Futura typeface for captions, subheadings, page numbers, and the footer, which listed 
in an orderly arrangement the title, volume number, issue number, page numbers, 
location, and date.
137
 Typography itself was, furthermore, the subject of several texts 
in the journal?among them a short piece by Franz Roh advocating a universal 
typeface, and a longer text by Tschichold illustrating just such a project [FIGURE 
75].
138
  
While a bis z, as the Progressives? official ?organ,? provided the most 
numerous examples of figurative constructivist artworks over the course of its three-
and-a-half year run, several Czech publications also played important roles in the 
movement?s propagation. The arts journal vtvarn? snahy [Artistic Endeavors],
139
 for 
example, was significant in this regard. The journal?s eleventh volume (1929-1930) 
featured a short, but richly illustrated essay by Tschinkel [FIGURE 76], addressing 
the relationship between figurative constructivist artworks and pictorial statistic 
                                                
136
 In addition to the photographic reproduction of paintings, for which August Sander was 
instrumental, photographic reproductions of both sculpture and film sequences figured prominently in 
the journal. 
 
137
 The Futura typeface was designed between 1925 and 1927 by the Munich based typographer, Paul 
Renner (1878-1956), an associate of Tschichold?s at the Meisterschule f?r Deutschlands Buchdrucker. 
Shortly before its appearance in a bis z, Futura was adopted as the official typeface of the 
Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum in Vienna. See Christopher Burke, Paul Renner: The Art of 
Typography (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1998), 86-91. For further discussion of the 
influence of the ?new typography? movement on pictorial statistic design, as well as Tschichold?s 
connection to the work in Vienna, see Chapter 4, pages 134-135. 
 
138
 Jan Tschichold, ?Noch eine neue Schrift,? a bis z 2, no. 11 (October 1930): 42; Franz Roh, ?Vier 
Alphabeten,? a bis z 2, no. 11 (October 1930): 43. 
 
139
 vtvarn? snahy: Umleck ms?n?k vnovan vtvarn? pr?ci a vtvarn? vchov [Artistic 
Endeavors: Monthly Art Journal for Decorative Arts and Artistic Education] (Volumes 7?11 by 
Prometheus Publishers in Prague, 1926-1930). 
 
 
 75 
 
charts, and exploring the concept of ?collective form.?
140
 In Tschinkel?s view, this 
concept provided both a point of overlap between the two projects, and connected 
them with larger developments in modernist design.
141
 Typeface design, in particular, 
provided a model for thinking about the relationship between ?collective form? and 
standardization: ?The letter ?d? is all the more the letter ?d,?? Tschinkel explained in 
his text, ?the closer it comes to its standard form, and it is all the less a ?d? when it is 
individually adorned.?
142
 Tschinkel?s typographic analogy should come as no 
surprise: his long-time colleague and collaborator, Ladislav Sutnar (1897-1976)?one 
of the main proponents of the new typography movement in Czechoslovakia?was 
also an editor and designer of vtvarn? snahy. The influence of Tschichold?s book, 
with its emphasis on standardization and functionality, can be seen all through the 
journal?s design [FIGURE 77]. In fact, vtvarn? snahy was the first to carry Czech 
translations of excerpts from Die neue Typografie in 1929, the year after its 
publication.
143
 There also appears to have been a close relationship between vtvarn? 
snahy and a bis z (though the former was a much more extensive and longer-running 
publication). Substantial sections of the twelfth and thirteenth issues of a bis z, for 
                                                
140
 Tschinkel, ?Zobrazen? mnostv? a kolektivn? tvary,? vtvarn? snahy 11, no. 8 (1930): 136-137. The 
essay, as stated in its subtitle, was illustrated by with ?a selection of sociological graphics from the 
collection of the Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum in Vienna.? 
 
141
 For more on Tschinkel?s discussion of ?collective form? and the relationship between figurative 
constructivism and pictorial statistics, see Chapter 4. 
 
142
 ?Der Buchstabe d ist um so mehr der Buchstabe d, je mehr er sich seiner Standardform n?hert, und 
er ist es um so weniger, als er individuelle verziert wird.? Tschinkel, ?Das Mengenbild und die 
Kollektivformen: Zur Auswahl aus der Sammlung soziologischer Graphik des Gesellschafts- und 
Wirtschaftsmuseums in Wien,? German translation of the original Czech text, ?Zobrazen? mnostv? a 
kolektivn? tvary,? vtvarn? snahy 11, no. 8 (1930): 136-137; typed manuscript in the Historisches 
Archiv der Stadt K?ln. 
 
143
 See Iva Jan?kov? et al., Ladislav Sutnar ? Praha ? New York ? Design in Action (Prague: Argo, 
2003). 
 
 
 76 
 
example, were largely appropriated from issues of vtvarn? snahy containing articles 
by Tschinkel.
144
  
With regard to design, however, the Kladno-based Czech student journal nae 
cesta [Our Path] appears to have had an even stronger visual connection with a bis z 
[FIGURE 78]. Tschinkel was in charge of typographic design and layout for several 
of issues of the publication, and the lowercase sans serif typeface used for the 
nameplate and headings is identical with that used for the nameplate of a bis z.
145
 In 
addition to layout design and artwork reproductions, Tschinkel contributed texts to 
nae cesta, including an essay in 1931 titled ?Umni stolet? stroje? [Art in the 
Machine Age],
146
 wherein he attempted to situate figurative constructivism in relation 
to both competing trends in contemporary art as well as in relation to historical 
precedents. Tschinkel provides a rather reductive scheme in which artistic production 
of the time can be divided into two general camps: those whose work is socially and 
politically committed, and those whose work would suggest that ?nothing new would 
need to be done or happen in society.?
147
 Tschinkel derisively characterizes this latter 
group as painters of ?tropical fruits, nudes, castles, and mandolins,? and would appear 
                                                
144
 Tschinkel?s essay in the thirteenth issue of a bis z, ?Statistik und Kollektivform,? appears to be an 
abbreviated version of the essay that appeared earlier in vtvarn? snahy, ?Zobrazen? mnostv? a 
kolektivn? tvary.? Additionally, the illustrations for these issues of a bis z were provided by vtvarn? 
snahy, as indicated by the former publication?s acknowledgments. 
 
145
 The typeface is the late nineteenth-century Extended Sans Serif, also called Kompakte Grotesk, 
from the Haas Type Foundry, M?nchenstein, Germany. See Jan Tschichold, Treasury of Alphabets and 
Lettering (New York: Rheinhold Publishing Corporation, 1966), 203. 
 
146
 Augustin Tschinkel, ?Umni stolet? stroje? [Art in the Machine Age], nae cesta 2, no. 8 (1931): 
99-100. 
 
147
 ?...als ob in der Gesellschaft nichts gesch?he oder als ob nichts Neues getan werden m?sste.? 
Augustin Tschinkel, ?Die Kunst des Maschinezeitalters,? German translation from the original Czech, 
?Umni stolet? stroje,? nae cesta 2, no. 8 (1931): 99-100; typed manuscript in the Historisches Archiv 
der Stadt K?ln. 
 
 
 77 
 
to include painters associated with the Paris school, surrealism, and the Neue 
Sachlichkeit within this category, whose lack of social tendentiousness 
[Tendenzlosigkeit], he claims, is most agreeable to the bourgeois consumer.
148
 The 
former, socially committed camp, Tschinkel explains, can be further divided into 
three trends: an abstract tendency (under which Tschinkel groups both Constructivism 
and Suprematism), a naturalistic tendency (which includes both social realism and 
?Verism?), and, finally, a third way, for which he offers no specific terminology for 
classification but points to the reproduced artworks by Alma, Arntz, Hoerle, Krinski, 
Seiwert, and himself.  
Tschinkel praises the first tendency, Constructivism, for its lack of 
individualism and its embodiment of ?positive elements,? but laments its essentially 
?bourgeois? status and its dependence upon art dealers. He derides the second, 
?naturalistic tendency,? as ?formally bourgeois, sentimental, picturesque ?poor people 
art,?? asserting that is must be sternly rejected with regard to both form and content. 
In addition to such artists as K?the Kollwitz (1867-1945), Hans Baluschek (1870-
1935), and Heinrich Zille (1858-1929), he includes in this category ?the so-called 
Verists, who try to tie in with old German painting.? Here Tschinkel names Otto Dix, 
Otto Nagel (1894-1967), Georg Scholz (1890-1945), and the later George Grosz?
?though not the Grosz,? Tschinkel notes, ?who once allowed himself photographed 
with a placard reading ?Art is Dead. Long live the new machine art of Tatlin!?
149
 By 
                                                
148
 Tschinkel, ?Die Kunst des Maschinezeitalters.? 
 
149
 ?Am andern Ufer stehen bekanntlich drei Hauptrichtungen: der Konstruktivismus, die am wenigsten 
individualistische, aber ohne bestimmte, k?mpferische Tendenz.  Doch enthalten seine Abstraktionen 
positive Elemente...  Zweitens die naturalistische Richtung, die formal teilweise zur b?rgerlich-
sentimentalen, malerischen ?Armeleutekunst? geh?rte (Kollwitz, Steinle, Baluschek, Zille) und die wir, 
formal wie inhaltlich beurteilt, strikt ablehnen m?ssen. Zu dieser Richtung geh?ren auch die sogen. 
 
 78 
 
contrast, Tschinkel says of his figurative constructivist colleagues, ?they do not 
search for a language among their great-grandfathers,? but rather adopt elements of 
constructivist art ?and try to proceed where art can no longer advance through its 
dependency upon art dealers.? Interestingly, Tschinkel situates this work within a 
lineage that descends from Seurat through the Futurists, to L?ger, Herbin, Jeanneret, 
and Baumeister, ?whose great achievement,? Tschinkel informs us, ?was to show that 
the machine forms and standard forms correspond to the times.?
150
 
Tschinkel?s emphasis on collective nature of standardized, geometric forms 
(along with his typographic analogy) was reiterated in 1932 by the poet Menc?k,
151
 in 
his introduction to the German-language booklet, soziale grafik [FIGURE 79].
152
 
With the subtitle, ?a picture book with an international selection,? soziale grafik 
assembled together nineteen graphic works by six artists affiliated with the 
Progressives, including Alma, Arntz, Hoerle, Seiwert, and Tschinkel. ?A graphic 
expression is here sought after,? wrote Menc?k, ?which should immediately reveal 
                                                                                                                                      
Veristen, die an die altdeutsche Malerei anzukn?pfen versuchen. Wir nennen hier Otto Dix, Nagel, 
Scholz und den sp?teren Grosz (nicht den Grosz, der sich einmal mit einem Plakat fotografieren lie?, 
auf dem zu lesen war: ?Die Kunst ist tot. Es lebe die neue Maschinenkunst Tatlins!?)? Tschinkel, ?Die 
Kunst des Maschinezeitalters.? 
 
150
 ?Sie suchen ihre Sprache nicht bei den Urgro?v?tern, aber sie kn?pfen an der konstruktivistischen 
b?rgerlichen Kunst an und versuchen, dort fortzusetzen, wo die Kunst durch ihre Abh?ngigkeit vom 
Kunsthandel nicht weiterkommen kann. Diese Linie deutet sich schon bald bei Seurat oder z.B. bei den 
Futuristen an und f?hrt zu L?ger, Herbin, Jeanneret und zu Baumeister, deren gro?e Tat es war zu 
zeigen, dass die Maschinen- und Standardformen die zeitgem??en sind.? [They search for their 
language not among their great grandfathers; rather they connect their work with constructivist 
bourgeois art and try to proceed where art can no longer advance through its dependency upon art 
dealers. This line was already indicated with Seurat, for example, or with the Futurists, and leads to 
L?ger, Herbin, Jeanneret and Baumeister, whose great achievement was to shown that machine and 
standard forms correspond to the times.] Ibid. 
 
151
 Tschinkel had three years earlier provided illustrations and the cover design for a book of poems by 
Menc?k, titled Romance poestn?ho clowna: sb?rka milostn? lyriky z let 1925-1929 [Romance of an 
Honorable Clown: A Collection of Love Poems, 1925-1929] (Hradec Kr?lov?: William Hampl, 1929). 
 
152
 soziale grafik: ein bilderbuch mit internationaler auswahl (Kladno: Nae cesta, 1932).  
 
 
 79 
 
the class-mediated contexts and contradictions to the masses in a clear, symbolic, and 
generally understandable artistic language. These drawings are as simple as building 
blocks and elementary textbooks, so that children, young and old, can at least develop 
the most basic socialist attitude towards society and learn the ABCs of the new face 
of the world.?
153
 As Tschinkel had done earlier, Menc?k contrasted sociological 
graphics with social realism by means of a typographic analogy: ?These forms are as 
far removed from the material forms of bourgeois realism and its ?poor-people-art,? as 
contemporary typography is from ornate parchment manuscripts: their content and 
thematic starting point is the more relevant reality of mechanization, rationalization, 
collectivization, and the overcoming of individualism.?
154
 
While soziale grafik was issued by the Kladno-based publisher Nae cesta, it 
was printed in German, and exhibits numerous formal similarities with the Cologne-
based journal, a bis z. The back cover of soziale grafik even contained an 
advertisement for a bis z, as well as contact information for the journal?s 
administration, and a note regarding the availability of original graphics [FIGURE 
80]. In particular, the booklet shares with a bis z the influence of Tschichold?s ideas: 
the exclusive use of lowercase; a similar sans serif typeface; and a functional design 
                                                
153
 ?F?r solche Abschnitte dieser sozialen Wirklichkeit wird hier der grafische Ausdruck gesucht, der 
die klassenm??igen Zusammenh?nge und Gegens?tze unmittelbar aufzeigen soll, in einer klaren, 
zeichenartigen und allen verst?ndlichen Sprache des Malers zur Masse. Es sind Zeichnungen, einfach 
wie Baukasten und Fibel, dass die gro?en und kleinen Menschenkinder wenigstens die einfachste 
sozialistische Einstellung zur Gesellschaft sich aufbauen k?nnen und dass sie das ABC des neuen 
Weltgesichtes erlernen.? Betislav Menc?k, Foreword to soziale grafik (Kladno: Nae cesta, 1932), 1. 
 
154
 ?Diese Formen sind vom Formenmaterial des b?rgerlichen Realismus und seiner Armeleutekunst 
ebenso entfernt, wie die heutige Typografie von verschn?rkelten Pergamenthandschriften: ihr Inhalt 
und thematischer Ausgangspunkt ist die wichtigere Realit?t der Mechanisierung, Rationalisierung, der 
Kollektivisierung, der ?berwindung des Individualismus.? Ibid. Menc?k?s foreword appears to derive 
largely from ideas articulated by Tschinkel in his essays of the previous two years. ?Poor-people-art? 
was, in fact, a term that Tschinkel had previously employed to deride social realism in his article, 
?Umni stolet? stroje,? nae cesta 2, no. 8 (1931): 99-100. 
 
 
 80 
 
in which the use of boldface text, changes in font size, and page layout were intended 
to facilitate reading and create an overall sense of order. The booklet also makes a 
point on its last page to indicate that it conforms to the DIN A6 format, the paper size 
standards that had been implemented ten years earlier in Germany, and to which 
Tschichold had devoted an extensive section in his book.
155
 Soziale grafik further 
follows the example of Tschichold?s book, in listing the names and addresses of the 
publication?s contributors [FIGURE 81].
156
 
Perhaps more than in any other place, figurative constructivist graphics appear 
to have proliferated within Czech publications during the early 1930s. In addition to 
vtvarn? snahy and publications by Nae cesta, works by the Group of Progressive 
Artists were reproduced in such periodicals as the Prague-based youth magazine 
Slunce [Sun], the Prague-based satirical journal Tramp, and the dual-language arts 
journal, Forum (published in Bratislava). Finally, figurative constructivism had a 
deep influence on the Czech artists? group Linie, whose journal of the same name, 
published in esk? Bud	jovice, also included work by the Progressives.
157
 Tschinkel 
                                                
155
 See Jan Tschichold, The New Typography: A Handbook for Modern Designers, translated by Ruari 
McLean (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995), 96-106. The DIN (Deutsche Industrie-
Normen) standards were set by the Deutscher Normenausschuss der Industrie, an organization 
established in 1917 with the goal of improving standardized production in industry. As Robin Kinross 
explains in his introduction to the English-language edition: ?Norms and standards play a fundamental 
part in the argument of Die neue Typographie? [Standardization] was a means for bringing order to 
industrialized societies? Producers, users, and intermediaries would be able to act more freely once 
these basic factors had been determined. [?] Standards seemed to embody a collective wisdom, as 
against the willful arbitrariness of individual expression.? Kinross, ?Introduction to the English-
Language Edition,? in Tschichold, The New Typography, xxvii. 
 
156
 Kinross has interpreted this aspect of Tschichold?s book, as part of the author?s efforts in 
establishing a new movement, for which there had previously been little public awareness. The 
inclusion of contributors? addresses, Kinross remarks, ?seems to say: here are the protagonists, you 
have seen their work reproduced in these pages, now write to them!? Kinross, ?Introduction,? The New 
Typography, xxv. 
 
157
 On the Linie group see Jaroslav And	l, The Avant-garde across Media: Josef Bartuka and Linie 
Group 1931-1939 (Prague: Obecn? d
m, 2004). 
 
 81 
 
later exhibited with these artists, and a portfolio of linocuts by two members of the 
group, Josef Bartuka (1898-1963) and Old	ich Nouza (1903-1974), published in 
1934, exhibits many of the features specific to sociological graphics.
158
  
While a bis z did the most over an extended period to establish figurative 
constructivism as an international tendency and link it with other international 
currents, the Dutch arts journal Wendingen [Upheavels] was the first publication to 
name and devote an entire issue exclusively to this tendency.
159
 Wendingen was an 
Amsterdam-based arts journal published from 1918 to 1932,
160
 of which each issue 
was dedicated to a different and specific cultural subject.
161
 The September 1930 
issue, which was devoted to the theme of ?pictorial statistics and sociological 
graphics,? remains valuable as an introduction to both subjects, and, furthermore, as 
one of the only primary sources to bring these two areas of production together in 
such an elaborate manner within a single publication. The issue followed the same 
                                                                                                                                      
 
158
 See Josef Bartuka and Old	ich Nouza, Grafika (esk? Budjovice, St. Kocmoud, Edice Linie, vol. 
6, 1934). 
 
159
 See Wendingen 11, no. 9 (1930). 
 
160
 The journal was the creation of the Amsterdam architect Hendricus Theodorus Wijdeveld (1885-
1987), who served as its chief editor and designer until his resignation in 1925. Published by the long 
established Amsterdam art society, Architectura et Amicitia, the journal was largely associated with 
the architects of the Amsterdam School, and at times served as a platform for their promotion of 
?decoration through material in building or in design.? See Pieter Brattinga, Influences on Dutch 
Graphic Design 1900-1945 (Otterloo: AGI, 1986), 6. 
 
161
 In contrast to a journal like De Stijl, whose period of publication roughly coincides with the lifespan 
of Wendingen, the latter journal did not present a unified front. It was not dogmatic or prescriptive, but 
sought to show the variety of contemporary artistic innovation. The journal has sometimes been 
classified under the stylistic categories ?Nieuwe Kunst? and ?Amsterdam Expressionism,? though its 
coverage was wider in scope than such labels and affiliations suggest. See Alston W. Purvis, ?One 
Man?s Vision,? in Wendingen: A Journal for the Arts, 1918-1932 (New York: Princeton Architectural 
Press, 2001), 20: ?[Wendingen] differed from other avant-garde publications such as De Stijl or H.N. 
Werkman?s The Next Call in that it was a vehicle for the message rather than message itself. Yet, 
through the introduction of architectural order and through the applying the objectives of the 
Amsterdam School to typography, Wendingen provided a valuable bridge between nineteenth-century 
disorder and modern design.? 
 
 
 82 
 
format as nearly all the issues of the journal?s thirteen-year run: exclusive treatment 
of a selected theme; a cover designed specifically for the issue by a selected artist; a 
short essay introducing the issue?s subject; and a rich assortment of illustrations. In 
this case, the cover design [FIGURE 82], the introductory essay, and the largest 
number of artworks all come from Peter Alma. 
Alma?s essay, appropriately titled ?Beeldstatistiek en sociologische grafiek? 
[Pictorial Statistics and Sociological Graphics], offered readers an introduction to 
these then relatively unknown subjects. The essay was divided into two sections, 
which, predictably, dealt with the two areas of production, respectively. The 
reproductions were largely arranged according to this same scheme. Including Alma?s 
cover design, the issue contained thirty-six reproductions, making this one of the most 
richly illustrated publications related to the combined theme of pictorial statistics and 
figurative constructivist prints and drawings?and, together with soziale grafik, one 
of the most extensive single documents related to the latter category. 
The first section of Alma?s essay, which appeared under the subheading 
?Beeldstatistiek,? attempted to provide an introduction and overview of pictorial 
statistics by way of definition and description. This section (which will be dealt with 
in greater detail in Chapter 4) corresponds to the issue?s twelve reproductions taken 
from the recently completed pictorial statistic atlas [FIGURE 83], Gesellschaft und 
Wirtschaft, on which Arntz, Alma, and Tschinkel collaborated. This section was also 
illustrated by two photographs of the installation of the Soviet pavilion at the 1928 
 
 83 
 
Cologne ?Pressa? exhibition, which for Alma, provided a model for the successful 
employment of avant-garde aesthetics in social education [FIGURE 84].
162
  
The second section of Alma?s essay, titled ?Sociologische grafiek??to which 
the rest of the reproductions correspond?discusses the ?free? work of artists both 
involved in the design of pictorial statistics, as well as those affiliated with the larger 
circle of the Group of Progressive Artists (though Alma does not mention this 
affiliation by name). Alma describes a new ?sociological graphic? art emerging ?both 
at home and abroad,? whose practitioners?in addition to the author?include Arntz, 
G?mez, Krinski, Seiwert, and Tschinkel. ?Sociological graphics,? Alma explains, 
?have the task of clarifying and explaining social conditions.?
163
 In contrast to artists 
of the past half-century, however, whose works have also addressed social themes, 
the tendency represented by ?sociological graphics? is not, according to Alma, ?based 
on subjective motives.? Rather, ?the personality of the artist is of secondary 
                                                
162
 In retrospect, the ?Pressa? exhibition appears to have been an event of great consequence for both 
the Group of Progressive Artists, as well as for Otto Neurath. Both Peter Alma and Augustin Tschinkel 
became personally acquainted with Seiwert and entered the orbit of the Progressives circle through 
their involvement in the exhibition. Tschinkel, coincidentally, collaborated with Ladislav Sutnar on the 
design of a statistics display for the exhibition?s Czechoslovak pavilion, more than a year before 
beginning his work in statistical pictogram design in Vienna. Otto Neurath and El Lissitzky also met 
one another through their mutual participation in the exhibition, the latter having overseen the design 
of the Soviet pavilion. Sophie Lissiztky-K?ppers, in her book on Lissitzky, maintains that this 
association later led to Neurath?s collaboration with Moscow-based Izostat Institute. See Sophie 
Lissitzky-K?ppers, El Lissitzky: Life, Letters, Texts (Greenwich, Connecticut: New York Graphic 
Society, Ltd. 1968), 84-86. Further information on the Izostat Institute is included in this dissertation?s 
concluding chapter. For more on the general significance of the ?Pressa? exhibition, see Jeremy 
Anysley, ?Pressa Cologne, 1928: Exhibitions and Publication Design in the Weimar Period,? Design 
Issues 10, no. 3 (Autumn, 1994): 52-76. 
 
163
 ?De sociologische grafiek heeft tot taak, omtrent sociale toestanden voor te lichten en te 
preciseeren.? Alma, ?Beeldstatistiek en sociologische grafiek,? Wendingen 11, no. 9 (1930): 7. 
 
 
 84 
 
importance? within these works, ?and should not merely serve as a motive for artistic 
expression.?
164
 
As was typical of all Wendingen issues, the story was largely told through the 
illustrations themselves. In addition to a selection of pictorial statistic charts, the issue 
contained more than twenty reproductions of prints and drawings. This survey of 
figurative constructivist graphics provided by the selected works reveals great 
stylistic diversity within the movement, demonstrating that the search for universal 
and collective forms did not, in fact, preclude individual differences in artistic 
temperament?despite the rhetoric of anti-individualism that prevailed in much of the 
artists? writings. Seiwert?s image of a monolithic mass of near identical figures, with 
its rough execution and static composition, provides a stark contrast to G?mez?s 
woodcuts (reproduced in the opposite column on the same page), characterized by 
precise draftsmanship and dynamic formal arrangements [FIGURE 85].
165
 At the 
same time, certain shared features become evident here as well, such as the use of 
cross-sections and compartmentalized compositions as a device to facilitate 
comparisons and sequential narratives. This approach, for example, is employed in 
both Alma?s Geld woodcut series, as well as in Vladimir Krinski?s drawings 
[FIGURE 84]. In the work by the latter artist, here titled Het Russische dorp in den 
                                                
164
 ?Het spreekt vanzelf, dat de persoonlijkheid van den maker op het tweede plan dient te staan en dat 
het te behandelen onderwerp niet slechts als motief voor een kunstuiting dient.? Alma, ?Beeldstatistiek 
en sociologische grafiek,? 7. 
 
165
 The woodcuts come from G?mez?s 1930 publication Dias de ira: 23 dibujos y poemas del terror 
blanco espa?ol (Berlin: Internationale Arbeiter-Assoziation, 1930). For more on G?mez see the 
following two publications by Ursula Tjaden: Das grafische Werk von Helios G?mez: eine 
Untersuchung zur politisch-engagierten Kunst Spaniens in den 20er/30er Jahren, Beitr?ge zur 
Kunstwissenschaft 48 (Munich: Scaneg, 1993); and Die H?lle zerfetzen: Helios G?mez 1905-1956, 
Andalusier, K?nstler, K?mpfer (Berlin: Elefanten, 1986). 
 
 
 85 
 
loop der tijden [Russian Village over the Course of Time],
166
 a cross section format 
divides the image into a sequential narrative, leading the eye from a scene in the 
lower section of the image, representing backwards peasant customs, superstitious 
ritual, and poverty, to a rational world in the upper part of the image, in which 
modern technology is deployed to address material needs. Another drawing by 
Krinski appearing on the same page, here titled Oproep tot wetenschappelijke 
organiseering van den arbeid [Call for the Scientific Organization of Labor], 
similarly divides and compartmentalizes the image according to horizontal and 
vertical axes, to compare and contrast manual (and inefficient) forms of labor with 
labor of a mechanized form. These works (which were also featured in many of the 
aforementioned publications) appear to have had a great impact on the members of 
the Group of Progressive Artists.
167
  
Alma uses this cross-section type presentation to similar ends in his Geld 
series [FIGURE 86]: his woodcut, Meerwaarde [Surplus], for example, illustrates in 
sequential terms the circuit of capital and the opportunities for expropriation that take 
place in this sequence; a second work in this series, Rationalisatie [Rationalization] 
(from which the Wendingen cover image is derived), uses the cross-section format to 
                                                
166
 This drawing also appeared in soziale grafik and a bis z under the title Das alte und das neue Dorf  
[The Old and New Village]. 
 
167
 In addition to the Wendingen issue, a bis z, vtvarn? snahy, nae cesta, and soziale grafik, Krinski?s 
work, appeared in a book edited by Alma two years earlier, Kultuur en wetenschap in het nieuwe 
Rusland: Artikelen door Nederlanders [Culture and Science in the New Russia: Articles by Dutch 
Authors] (Rotterdam: V.H. van Staal, 1928). It is likely that Alma knew Krinski?s work from his first 
trip to the Soviet Union in 1921; other members of the Group of Progressive Artists were likely 
exposed to his work through Ren? F?l?p-Miller?s richly illustrated and widely circulated book, Geist 
und Gesicht des Bolschewismus: Darstellung und Kritik des kuturellen Lebens in Sowjet-Russland 
(Leipzig: Almathea-Verlag, 1926). 
 
 
 86 
 
illustrate the negative effect on the worker of cost-saving mechanization, as well as 
the response to this development from organized labor. 
Wendingen is unique when compared to the other publications discussed here 
in that it did not conform to the ideas of the of ?the new typography.? In contrast to a 
bis z, vtvarn? snahy, nae cesta and soziale grafik (all of which utilized austere and 
functional layouts), Wendingen?s ornamental and decorative design appears more 
appropriate to the prewar era, with its echoes of Jugendstil and Arts and Crafts 
[FIGURE 87]: the typeface designed by Wijdeveld for the journal?s nameplate, for 
example, composed of thin lines and large blocks, echoes the geometric 
ornamentation that borders the pages and encloses the text and reproductions. While 
Wijdeveld had resigned as chief editor by the time of the pictorial statistics issue,
168
 
the journal retained his turn-of-the-century, Arts and Crafts inspired design. 
Furthermore, it differs from other publications in its unusual dimensions: its square 
format was based on the Japanese tatami mat proportion and, along with the 
occasional use of rice paper it employed a Japanese binding method, wherein pages 
were printed only on one side, folded, and hand-bound in block-book style using 
raffia.
169
 In this sense Wendingen was more of a luxury item, and, for this reason, 
could not have been further from a publication like soziale grafik, which embraced 
                                                
168
 Since 1925, the position of chief editor had been occupied by Henri Cornelis Verkruysen, director 
of the School voor Bouwkunde, versierende Kunsten en Kunstambachten [School of Architecture, 
Decorative Arts, and Arts and Crafts] in Haarlem. See Martijn F. Le Coultre, ?A Remarkable 
Magazine,? in Wendingen: A Journal for the Arts, 1918-1932 (New York: Princeton Architectural 
Press, 2001), 50. 
 
169
 See Alston W. Purvis, ?One Man?s Vision,? in Wendingen: A Journal for the Arts, 1918-1932 (New 
York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2001), 8. 
 
 
 87 
 
standardization and inexpensive production with the goal of maximizing 
accessibility.
170
  
Indeed, the contrast between the journal?s design and the reproductions of the 
functional and relatively unadorned pictorial statistics charts is at first striking. The 
link between these two seemingly contradictory worlds?on the one hand: the world 
of the Progressives, the new typography, and pictorial statistics; and on the other 
hand: the world of Wendingen and the Amsterdam School?likely came through 
Peter Alma?s connections to members of the journal?s editorial board, with whom he 
had collaborated on previous projects.
171
 
Aside from the stylistic discontinuity of the publication, the Wendingen issue 
is unique among the objects here under consideration in that it is one of the few 
documents in which these two seemingly separate areas of production?the artistic 
project of sociological graphics and the scientific project of pictorial statistics?are 
explicitly framed as parts of a unified effort (this aspect is explored at greater length 
in Chapter 4). Additionally, the Wendingen issue is a particularly rich historical 
document in the way it enriches our understanding of modernism generally, pointing 
to an alternative modernist narrative that accommodates traditional craft, figurative 
representation, and stylistic plurality. In this sense, Wendingen can be seen as a 
                                                
170
 As Purvis comments: ?Although Wendingen met the need for a revolutionary new direction in 
design after the First World War, its physical characteristics did not fully support this end. The use of 
high quality paper and hand binding invariably tied it more to the arts and crafts movement. The first 
issues caused much excitement, and although many saw it as a wave of the future, its extravagant use 
of decoration continued to clash with the international trend toward restraint and functionality. 
Although linked to the modern era, Wendingen had its foundations in the fin de siecle culture of 
nineteenth century Europe.? See Alston W. Purvis, ?One Man?s Vision,? in Wendingen: A Journal for 
the Arts, 1918-1932 (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2001), 21. 
 
171
 For example, Alma and Henriette Roland Holst (the political activist and wife of the influential 
artist and Wendingen editor, Richard Roland Holst) were together coeditors for the book Kultuur en 
wetenschap in het nieuwe Rusland: Artikelen door Nederlanders (Rotterdam: V.H. van Staal, 1928). 
 
 
 88 
 
particularly appropriate venue for both figurative constructivism and pictorial 
statistics, since both projects were hybrid in character: each embraced aspects of 
modernity while seeking to preserve a sense of historical continuity?whether 
through medium (in the case of figurative constructivist artworks) or through 
intellectual traditions (in the case of pictorial statistics, to be discussed subsequently). 
 
Exhibitions 
In addition to publications, exhibitions represented another vehicle by which 
the Progressives established their group identity. Seiwert and Hoerle had been active 
participants in exhibition circles within Cologne since 1919, when they first showed 
their work at the K?lnischer Kunstverein [Cologne Art Association], in conjunction 
with the first Cologne Dada exhibition there.
172
 Throughout the 1920s and early 
1930s Seiwert and Hoerle regularly showed at this venue?both in numerous group 
shows and occasional solo exhibitions. They were joined there by Arntz in 1925 for a 
graphic art exhibition, and again in 1930 for the Junge Deutsche Kunst [Young 
German Art] exhibition. Other Cologne venues at which the Progressives exhibited 
included the Kunstgewerbemuseum [Museum of Applied Arts], the Richmod-Galerie, 
and Galerie Becker & Newman?the last of which regularly featured work by the 
Progressives between 1929 and 1931, including solo exhibitions for Seiwert and 
Arntz in 1929 and 1930, respectively. The Graphikausstellung der Gruppe 
progressiver K?nstler?the last exhibition in which the artists of the group exhibited 
together under the name ?Progressives??opened here in October of 1931, before 
                                                
172
 See Kriebel, 221. 
 
 89 
 
traveling in December to Saarbr?cken, Frankfurt am Main, Stettin, Kaisers-lautern 
and Wiesbaden. 
Seiwert, Hoerle, and Arntz were equally active in D?sseldorf exhibition 
circles, and participated together in numerous group shows there throughout the 
1920s and early 1930s, including the Jahresausstellung der Rheingruppe [Annual 
Exhibition of the Rhine Group] (September 1930), Junge Deutsche Kunst [Young 
German Art] (October-November 1930), and the 9x12 exhibition of the Rheingruppe 
(October 1931), all of which were held at the St?dtische Kunsthalle. Additionally, the 
Rhineland-based members maintained strong ties with avant-garde circles in Berlin. 
In the autumn of 1922, Seiwert, together with Jankel Adler and Otto Freundlich, 
joined Berlin-based artists Stanislaw and Margarete Kubicki (1891-1984) and Raoul 
Hausmann in the Internationale Ausstellung revolution?rer K?nstler [International 
Exhibition of Revolutionary Artists], establishing a key part of the network that 
would later form the larger circle of the Group of Progressive Artists. Subsequent 
Berlin exhibitions in which Seiwert and Hoerle participated include the widely 
attended 1925 and 1929 Jury-free Art Shows held at Landes-Ausstellungsgeb?ude in 
the Lehrter Bahnhof.  By the end of the decade, in fact, Hoerle and Seiwert were 
showing nearly as frequently in Berlin as in Cologne, participating in five Berlin 
shows in 1930 alone. 
The Progressives exhibited internationally as well, beginning in 1924, when 
works by Seiwert and Hoerle were featured in the Soci?t? Anonyme exhibition in 
New York, as well as the Erste Allgemeine Deutsche Kunstausstellung der I.A.H. 
[First General German Art Exhibition of the International Workers? Relief Program], 
 
 90 
 
shown in Moscow, Leningrad and Saratov. Seiwert and Hoerle again participated in 
major international shows in 1926, including the International Exhibition of Modern 
Art at the Brooklyn Museum, and the Exhibition of Western Revolutionary Art in 
Moscow.
173
 Arntz and Alma also participated in the latter exhibition, though Alma?s 
official association with the Progressives began two years later, when he first came 
into personal contact with Seiwert and Hoerle through his attendance at the 1928 
?Pressa? exhibition in Cologne. The Progressives? association with Alma led to 
further opportunities to gain international exposure, since Alma had long been 
involved in exhibition activities within the Netherlands.
174
 It was through this 
association, for example, that Seiwert and Arntz were included with Alma in the 
second ASB exhibition (architectuur, schilderwerk, beeldhouwwerk [Architecture, 
Painting, Sculpture]) in 1929 at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam,
175
 and were 
joined there again in the following year by Hoerle, Tschinkel, Krinski and G?mez at 
the influential Socialistische kunst heden [Socialist Art Today] exhibition, sponsored 
by the Socialistische Kunstenaarskring.
176
 While this exhibition was enormous in 
scope, including hundreds of artists (who, further, represented a multiplicity of 
trends), the grouping of these artists in the catalog?s reproductions section again 
suggested a unified movement [FIGURE 88].  
                                                
173
 See Katalog vystavki revoliutsionnogo iskusstva Zapada [Catalog of an Exhibition of Revolutionary 
Western Art] (Moscow, 1926). 
 
174
 Alma had played a crucial role, for example, in bringing the Erste Russische Ausstellung [First 
Russian Exhibition] to the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, following its premier showing in Berlin in 
1922. 
 
175
 See the exhibition catalog ASB: 2de tentoonstelling architectuur schilderwerk beeldhouwwerk. 2?
24 November, 1929, Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam, 1929). 
 
176
 See the exhibition catalog Socialistische kunst heden: Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, 8 Nov.?8. Dec. 
1930 (Amsterdam: Socialistische Kunstenaarskring, 1930).  
 
 
 91 
 
The years from 1929 to 1931 (roughly corresponding to the time during which 
Arntz, Tschinkel, and Alma were together at the Gesellschafts- und 
Wirtschaftsmuseum), in fact, mark the peak period for the Progressives? exhibition 
activities. It was during this period that these artists exhibited under the name Gruppe 
progressiver K?nstler, showing together in a variety of locations, ranging from 
Cologne to Kladno to Chicago. The Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum in Vienna 
itself provided yet another international venue?if a more informal one?in which the 
Progressives could exhibit collectively. In addition to work by Arntz, which Neurath 
had begun acquiring in 1926, the museum?s collection by 1929 included work by 
Alma, Tschinkel, Seiwert, and Krinski.
177
 While information about the exhibition of 
fine arts work at the museum is scarce, several announcements in contemporary 
sources describe the occasional exhibition of graphic art through the museum?s 
affiliated Internationale Institut f?r bildhafte P?dagogik [International Institute for 
Visual Education].
178
 In this context, the artworks would have been displayed 
alongside other visual aids and objects of educational significance, such as maps, 
photographs, and diagrams. Of all the aforementioned venues, the Gesellschafts- und 
Wirtschaftsmuseum would have been among the more effective vehicles in reaching a 
larger working-class audience, and therefore well suited to the Progressives? goals.  
                                                
177
 Neurath?s collection also included prints by such contemporaneous artists as George Grosz and 
Franz Masereel, and such earlier artists as William Hogarth, James Gillray, and Giovanni Battista 
Piranesi. 
 
178
 ?Aus dem Internationalen Institut f?r bildhafte P?dagogik, das dem Museum angegliedert ist, 
werden fallweise Bilder gezeigt, z.B. ?Soziologische Graphik,? Schwarzwei?holzschnitte und 
Verwandtes.? [Images, for example, ?sociological graphics,? black-and-white woodcuts, and things 
related are on occasion shown from the International Institute for Visual Education, which is affiliated 
with the museum.] Otto Neurath, ?Das Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum in Wien,? in 
Gesammelte bildp?dagogische Schriften, ed. Rudolf Haller and Robin Kinross (Vienna: H?lder-
Pichler-Tempsky, 1991), 194. Originally published in Minerva-Zeitschrift 7, nos. 9-10 (1931): 153-
156. 
 
 92 
 
Chapter 3: The Vienna Method of Pictorial Statistics 
 
Rondom Rembrandt: An Example of Pictorial Statistic Representation 
At the time of the closing of the Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum in 
Vienna in 1934, the Vienna Method of Pictorial Statistics had reached the mature 
phase of its development. In this year, the principal figures of the museum team?
which included Otto Neurath, Marie Reidemeister, and Gerd Arntz?reconstituted 
themselves in The Hague as The International Foundation for Visual Education, and 
shortly thereafter changed the name of the Vienna Method to Isotype (an acronym for 
International System of TYpographic Picture Education). The characteristics of 
Isotype in its mature phase are well represented in charts made four years later by the 
foundation for the booklet accompanying its 1938 exhibition, Rondom Rembrandt 
[Around Rembrandt] [FIGURE 89].
179
 In one of the charts comparing the types of 
subjects painted by Rubens and Rembrandt [FIGURE 90], rows of pictograms have 
been arranged under the two artists? names?each individual pictogram indicating 
five percent of each artist?s total painterly production, and each row and pictogram-
type corresponding to a different subject category. The categories include church 
altarpieces, biblical subjects not intended for churches, mythological and historical 
subjects, portraits, self-portraits, and genre and landscape. The coding and 
quantitative breakdown of each artist?s output according to subject-type produced 
                                                
179
 The exhibition, which was commissioned by De Bijenkorf department stores for its three branches 
in The Hague, Amsterdam, and Rotterdam, was intended to attract the public. See Marie Neurath and 
Robin Kinross, The transformer: principles of making Isotype charts (London: Hyphen Press, 2009), 
57-58; see also Hadwig Kraeutler, Otto Neurath. Museum and Exhibition Work: Spaces (Designed) for 
Communication (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang GmbH, 2008), 163-171. 
 
 93 
 
unique configurations that might be likened to footprints or silhouettes, immediately 
distinguishable from one another: while, for example, altarpieces comprise fifteen 
percent of Rubens? painterly production (indicated by three red altarpiece pictograms 
in the first row), Rembrandt produced none. Paintings representing biblical themes 
constitute an equal proportion (one fifth) of both artists? painterly output. While 
mythological and historical subjects comprise forty percent of Rubens? output 
(representing the greatest part of his production), they account for only five percent of 
Rembrandt?s work. In contrast, portraits (at sixty percent) constitute the 
overwhelming majority of Rembrandt?s painting, but only fifteen percent of Rubens? 
production. Finally, self-portraits comprise ten percent of Rembrandt?s output, while 
for Rubens the number was not great enough to register at the five percent mark. 
All of these comparisons, which together produce distinct profiles for each 
artist, are apparent to the viewer at the first glance. The longest row of pictograms in 
the Rubens register?composed of trident-pictograms, representing mythological and 
historical subjects?stands in contrast to the longest row in the Rembrandt register?
composed of portrait-pictograms. The longest row within the Rembrandt register is 
longer than that in Rubens, suggesting that the latter?s production was more evenly 
distributed in terms of subjects (with the greatest proportion equal only to two fifths) 
than the former (whose portraits constitute the overwhelming majority of his painting 
at three fifths). That such complicated and potentially confusing information can be 
absorbed and processed with such immediacy demonstrates the power of the pictorial 
statistic method as a communicative and analytical tool: what has, in the above 
 
 94 
 
paragraph, taken several dense and rather dry sentences to explain is presented within 
this graphic chart in a lively, compelling, and intuitive manner. 
Within the context of the exhibition and pamphlet, moreover, this chart served 
a larger narrative, illuminating some of the historical reasons behind these divergent 
artistic profiles: Rembrandt, working for a Protestant clientele in the Netherlands, 
would have produced no church altarpieces; for Rubens, working in Catholic-
controlled Flanders, altarpieces represented a substantial part of his commissions. 
While biblical themes were important to both Catholic and Protestant patrons (and 
therefore comprise an equal proportion of both Rubens?s and Rembrandt?s 
production), mythological and historical subjects would have been desired by the 
aristocratic patrons of the former, and of less interest to bourgeois patrons of the 
latter. Rather, this bourgeois clientele preferred portraits reflecting their newly won 
status and prosperity, above images linking them with classical antiquity. In this 
manner, the different character of Rubens and Rembrandt?s artistic production, along 
some of the reasons for those differences, are both suggested for a general audience 
through the pictorial statistic method.
180
 
There are, of course, limitations to the type of content that can be 
communicated through this method, as this example also makes clear. Generally, 
pictorial statistics express quantitative rather than qualitative relations: the method 
does not communicate anything about the artists? respective styles or techniques, for 
                                                
180
 Franz Roh, in an article that appeared several years earlier in Die Form, anticipated that pictorial 
statistics might, in fact, have applications within the field of art history, providing ?ein volles Bild von 
der wirklichen Verteilung der Stile und der wahren Wirkungsbreite gro?er Meister? [a full picture of 
the real dissemination of the styles and the true breadth of impact of the great masters]. See Roh, 
?Statistische Betrachtung geschichtlicher Zusammenh?nge,? Die Form 8, no. 5 (1933): 159. 
 
 
 95 
 
example. Such limitations were intentional, for the pictorial statistic method was 
never intended to be comprehensive as a communicative tool, either as a substitute for 
verbal communication or even as the exclusive means of visual communication. 
Rather, this example illustrates the effectiveness of pictorial statistics in showing 
quantitative relationships and in facilitating judgments that might be made based 
exclusively on those relationships. However, the Isotype design team did also develop 
a range of strategies to present information that was not of a strictly quantitative 
nature. The chart depicting the lifespan of Rembrandt and his family members 
[FIGURE 91], for example, employed photographic reproductions of their portraits, 
painted by Rembrandt at different points in his life, accompanied by a color-coded 
timeline. In this way, the chart was able to combine information of a more abstract, 
schematic nature (phases in Rembrandt?s career), with information of a more specific 
and concrete nature (pictures of individuals, stylistic developments). The color-coded 
division of Rembrandt?s life was then applied to the chart on the adjacent page, 
illustrating the fluctuating number of Rembrandt?s students and larger sphere of 
influence [FIGURE 92], during each of these phases.
181
 Nonetheless, the majority of 
Isotype charts produced before the Second World War were quantitative in nature?
and the Rubens-Rembrandt chart is representative of these quantitative presentations 
at their most developed stage. For this reason, the Rubens-Rembrandt chart will be 
                                                
181
 The exhibition divides Rembrandt?s life into four periods, beginning with his years in Leiden from 
1626 to 1631 (represented in the chart by the color green); this was followed by his ?first Amsterdam 
period? from 1632 to 1642 (coded red), during which he established himself as one of the leading 
painters of the city; his ?second Amsterdam period? from 1643-1657 (indicated by blue), was 
characterized by both professional success and personal tragedy; the last period from 1658 to 1669 
(brown), corresponds to Rembrandt?s final years, characterized by bankruptcy and dwindling 
popularity.  
 
 96 
 
useful in elucidating some of the basic features of the Vienna Method of Pictorial 
Statistics.  
 
The Features of the Vienna Method 
Beginning with the opening of the Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum in 
Vienna in 1925, Otto Neurath was continuously engaged in an effort to articulate the 
basic features and principles of the Wiener Methode der Bildstatistik [Vienna Method 
of Pictorial Statistics]. One of the first such articulations appeared as an article that 
same year in the ?sterreichische Gemeinde-Zeitung, titled ?Presentation methods of 
the Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum.?
182
 In this article Neurath established (by 
implication) what is perhaps the only inviolable rule of the Vienna Method?a rule, 
which has at times been referred to as ?the principle of quantities?; he later 
formulated the rule in this clear and concise way: ?A sign is representative of a 
certain amount of things; a greater number of signs is representative of a greater 
amount of things.?
183
 In the case of the Rubens-Rembrandt chart, one can count the 
four angel pictograms and recognize immediately that they constitute half the number 
of trident pictograms. One arrives at this information merely by counting, and one 
does not need accompanying written numbers to recognize that Rubens produced 
double the number of mythological and historically themed paintings as those with 
biblical themes.  
                                                
182
 Otto Neurath, ?Darstellungsmethoden des Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseums,? in Gesammelte 
bildp?dagogische Schriften, ed. Rudolf Haller and Robin Kinross (Vienna: H?lder-Pichler-Tempsky, 
1991), 18-27. The article originally appeared in the ?sterreichische Gemeinde-Zeitung 2, no. 16 
(August 15, 1925): 18-23. 
 
183
 Otto Neurath, International Picture Language: The First Rules of Isotype (London: Kegan Paul, 
Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd., 1936), 73. 
 
 
 97 
 
This founding principle, which insists that quantities be expressed through the 
repetition of identical pictograms of the same size rather than by magnification of 
pictograms, is the characteristic that distinguishes the Vienna Method from previous 
conventions for visualizing quantitative and statistical data. Representations that rely 
upon magnification to express quantity, which had by the early twentieth century 
become the established custom, required accompanying numbers to explain the 
comparison. In an article from 1930 in the journal Die Form,
184
 Neurath juxtaposed a 
chart produced in the older method, showing rates of marriage over a certain period, 
with one of his own charts in the Vienna Method, in order to demonstrate the 
advantages of the latter approach [FIGURE 93]. Without the accompaniment of 
written numerals, viewers of the older chart with size-based pictograms would be 
unable to deduce, for example, that the number of marriages had decreased by ten 
percent between summer and fall 1925. The chart produced using the Vienna Method, 
by contrast, requires no accompanying numbers to see that between the periods 
before and during the First World War, marriages dropped by approximately twenty-
five percent, or that in the period after the war, marriage rates nearly doubled. The 
viewer could arrive at this information merely by counting the pictograms. 
Furthermore, the Vienna Method chart makes clear that the comparison is between 
the number of marriages?and nothing else. The size-based pictograms, by contrast, 
could be misinterpreted as comparing the relative height of married couples. 
In the years following his first articulation of the ?principle of quantities? in 
1925, Neurath formulated a variety of other rules, guidelines, and suggestions for the 
                                                
184
 Otto Neurath, ?Das Sachbild. 1: Bildhafte P?dagogik,? Die Form 5, no. 2 (1930): 29-36. 
 
 
 98 
 
visual presentation of quantitative information, though most of these later 
elaborations would not carry the same degree of inviolability as the first principle. 
While Neurath never organized these various formulations into a definitive system, 
the Rubens-Rembrandt graphic and other similar charts allow us to list the most 
consistent features of pictorial statistics.
185
  After quantification, one of the most 
prevalent features of pictorial statistic charts relates to iconicity: pictograms are 
connected to their referents on the basis of visual association?which is to say that 
they contain some visual element associated with the objects they denote. The 
purpose in this is to make the meaning of the charts more self-evident and more 
visually compelling. In some cases (a chart about world cereal and rice production, 
for example [FIGURE 94]), the correlation between pictogram and referent is more 
obvious. Other cases, such as the Rubens-Rembrandt chart, require contextual 
knowledge, as well as accompanying textual labels: to understand that the angel 
should refer to biblical subjects, for example, or that the trident should indicate 
mythology and history, would require some familiarity with the subject on the part of 
the viewer. Thus, within the iconicity requirement, there was a wide range of 
signification, ranging from forms with obvious and direct visual relationships to their 
referents, to those connected by more indirect associations?which is also to say: 
                                                
185
 Even the descriptions offered by Otto Neurath in the 1936 publication International Picture 
Language with its subtitle, ?The First Rules of Isotype,? do not really amount to a ?system.? Aside 
from the inviolable ?principle of quantities,? Isotype was informed by a flexible set of guidelines, 
which were applied on a case-by-case basis, constantly revised and adapted. In this sense, Isotype was 
more an approach than a rigid system. On ?the question of a system,? see Robin Kinross, ?Lessons of 
Isotype,? in The transformer, 103-107. Several authors have attempted to list and describe the 
principles of Isotype design. See, for example, Ellen Lupton, ?Reading Isotype,? Design Issues 3, no. 2 
(Autumn 1986): 47-58; and Frank Hartman, ?Visualizing Social Facts: Otto Neurath?s ISOTYPE 
Project,? in European Modernism and the Information Society: Informing the Present, Understanding 
the Past, edited by W. Boyd Rayward (Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2008), 279-293. 
While their specific terminologies differ, they are generally in agreement about the most consistent 
features, which I have enumerated in the following pages.  
 
 
 99 
 
some pictograms were more universally recognizable and others were more culturally 
specific.  
Rather than universal communication, however, the real advantage of 
iconicity was its facilitation of subject recognition and its tendency to stimulate 
curiosity. In contrast to bar graphs, pie charts, and curves?the subjects of which 
remain unclear until one reads the accompanying captions?the subjects of pictorial 
statistic charts are more quickly recognized. Neurath later demonstrated this point in 
his 1936 booklet, International Picture Language, by juxtaposing a traditional graph 
representing births and deaths with one produced according to the Vienna Method 
[FIGURE 95]. Not only was the subject immediately recognizable to the viewer; the 
pictures were themselves evocative and generated interest. As Neurath was also well 
aware, being able to skip the step of reading the caption could make all the difference 
in a culture of continuous distraction and rapidly decreasing attention spans. Indeed, 
pictorial statistics were designed to accommodate modern viewing habits, which, as 
Neurath described them, had been ?spoiled by cinema and illustration.?
186
 ?If one 
wants to spread social-scientific education widely,? Neurath concluded, ?one must 
use such means of presentation.?
187
 More than this, iconicity was related to 
inclusiveness: while bar graphs, pie charts, and curves assumed a certain level of 
education, mathematical literacy, and comfort with scientific representations, pictorial 
statistics were intended to provide a level of accessibility and point of entry to those 
                                                
186
 Otto Neurath, ?Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum in Wien,? in Gesammelte bildp?dagogische 
Schriften, ed. Rudolf Haller and Robin Kinross (Vienna: H?lder-Pichler-Tempsky, 1991), 1. This 
article originally appeared in the ?sterreichische Gemeinde-Zeitung 2, no. 16 (August 15, 1925): 1-12. 
 
187
 Otto Neurath, ?Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum in Wien,? 1. 
 
 
 100 
 
who were not initiated in these more specialized types of reading. Finally, it was 
Neurath?s hope that social education through an ?international picture language? 
would help in cultivating a sense of shared identity and common interests among a 
diverse group of audiences. Neurath expressed this belief in the universality of the 
faculty of vision in his oft-repeated slogan: ?Words divide, pictures unite.?
188
 
With regard to the forms of the pictograms themselves, the design principles 
might be generally described in terms of simplification, flatness, visual consistency, 
combinability, and divisibility.
189
 The goal of simplification was the expression of that 
which was essential and relevant to the subject of the chart. By Neurath?s own 
account, the earliest pictorial statistic charts failed in this respect. Unlike the later 
charts produced under Arntz?s direction (such as the Rubens-Rembrandt chart, which 
utilized pictograms produced by linocut), charts from 1925 (such as one depicting 
?Police interventions in Vienna?) were produced entirely in pen and ink, and utilized 
a much more detailed type of depiction [FIGURE 96]. This more detailed approach, 
Neurath remarked in a later assessment, ?detracts from the real theme of the chart: 
one becomes more interested in the individual cases? of the depicted figures ?than in 
the statistical relations,? which constitute the intended message of the chart. 
Moreover, such detail ?says more than one knows? about the subject: ?If one knows 
nothing except ?arrests under the influence of alcohol,?? Neurath explains, ?one must 
                                                
188
 ?Worte trennen, Bilder verbinden.? Otto Neurath, ?Bildhafte P?dagogik im Gesellschafts- und 
Wirtschaftsmuseum in Wien,? in Gesammelte bildp?dagogische Schriften, 205. This article originally 
appeared in Museumskunde 3, no. 3 (1931): 125-129.  
 
189
 Other authors have employed similar terminologies in describing the features of pictorial statistic 
design. Frank Hartmann lists ?sezialization,? ?iconicity,? ?clarity,? and ?consistency? as the principal 
design features, and Ellen Lupton mentions ?reduction? and ?consistency? as the key characteristics of 
Isotype pictograms. See Hartman, ?Visualizing Social Facts: Otto Neurath?s ISOTYPE Project,? 286-
287; and Lupton, ?Reading Isotype,? 54. 
 
 
 101 
 
just make one type for it and repeat that, as often as the statistical information 
demands.?
190
 
Arntz?s constructivist approach to figuration, wherein figures were often 
described by means of standardized, geometric forms, pointed to a solution in this 
regard. This reduction, as Arntz has remarked, was facilitated by the woodcut 
medium in which he worked.
191
 It was at Arntz?s urging that the Gesellschafts- und 
Wirtschaftsmuseum adopted the similar technique of cutting pictograms from 
linoleum blocks, which allowed for their standardized reproduction, and facilitated 
their formal simplification. In evaluating the success of a pictogram?s simplification, 
Neurath formulated his principle of multiple glances:  
A picture made according to the Vienna method shows at the first glance the 
most important aspect of the subject; obvious differences must be at once 
distinguishable. At the second glance, it should be possible to see the more 
important details; and at the third glance, whatever details there may be. A 
picture that has still further information to give at the fourth and fifth glance 
is, from the point of view of the Vienna school, to be rejected as 
pedagogically unsuitable.
192
  
 
Yet simplification also had to be balanced against several other competing demands: 
each pictogram would need to be different enough from one another, ?so that there 
will be no doubt about their right name, when they are seen again.? At the same time, 
Neurath acknowledged, the pictograms must be uniform enough, ?that they may be 
                                                
190
 Otto Neurath, ?Schwarzweissgraphik? in Gesammelte bildp?dagogische Schriften, 51. English 
translation by Kinross, quoted in The transformer, 79. The article originally appeared in the 
?sterreichische Gemeinde-Zeitung 3, no. 10 (May 15, 1926): 23-27.  
 
191
 Gerd Arntz, Manuscript of July 3, 1972, Otto & Marie Neurath Isotype Collection, University of 
Reading. 
 
192
 Otto Neurath, ?Museums of the future,? Survey Graphic: Magazine of social interpretation 22, no. 
9 (September 1933): 484. 
 
 
 102 
 
put in lines like letters.? Finally, they have to be engaging enough, ?that the on-looker 
will not get tired of seeing lines of the same signs.?
193
  
Arntz had already been working with simplified and reduced approaches to 
figuration in his woodcuts by the time at which he began his collaboration with 
Neurath; within the context of the work at the Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum, 
however, this approach had to be carried out in a much more systematic manner. 
Within his ?free? graphics, Arntz had achieved this simplification through a variety of 
conventions, including the orientation of forms along vertical and horizontal axes, the 
reduction of forms to basic geometric shapes, and the presentation of objects and 
figures in frontal or profile views. Yet Arntz employed these conventions rather 
intuitively and inconsistently in his woodcuts; in pictorial statistic charts these 
conventions were applied much more rigorously. In addition to this geometrizing of 
forms, the depiction of figures and objects without perspective?that is, as two-
dimensional shapes?aided in their simplification. This, again, represented a rather 
intuitive approach within the ?free? work; within pictogram design, flatness became 
the norm.
194
 Generally, the flat appearance of the pictograms served to better integrate 
them with the surrounding textual elements, and facilitated their arrangement and 
stacking in rows and columns.
195
 These functions of composition and legibility were 
                                                
193
 Otto Neurath, International Picture Language, 32. 
 
194
 The exception to this rule can be found in objects whose recognition depends upon depiction in 
three-dimensions: a cylindrical oil barrel, for example, seen without perspective, might be difficult to 
distinguish from other rectangular-shaped pictograms.  
 
195
 There were also conceptual reasons behind this demand for flatness. Reminiscing about his 
childhood encounters with illustrated books in his father?s library, Neurath states: ?I have found, as 
have others, that children are mainly interested in clear visualization irrespective of the methods used 
to achieve this result. ?Correct perspective? puzzles them. I could not discover that there was any 
educational advantage in carefully drawn perspective of the orthodox kind. Why should one have to 
 
 103 
 
also served by the pictograms? visual consistency, which, in this case, refers to their 
visual weight and density. Over the course of the Vienna Method?s development, 
pictograms were increasingly designed to take up the same area and to have an 
approximately equal distribution of positive and negative space. The increased visual 
consistency of pictograms is evident, for example in charts illustrating social 
stratification in Vienna, produced before and after Arntz?s arrival in 1928 [FIGURE 
97]. Along with simplification and flatness, visual consistency was intended to 
facilitate reading, counting, and making comparisons between rows and columns. In 
this way, pictogram design shared with typographic design the goal of legibility. In 
both cases, the characters are designed with the intention if facilitating fluid reading 
and allowing for a maximum variety of compositional arrangements. 
Combinability and divisibility represent two additional functions of statistical 
pictograms. The first term refers to the pictograms? capacity to be merged to form 
compound-signs. Neurath provided a demonstration in International Picture 
Language [FIGURE 98], wherein shoe and factory pictograms were combined to 
produce a pictogram for shoe-factory, and coal and worker likewise combined to 
produce coal-worker. Divisibility refers to pictograms? capacities for fractioning. This 
function was particularly useful in charts wherein an even number of pictograms 
requires an uneven division: in a chart from 1930, for example, depicting products 
controlled by monopolies [FIGURE 99], the set of ten pictograms representing world 
                                                                                                                                      
draw things that are far away smaller than those which are close to? Orthodox perspective is anti-
symbolic and puts the onlooker into a privileged position. Any picture in perspective fixes the point 
from which you look. I wanted to be free to look from wherever I chose. I liked any method which 
allowed me to use things of the same size, whether they were near or far away. I soon realized that 
map-making is one of the few techniques which does not use orthodox perspective. It therefore seemed 
to me more educational than other visual techniques.? Otto Neurath, ?From Hieroglyphics to Isotypes,? 
Future Books 3 (1946), 93. 
 
 
 104 
 
oil supplies (each indicating ten percent of world production) had to be divided at the 
75-25 mark?thus requiring fractioned pictograms. In other cases, such as a chart 
representing the distribution of economic systems among world populations 
[FIGURE 100], fractioned pictograms were combined with compound pictograms. 
The hammer-pictogram, for example, representing craft-based economies, has been 
superimposed upon four and one quarter of the five ?Indian? figures, indicating that 
artisanry and agriculture characterize the economies of 425 million South Asians. The 
remaining 75 million fall under either modern economies (indicated by the halved 
gear-pictogram) or ?primitive? economies (indicated by the quartered bow-and-arrow 
pictogram). These last two characteristics of pictogram design (combinability and 
divisibility) were introduced under Arntz?s direction, and were largely contingent 
upon the abovementioned features that characterized his design approach. Indeed, the 
capacity for divisibility already appears as a possibility in some of his ?free? graphics. 
The figures in his 1927 woodcuts Bank and Warenhaus [FIGURES 101, 102], for 
example, exhibit the half and quarter divisions that would later be required of 
statistical pictograms. 
Beyond guidelines for the design of pictograms themselves, there were also 
rules for their arrangement within charts. Generally, charts were composed according 
to the conventions for laying out text?from left to right and top to bottom. 
Frequently, however, the pictograms themselves were composed along central axes, 
in order to facilitate comparisons both within and between different categories, 
thereby allowing for multiple readings of the information. The central axis 
arrangement in one of the charts from the Rondom Rembrandt booklet showing the 
 
 105 
 
changing enrollments at Leiden University between the sixteenth and the twentieth 
centuries [FIGURE 103], for example, allowed comparisons between numbers of 
Dutch and foreign students (colored blue and red, respectively) within any period, as 
well as comparisons between the two groups and total numbers over multiple 
periods.
196
 In a slightly more complicated chart from 1930 depicting ?Migration 
movements in important countries? between 1920 and 1927 [FIGURE 104], the 
central axis composition allows comparisons between the population deficits and 
surpluses resulting within and between several countries. Thus, figures walking in the 
direction away from the country names at the left (indicating emigrants) begin from a 
central rather than left alignment; conversely, rows of figures walking in the direction 
towards the country names (representing immigrants) begin at the point below the 
right-most emigrant pictogram. In this way, rows of immigrants that pass the central 
axis indicate a population gain for the corresponding country; rows that fall short of 
the central axis reveal a deficit. While the populations of France, the US, and 
Argentina all increased with immigration between 1920 and 1927, Great Britain, 
Italy, and Germany all experienced more emigration than immigration. While Italy 
had the greatest number of emigrants, it also has a larger influx of immigrants than 
either Great Britain or Germany. Conversely, the US received the largest numbers of 
incoming people, but more people also left the US during this same period than 
Germany, France, or Argentina. Further comparisons could be made as well, based 
upon the reddish and blue lines beneath the rows of pictograms, indicating land or 
sea-based migration, respectively. Axial configurations, such as the ones described 
                                                
196
 That the Rubens-Rembrandt chart aligns pictograms from the left rather than from the center can be 
explained by the nature of the comparison, for which a left-alignment was, in this case, more effective. 
 
 106 
 
above, were in fact, a feature of the Vienna Method from the beginning, long before 
the aforementioned characteristics of the mature pictograms were themselves 
established.
197
 In the early chart on police interventions, for example, this 
arrangement was already in use, allowing comparisons not only between the total 
interventions for each day of the week, but also between alcohol and non-alcohol 
related incidents. 
These last described features of the Vienna Method, related to the composition 
of the charts and the arrangement of pictograms, are intimately bound with an aspect 
of the design process that Neurath termed ?transformation.? This term was intended 
to ?describe the process of analyzing, selecting, ordering, and then making visual 
some information, data, ideas, implications,?
198
 and represented the stage in the 
design process between the gathering of raw data and its presentation in edited form 
as a graphic chart [FIGURE 105]. Thus, the selecting of published statistical data, the 
rounding of this data into even numbers, and the translation of this data into a 
pictorial sketch represent the task of the ?transformer? (Transformator in German)?a 
position which, since the founding the of the museum in 1925, was principally filled 
by Marie Reidemeister. Along with questions regarding the organization of charts and 
arrangement of pictograms, decisions regarding their combination and or division 
would likewise have fallen under the authority of the transformer. While the aesthetic 
character of later pictorial statistics charts?that is, pictogram design and typographic 
conventions?was largely influenced by Arntz, the functional and conceptual 
                                                
197
 Kinross, ?Lessons of Isotype,? in The transformer, 80. 
 
198
 Kinross, Preface to The transformer, 6. 
 
 
 107 
 
character of the charts, as well as their narratives, owe as much to Marie 
Reidemeister?s work in transformation as they do Neurath?s conceptualizations. In 
this way, the design process was at all times a collective endeavor. 
While the features of pictorial statistics described above together amount to a 
kind of pictorial grammar, the Vienna Method has been understood by scholars as 
constituting ?a very weak language with a necessarily narrow range of 
application.?
199
 Indeed, Neurath was always unequivocal with regard to its 
communicative limitations: ?the uses of a picture language are much more limited 
than those of normal languages. It has no qualities for the purpose of exchanging 
views, of giving signs for feelings, orders, etc.?
200
 Neurath repeatedly emphasized 
that pictorial statistics were only ?a helping language,?
201
 and were not designed to 
replace written or verbal expression. Furthermore, these limitations were a deliberate 
aspect of the Vienna Method?s design and, from Neurath?s perspective, constituted 
the method?s strength. Neurath, in fact, wrote his 1936 book, International Picture 
Language, entirely in Charles Kay Ogden?s ?Basic English??a drastically reduced 
version of the English language, designed to avoid semantic ambiguity
202
?and he 
                                                
199
 K.H. M?ller, ?Neurath?s theory of pictorial-statistical representation,? in Rediscovering the 
Forgotten Vienna Circle, ed. T.E. Uebel (Dordrecht-Boston-Lancaster: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 
1991), 235. 
 
200
 Neurath, International Picture Language, 20. 
 
201
 Ibid., 17. 
 
202
 Charles Kay Ogden (1889-1957), the English linguist and philosopher, developed BASIC (an 
acronym for British American Scientific International Commercial) with the aim of facilitating 
international communications and the teaching of English as a second language. Basic cut the English 
language?s 200,000 words to a mere 850. This reduced vocabulary included 600 words for ?things,? 
150 words for ?qualities,? and 100 ?operators,? comprised of verbs, adverbs, and prepositions. The 
year following the publication of International Picture Language, Otto Neurath wrote another booklet 
for the same series, Basic by Isotype (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., 1937), which, in 
 
 108 
 
compared his pictographic language in this regard to Ogden?s project: ?in the same 
way as Basic English is an education in clear thought?because of the use of 
statements without sense is forced upon us less by Basic than by the normal 
languages, which are full of words without sense (for science)?so picture language 
is an education in clear thought?by reason of its limits.?
203
 
The Vienna Method, then, was designed to communicate only that which 
made sense from a scientific perspective. In this way, as commentators like Peter 
Galison and Krist?f Ny?ri have noted, the Vienna Method was bound up with the 
wissenschaftliche Weltauffassung [scientific world view] of the Vienna Circle (of 
which Neurath was a member), and their project to purge metaphysical expressions 
from scientific discourse.
204
 For Neurath and the other members of the Vienna Circle, 
only science offered a universal basis for a common world culture: ?Metaphysical 
terms divide?scientific terms connect,? wrote Neurath in his 1933 paper 
Einheitswissenschaft und Psychologie [Unified Science and Psychology], echoing the 
earlier motto with which he promoted his visual approach to education.
205
 Neurath 
illustrated this point in another paper from the same year titled ?Protokolls?tze? 
[Protocol Sentences], explaining that scientific theories could be translated into any 
language, while the translation of many philosophical statements would require the 
                                                                                                                                      
illustrating much of the Basic vocabulary, was intended ?to give teachers an example of? good 
picture-teaching.? See Basic by Isotype, 6. 
 
203
 Neurath, International Picture Language, 20. 
 
204
 See Peter Galison, ?Aufbau/Bauhaus: Logical Positivism and Architectural Modernism,? Critical 
Inquiry 16, no. 4 (1990): 709-52; and Krist?f Ny?ri, ?From Texts to Pictures: The New Unity of 
Science,? http://www.neha.nl/neurath/biblio.php (accessed March 2, 2007). 
 
205
 ?Metaphyisische Termini trennen?wissenschaftliche Termini verbinden.? Quoted in Ny?ri, 50. In 
evoking his earlier slogan, ?words divide, pictures unite,? Neurath suggests an analogy between verbal 
language and metaphysics on the one hand, and science and pictures on the other. 
 
 
 109 
 
introduction of ?linguistic abuses? into other languages.
206
 Thus, in addition to its 
basis in the visual, the Vienna Method?s perceived universality was also derived from 
its scientific foundation.
207
 
 Despite Neurath?s many idealistic pronouncements about the universality of 
his international picture language, he was well aware that a commonly understood 
language could not in itself bridge differences and resolve conflicts between people. 
Civil wars, he pointed out, were evidence that common languages did not in 
themselves foster harmonious social and political relations.
208
 Thus, while the 
universal and international character of the pictograms has come to be seen as the 
most radical aspect of the Vienna Method?this has certainly become its most 
enduring legacy, evident in the ubiquitous wayfinding graphics in contemporary 
public spaces?the actual social radicalism of the method can, in fact, be situated in 
two other (related) aspects of the project: namely, in the attempt to unite separate and 
specialized branches of knowledge in a common visual mode of presentation; and in 
the intention to provide (by visual means) a wider, more mixed and generalized 
audience access to this diverse body of knowledge?thereby increasing the potential 
scope for their social and political engagement. 
                                                
206
 ?Einstein?s theories are expressible (somehow) in the language of the Bantus?but not those of 
Heidegger, unless linguistic abuses to which the German lends itself are introduced into Bantu.? 
Quoted in Ny?ri, 50. 
 
207
 As Ny?ri (on p. 51) explains: ?Neurath?s message? is that ?clear thoughts can be expressed in 
simple language, and simple language can be translated into pictures. Unified science becomes 
possible once the language of science is purged of metaphysical terms; and anything that needs to be 
expressed within the framework of unified science can be communicated by a pictorial language.? 
 
208
 Otto Neurath, ?Visual Education: Humanisation Versus Popularisation,? in Encyclopedia and 
Utopia: The Life and Work of Otto Neurath (1882-1945), eds. Elisabeth Nemeth and Friedrich Stadler 
(Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1996), 262. 
 
 
 110 
 
 While certain features and aims of the Vienna Method may have already been 
present as isolated cases in certain previously produced information graphics, 
Neurath?s project represents the first systematic effort to develop these features along 
such rigorous and self-critical lines. Between 1925 and 1945, Neurath produced more 
than fifty published texts, including two full-length books, on the subject of visual 
education in general, and the Vienna Method of Pictorial Statistics in particular.
209
 
Indeed, the idea that visual communication and information design constituted fields 
of study with their own histories, only emerged during this period. H.G. Funkhouser?s 
?Historical Development of the Graphic Representation of Statistical Data,? 
published by the journal Osiris in 1937,
210
 represents one of the first attempts to chart 
this particular tradition within the larger history of information design. Funkhouser?s 
history begins with William Playfair (1759-1823), ?the father of the graphic method 
in statistics,? whose Commercial and Political Atlas (1786) and Statistical Breviary 
(1801) are cited as the first publications to employ graphs in the representation of 
statistical data?though such graphic presentations remained abstract.
211
 The first 
instance of pictures in statistics, according to Funkhouser, occurs with Michael 
George Mulhall (1836-1900), whose Dictionary of Statistics (1883) employed 
pictographic representation, but still relied on magnification to express quantities 
                                                
209
 Otto Neurath?s writings on visual education have been compiled as Gesammelte bildp?dagogische 
Schriften, ed. Rudolf Haller and Robin Kinross (Vienna: H?lder-Pichler-Tempsky, 1991), the third of 
five volumes of his collected writings on philosophy, economics, and sociology. 
 
210
 H. Gray Funkhouser, ?Historical Development of the Graphical Representation of Statistical Data,? 
Osiris 3, no. 1 (1937): 269-404. 
 
211
 Funkhouser, 273, 280-290. 
 
 
 111 
 
[FIGURE 106].
212
 Neurath?s work occupies an important place in Funkhouser?s 
account,
213
 though the inventor of the ?quantification principle? is, in fact, identified 
as Willard C. Brinton (1880-1957), whose book Graphic Methods for Presenting 
Facts (1914) first suggested this method as an alternative to the magnification of 
pictograms or symbols [FIGURE 107].
214
 Nonetheless, as Funkhouser notes, what 
distinguishes the Vienna Method from earlier approaches?including the quantitative 
one advocated by Brinton?is the project?s scale, its systematic ?development of a 
standard symbolism for the pictures and hieroglyphs,? and its connection to the social 
mission of the Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum.
215
 
 
 
Otto Neurath and the Origins of the Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum 
Even before the creation of the Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum in 1925 
and the publication of his first essays on the Vienna Method of pictorial statistic 
presentation, Neurath had grappled with the problems of visualizing information for 
the purpose of social education.
216
 Neurath?s first practical experience with visual 
                                                
212
 Funkhouser, 346-348.  
 
213
 Funkhouser even included a separate bibliography related to the Vienna Method, including 
publications of the Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum, Otto Neurath?s theoretical writings, and 
contemporary critical appraisals of the method.  
 
214
 Brinton?s book was produced for the Engineering Magazine Company as part of their Industrial 
Management Library series. At the time of his death in 1945, Neurath?s library contained a copy of 
Brinton?s book, but, according to Kinross, this appears to have been acquired after his immigration to 
Britain in 1940. ?It seems unlikely,? Kinross states, ?that Neurath would have seen Brinton?s book in 
Vienna.? Rather, the evidence suggests that Neurath arrived at his method independently, some ten 
years after Brinton. See Kinross, ?Lessons of Isotype,? in The transformer, 100. 
  
215
 Funkhouser, 350-351. 
 
216
 Indeed, Neurath traces his interest in visual communication to his early childhood. In his ?Visual 
Autobiography,? of which an excerpt was published in 1946, Neurath credited childhood encounters 
 
 112 
 
education came in 1918, when he was appointed director of the 
Kriegswirtschaftliches Museum [Museum of War Economy] in Leipzig. It was in 
large part the subject of war economy that first stimulated Neurath?s thinking about 
the visual presentation of social and economic information. Neurath had, in fact, long 
been interested in the subject of war economies?he began his study of economics 
and history at the University of Vienna in 1902, and in 1912-13 received a stipend 
from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace to research the social and 
economic impact of the war in Balkan states.
217
 Later, as head of the General War and 
Economics Section of the Scientific Committee for War Economy in the Austrian 
War Ministry (a position to which he was promoted from the Austrian Reserve 
Provisions Unit in 1916), Neurath was involved in the organization of exhibitions on 
the theme of war economies in Serbia and Hungary.
218
 By this time, Neurath had 
produced a substantive body of literature on the subject of war economies, and was 
recruited to head the Leipzig Museum after his ?repeated calls for a systematic 
                                                                                                                                      
with picture books in his father?s library as the source of his lifelong engagement with visual 
education. His father, Wilhelm Neurath (1840-1901), a professor of economics at the Hochschule f?r 
Bodenkultur [Agricultural Academy] in Vienna since 1889, had an extensive library, of which Neurath 
recalled: ?the arrangement? helped my liking for books with pictures. As often happens, the large 
books, many of which contained pictures and maps, were kept on the tall bottom shelves.? In 
particular, Neurath singled out Alexander von Humboldt?s Cosmos: ?Here were deserts, mountains, 
clouds, seas, strange plants and unfamiliar animals, marvels of many sorts. This world, presented in 
delightful drawing and coloring, satisfied my longing for a cosmic view.? More than the aesthetic 
experience, however, Neurath remembers being impressed by the conceptual aspect of the 
visualization: ?What I liked best were pictures with strong, simplified shapes and without too much 
elaborate detail. It did not matter if a picture was crude and even roughly drawn so long as it gave me 
information directly or forcefully.? Neurath, ?From Hieroglyphics to Isotypes,? 93. 
 
217
 Nancy Cartwright, Jordi Cat, Lola Fleck, and Thomas E. Uebel, Otto Neurath: Philosophy between 
Science and Politics (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 20.  
 
218
 Nader Vossoughian, Otto Neurath: The Language of the Global Polis (Rotterdam: NAi Publishers, 
2008), 52. 
 
 
 113 
 
science of war economics had caught the [museum?s] founders? attention.?
219
 The 
museum had been founded the previous year by various German trade and 
agricultural associations, and differed from most traditional museums in that its 
collections included objects from everyday life and mass-culture; its displays were 
constructed with the aim of educating general audiences about ?the entire economic 
life during war? the work of agriculture, industry, trade, handy-work, and 
transport.?
220
 With an exhibition held at the museum in August 1918 on ?World 
Blockade and War Economy,? Neurath first employed techniques of visualization?
?statistical tables and models??in an attempt, as he explained, ?to make as clear as 
possible to everyone how a peace economy gradually changed into a war economy, 
how the latter changed in turn, and was replaced by a new peace economy that was 
partly shaped by its predecessor.?
221
 
With the end of the war in November 1918 and the revolution that followed, 
the Leipzig museum was dissolved. It was at this point that Neurath joined the Social 
Democratic Party and published a series of proposals for the socialization of the 
Saxon economy.
222
 Between January and March 1919, Neurath was involved in talks 
with the successive revolutionary governments in Bavaria about the possibility of a 
joint action to coordinate socialization with the government of Saxony, and on March 
                                                
219
 With the approval of the Austrian War Ministry, it was arranged that Neurath would divide his time 
between Leipzig and Vienna, retaining his position and continuing his work for the Scientific 
Committee for War Economy. See Cartwright et al., 20. 
 
220
 From a 1917 pamphlet by Rudolf Stegemann, one of the founders of the Deutsches 
Kriegswirtschaftsmuseum; translated by Nader Voussoughian and quoted in his book, Otto Neurath: 
The Language of the Global Polis, 51. 
 
221
 Quoted in Cartwright et al., 20. 
 
222
 See Cartwright, 45. 
 
 
 114 
 
14, 1919, was invited by the Social Democratic-led government in Munich to head 
Bavaria?s Central Economic Administration. Neurath remained in this position 
throughout the turbulent months that followed, during which the SPD government 
was ousted and a succession of council republics were established in its place.
223
 
Neurath attempted to combine his political-economic activities with his earlier 
work in visual education when, following the collapse of the Bavarian Council 
Republic in May 1919, he briefly took a position with the Central Committee of the 
German Trade Union Association in Czechoslovakia as head of its training institute 
for factory council teachers. In a 1920 publication titled Betriebsr?te-Lehrerschule 
[Factory Council Teachers? College],
224
 Neurath discussed the importance of visual 
aids in social education: ?As far as possible the training college itself will provide 
such aids and continuously distribute them to the [workers?] council schools. Only 
some of the aids will be books; many surveys, tables, schemes will be derived from 
aspects of life that have not yet become literature.?
225
 In Vienna, Neurath found 
further opportunities to pursue work along these lines?initially as General Secretary 
of Forschungsinstitut f?r Gemeinwirtschaft [Research Institute for Social Economy], 
which was established in 1920 ?to lend theoretical and practical support? to the 
implementation of a socialized economy in Austria, and later as General Secretary for 
the ?sterreichischer Verband f?r Siedlungs- und Kleingartenwesen [Austrian 
                                                
223
 Shortly after the defeat of the second Council Republic on May 2, 1919 by right-wing militias, 
Neurath was arrested and convicted by the succeeding government of assisting high treason. He 
received a sentence of eighteen months imprisonment, but, through the intervention of then Austrian 
Foreign Secretary Otto Bauer, was instead deported to Austria. See Cartwright et al., 49-53. 
 
224
 Otto Neurath, Betriebsr?te-Lehrerschule (Runge: Reichenberg, 1920), section B4.  
 
225
 Translated by Marie Neurath and quoted in Robin Kinross, ?Otto Neurath?s contribution to visual 
communication? (MPhil Thesis, University of Reading, 1979), 173. 
 
 
 115 
 
Association for Settlement and Allotment Gardens], an organization dedicated to 
addressing Vienna?s housing shortages and improving the standard of living among 
the working class.
226
 As a remedy to Vienna?s housing crisis and poor living 
conditions, the association promoted cooperative housing, consisting of ?simple 
terraced houses with connecting gardens and a communal house in the middle to 
serve as center and meeting point.?
227
 In this strategy, the association was building on 
the efforts of the wartime Siedlerbewegung [settler movement], which had helped to 
relieve food shortages in Vienna by transforming unused land around the city into 
temporary vegetable gardens. After the war, the association, which was to be 
responsible for the planning and construction of this new housing, proposed the 
construction of a belt of this inexpensive cooperative style housing around Vienna. 
To this end, Neurath brought in several major modernist architects, including Adolf 
Loos, Josef Frank, Josef Hoffmann, Peter Behrens, Oskar Strnad, and Margarete 
Sch?tte-Lihotzky.
228
 In trying to cultivate public support for this program, the 
association launched an extensive educational campaign, providing lectures, courses, 
and exhibitions on subjects ranging from construction techniques to hygiene to 
gardening. 
                                                
226
 Cartwright et al., 60. 
 
227
 Ibid., 61. 
 
228
 These architects, especially Neurath?s close collaborator, Josef Frank, were generally opposed to 
the large-scale apartment blocks, the Gemeindebauten [communal buildings], which ultimately came 
to dominate the Viennese cityscape in the later 1920s. See Eve Blau, ?Isotype and Architecture in Red 
Vienna: The Modern Projects of Otto Neurath and Josef Frank,? Austrian Studies 14 (1 October 2006): 
232-234; and The Architecture of Red Vienna, 1919-1934 (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999), 158-
166. 
 
 
 116 
 
In September 1923, the association held a major exhibition at the Neues 
Rathaus, informing the public about its activities and documenting its progress thus 
far through a variety of media, including plans, photographs, models, and diagrams. 
While the Vienna Method had not yet been conceived at this moment, diagrams like 
one depicting the ?Roots of a settlement house? [FIGURE 108] already reveal the 
primacy of a pictorial presentation, as well as the tendency towards certain kinds of 
spatial configurations. This diagram, in charting the trajectories of the diverse set of 
materials and technologies that were utilized in the construction of a single 
settlement-type house, sought to demystify the production process. Thus, the diagram 
identifies at the construction stage twenty-seven products, which have passed through 
various phases of production and processing from their origins as raw materials. In 
illustrating these processes, this diagram reveals the critical function that Neurath 
envisioned for visual education: namely, to reveal the ways in which objects of the 
everyday environment are produced out of the social relations that exist between 
people.  
The exhibition was a great success and, with the support of the municipal 
government, was subsequently given a permanent location at Parkring 12 (Wien I), 
where it was institutionalized as the Museum f?r Siedlung und St?dtebau [Settlement 
and Town Planning Museum]. From this moment on, the activities of the Settlement 
and Allotment Association took place under the auspices of the museum. By the 
following year, however, it became clear that the cooperative housing movement 
would not survive, as the municipal government had decided to throw its support 
 
 117 
 
behind large-scale mass-housing projects.
229
 Neurath realized that the museum would 
only remain relevant if it expanded its program to address a broader set of social and 
economic issues, and in 1924 proposed to the city councilor for finances that the 
Museum f?r Siedlung und St?dtebau become the Gesellschafts- und 
Wirtschaftsmuseum.
230
  
 Beyond Neurath?s own interests and political commitments, the Gesellschafts- 
und Wirtschaftsmuseum and its social-educational project must also be seen as the 
product of a particular set of circumstances?both specific to interwar Vienna and 
with roots in the prewar history of Austrian Social Democracy. Social and cultural 
education had, in fact, played a central role in the development of the political left in 
Austria since the period of Habsburg monarchy?s liberalization in 1860s, when 
workers were granted the right to openly gather in cultural associations.
231
 While 
political organizations were still banned under the monarchy, these associations could 
serve as an alternative to direct political action. The numerous Bildungsvereine 
[educational associations] that emerged in Vienna at this moment, which provided 
workers with a variety of cultural amenities, including institutions like libraries and 
theaters, and activities such as courses and lectures, were meant to emphasize the 
virtues of self-improvement and learning. Ultimately, this strategy aimed to cultivate 
a unified and disciplined workers? movement that would be prepared for collective 
political action when the opportunity arose. Even after the legal establishment of the 
                                                
229
 See Blau, The Architecture of Red Vienna, 158-166. 
 
230
 Cartwright, et al., 63. 
 
231
 See Anson Rabinbach, The Crisis of Austrian Socialism: From Red Vienna to Civil War, 1927-1934 
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983), 8.  
 
 
 118 
 
Social Democratic Workers? Party of Austria in 1889, Bildung [cultivation] remained 
a central component of the movement?s strategy, and the Bildungsvereine were 
incorporated into the organizational structure of the party.
232
 
The earlier strategy of Bildungspolitik appeared to have been validated when, 
after the proclamation of the Austrian Republic on November 12, 1918, Vienna 
emerged as the only major European capitol in which a Socialist party held absolute 
power. However, following the party?s realization by the spring of 1919 that plans for 
socialization were not economically viable and that power at the national level was 
unattainable, ?Austrian Social Democracy retreated from the contest for state power 
by building a political and cultural bastion in Red Vienna.?
233
 From this moment on, 
the Social Democrats pursued their program of reform only at the municipal level, 
putting all of their energies into making the city of Vienna a showcase for Social 
Democracy though the extension of social services, the introduction of adult 
education, and the implementation of an extensive housing program. The creation of 
the Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum and its social-educational mission should 
be understood as part of the Social Democrats? continued strategy of Bildungspolitik.  
The museum, as Neurath described it in an article that appeared in the official paper 
of the Viennese municipal government, was legally constituted by municipal decree 
as a Verein [association], so that other interested groups would be able to participate 
in its development. In addition to the Gemeinde Wien [the municipality of Vienna], 
funding for the museum was provided by a variety of other representative institutions, 
                                                
232
 Rabinbach, The Crisis of Austrian Socialism, 16. 
 
233
 Ibid., 7. 
 
 
 119 
 
including the Wiener Arbeiter- und Angestelltenkammer [Vienna Chamber of Works 
and Salaried Staff], the Gewerkschaftskommission [Organization of Trade Unions], 
and the Sozialversicherungsinstitute [Social Insurance Institutes].
234
  
 
The Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum and Its Activities 
The Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum opened on January 1, 1925, in the 
exhibition space at Parkring 12, previously utilized by the Museum f?r Siedlung und 
St?dtebau. Along with sections devoted to Arbeit und Organisation [Work and 
Organization], Lebenslage und Kultur (Sozialhygiene und Sozialp?dagogik) [Life 
Circumstances and Culture (Social Hygiene and Social Education)], the Settlement 
and town planning museum now became one of three departments at the expanded 
museum. The museum also continued to occupy the former offices of the Verband f?r 
Siedlungs- und Kleingartenwesen at Moeringgasse 7, though they relocated to a 
district town hall at Kal Borrom?us-Platz 3 at the end of the year.
235
 Neurath?s article 
in the ?sterreichische Gemeinde-Zeitung, announcing the museum?s establishment, 
describing its structure, and articulating its mission, is worth quoting from at length, 
since it establishes the centrality of visual media within the museum?s work.  
According to the article, the mission of the Gesellschafts- und 
Wirtschaftsmuseum was, above all, ?to show Austria to the Austrians.? As Neurath 
explained:  
Every Viennese will get to know more systematically, more simply, and more 
vividly than through newspaper articles and lectures, what his municipal 
                                                
234
 Otto Neurath, ?Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum in Wien,? 3. 
 
235
 Kinross, ?Otto Neurath?s contribution to visual communication,? 21-22. 
 
 
 120 
 
government?for which he is indeed jointly responsible?has so far 
accomplished and what is still impending. Here the housing shortage and its 
abatement will be shown; the struggle against tuberculosis, alcoholism, 
venereal diseases? will present themselves as visual relationships.
236
 
 
From the very beginning, then, the visual component was viewed as inseparable from 
the museum?s social-educational mission. For Neurath, effectively communicating 
information related to social and economic subjects meant being able to reformulate 
these issues in terms of ?visual relationships.? But representing social and economic 
phenomena in visual terms was no easy task: 
One can build models of human hearts and can demonstrate the pumping 
process in detail. But how should one show the processes within the social 
body, the changes in class structure, the circulation of money and goods, the 
activities of banks, the correlation between income and tuberculosis, between 
birth figures and mortality rates? Here models and graphic presentations are 
also possible. But they require far more distancing from reality; that is to say, 
they place greater demands, both on the person who conceives them, as well 
as on the viewer.
237
 
 
Thus, in order to communicate something as abstract as the statistical relations 
between health and income, such representations would, on the one hand, have to be 
rather ?distant from reality?; on the other hand, they would still have to be engaging 
and seductive enough to draw in viewers and hold their attention. In achieving this 
                                                
236
 ?Jeder Wiener wird systematischer, einfacher und anschaulicher als durch Zeitungsartikel und 
Vortr?ge kennen lernen, was seine Gemeindeverwaltung, f?r die er ja mitverantwortlich ist, geleistet 
hat, was ihr noch zu leisten bevorsteht. Hier wird die Wohnungsnot und ihre Bek?mpfung gezeigt 
werden, der Kampf gegen Tuberkulose, Alkoholismus, Geschlechtskrankheiten, F?rsorgeeinrichtungen 
aller Art werden als etwas Zusammenh?ngendes dem Auge sich darbieten.? Otto Neurath, 
?Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum in Wien,? 5. 
 
 
237
 ?Man kann Modelle des menschlichen Herzens bauen und den Pumpvorgang im einzelnen 
demonstrieren. Wie aber soll man die Vorg?nge innerhalb eines Gesellschaftsk?rpers zeigen, die 
Ver?nderungen der Klassenschichtung, die Zirkulation des Geldes und der Waren, die T?tigkeit der 
Banken usw., die Zusammenh?nge zwischen Einkommen und Tuberkulose, zwischen Geburtenziffer 
und Sterblichkeit? Auch hief?r sind Modelle m?glich, graphische Darstellung. Sie erfordern aber weit 
mehr Entfernung von der Wirklichkeit, das hei?t, sie stellen an den, der sie ausdenken soll, und an den 
Beschauer gr??ere Anforderungen.? Ibid., 1. 
 
 
 121 
 
combination and balance between distance and engagement (or ?abstraction and 
empathy,? to borrow Worringer?s famous formulation), modernist aesthetics and 
mass culture offered a model: 
Modern man has been spoiled by cinema and illustration. He receives a great 
part of his education in the most pleasurable ways, in part during his leisure 
time, through visual impressions. If one wants to spread social-scientific 
education widely, one must use such means of presentation. The modern 
poster shows us the way!
238
 
 
Despite these pronouncements, the museum?s embrace of modernist aesthetics 
and mass media was, in fact, somewhat gradual in its development. Much of the work 
produced by the museum in its first two or three years of existence, was actually 
rather antiquated?both at the technical as well as aesthetic level. It was only after the 
artistic department was put under the direction of Gerd Arntz in 1928, that the 
museum actually began to pursue the same ?means of presentation? as the ?the 
modern poster.? And even during the peak years of Neurath?s collaboration with the 
international avant-garde,
239
 the application of new technologies was always 
approached in a rather measured way. For Neurath, mass media and modernist 
aesthetics were a means to an end. Thus, while Neurath was supportive of modernism 
generally, he was always wary that modernist or machine aesthetics would become 
                                                
238
 ?Der moderne Mensch ist durch Kino und Illustration verw?hnt. Einen gro?en Teil seiner Bildung 
empf?ngt er in angenehmster Weise, zum Teil w?hrend seiner Erholungspausen, durch optische 
Eindr?cke. Will man gesellschafts-wissenschaftliche Bildung allgemein verbreiten, so muss man sich 
?hnlicher Mittel der Darstellung bedienen. Das moderne Reklameplakat zeigt uns den Weg!? Neurath, 
?Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum in Wien,? 1. 
 
239
 In addition to Arntz, Alma, and Tschinkel, several other figures connected to international avant-
garde movements passed through the museum between 1928 and 1930. Some, like El Lissitzky, simply 
came to visit; others, including the designers Willem Sandberg and Jan Tschichold, as well as the then 
Bauhaus students Heinz Allner and Lotte Beese, came to study the Vienna Method or collaborate on 
projects with the museum. See Christopher Burke, Active Literature: Jan Tschichold and New 
Typography (London: Hyphen Press, 2007), 119; see also Kinross, ?Otto Neurath?s contribution to 
visual communication,? 27. 
 
 
 122 
 
fetishized and seen as ends in themselves. This was, indeed, his criticism of 
movements like the Neue Sachlichkeit in design, where it seemed that machine forms 
were not, in fact, always utilized for the sake of function?as was often claimed?but 
were actually employed for the sake of form.
240
 This was an argument frequently 
made by the architect Josef Frank, who collaborated with Neurath on exhibition 
design at the Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum. He argued that many modernist 
designers, in their obsession with newness and their desire for a complete break with 
tradition, risked throwing out the baby with the bathwater, forfeiting the hard-won 
knowledge and solutions that were the product of historical continuity within 
disciplines.
241
 
Nonetheless, the Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum did, in fact, constitute 
a revolution in museum practices in at least two ways.
242
 The first such aspect relates 
to the display of objects designed for mechanical-reproducibility in mind. In contrast 
to the ?museums of the past,? which were ?cabinets of curiosities and rarities,? 
wherein ?monetary-value and scarcity of single show-pieces played a fundamental 
role? in collection policies the modern museum ?works with less refined means [mit 
derben Mitteln].?
243
 These include, ?graphic presentations, pictures, models, films, 
slides, as well as illustrations, lectures, publications, and all otherwise appropriate 
                                                
240
 See Blau, ?Isotype and Architecture in Red Vienna,? 242. 
 
241
 Ibid., 248. 
 
242
 For a thorough analysis of the impact of the Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum on later museum 
practices, see Kraeutler?s recent study, Otto Neurath. Museum and Exhibition Work: Spaces 
(Designed) for Communication (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang GmbH, 2008). 
 
243
 Neurath, ?Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum in Wien,? 2.  
 
 
 123 
 
means.?
244
 The second aspect concerns the museum?s attitude towards its audience. 
The visitors to older museums ?timidly shuffled past various lances, swords, helmets, 
tattered flags, busts, autographs,? which were ?arranged decoratively, speaking more 
to feeling than to understanding.?
245
 The modern museum, by contrast, would be ?a 
teaching museum,? designed to be accessible for any audience, regardless of the 
degree of specialized knowledge or familiarity with a subject:  
The point is not to assemble sentimental objects, but rather to form a 
collection of instructive pictures, models, etc., in such a manner that they are a 
systematic whole, a real course of instruction for anyone who, without 
preparation, wants to concern himself with social or economic questions.
246
  
 
For Neurath, presenting social and economic information as ?a systematic 
whole? meant structuring the material in terms of a unified historical narrative, and 
situating local and contemporary issues in world-historical context. Thus, Neurath 
explained: 
The Museum will have to reach out beyond Austria and Vienna, in order to 
show the making of Austria within the framework of world historical 
development. The past is here exclusively a means by which to understand 
movements of the present. This Museum should highlight purely factual 
changes within collective social life?how people have organized production 
in ever-new organizational forms, how they have provided for housing, 
nourishment, clothing, education, amusement, science, and construction; to 
what extent they have succeeded, and how different groups have participated 
in work and human development; reality as a whole should be presented, in its 
sorrows and joys. All that is from the past is here, above all, a prerequisite, 
because the museum is devoted to the present and its transformations.
247
 
                                                
244
 Neurath, ?Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum in Wien,? 2. 
 
245
 Ibid., 2. 
 
246
 ?Nicht darauf kommt es an, gef?hlsbetonte Gegenst?nde zu vereinigen, sondern darauf, die 
Sammlung der instruktiven Abbildungen, Modelle, usw., derart zu gestalten, dass sie ein 
systematisches Ganzes ist, ein wirklicher Lehrgang f?r jeden, der ohne Vorbereitung sich mit 
gesellschaftlichen oder wirtschaftlichen Fragen besch?ftigen will.? Ibid. 
 
247
 ?Das Museum wird aber ?ber ?sterreich und Wien hinausgreifen m?ssen, um das Werden 
?sterreichs im Rahmen der weltgeschichtlichen Entwicklung zu zeigen. Die Vergangenheit ist hier 
 
 124 
 
  
To this end, Neurath formulated a chronological program, which each of the 
museum?s three departments would follow. The chronology was divided into two 
broad periods: ?Historical development until the end of the World War? and ?The 
present period since the World War.? The first category was further subdivided into 
?Geological and geographic foundations,? ?General information and animal 
societies,? ?Non-European civilizations,? and ?European civilizations,??the last of 
which was further subdivided into ?Mediterranean culture,? ?Feudal-guild period,? 
?Bourgeois-capitalist period,? and ?World War.? The second division, ?The present 
period since the World War,? was also subdivided by a similar geographical scheme, 
which progressed from global to local, consisting of ?Non-European civilizations,? 
?European civilizations,? ?Austria,? and ?Vienna.? This chronology and its 
subdivisions determined the structure of the museum?s exhibitions as well its 
publications.  
In addition to Otto Neurath, who served as the museum?s director, the initial 
members of the museum?s team included the bookkeeper, Josef Jodlbauer, and Marie 
Reidemeister, who directed the museum?s Abteilung f?r Transformation [Department 
of Transformation]. By the time of Arntz?s arrival in 1928, the museum had also 
                                                                                                                                      
ausschlie?lich ein Mittel, die Bewegungen der Gegenwart zu verstehen. Dies Museum soll rein 
sachlich Ver?nderungen im gesellschaftlichen Zusammenleben aufzeigen, wie die Menschen in immer 
neuen Organisationsformen die Produktion organisierten und f?r Wohnung, Nahrung, Kleidung, 
Bildung, Vergn?gungen, Wissenschaft und Erbauung sorgten; in welchem Ausma? ihnen das gelang, 
wie die verschiedenen Gruppen an Arbeit und menschlicher Entfaltung beteiligt waren, an Leiden und 
Freuden, soll die Wirklichkeit als Ganzes vorf?hren. Alles Vergangene ist hier vor allem 
Voraussetzung, denn das Museum ist der Gegenwart und ihren Wandlungen zugewendet.? Neurath, 
?Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum in Wien,? 5. 
 
 
 125 
 
assembled an extensive working team.
248
 By this point the museum offices had been 
moved out from the locations that they had earlier occupied, and were relocated to 
several rooms above the Zentralsparkasse (Central Savings Bank) at Ullmannstrasse 
44. As a supplement to the original exhibition space at Parkring 12, the museum also 
opened up a second branch at Am Fuchsenfeld, and?from December 1927 until its 
closing in 1934?utilized an exhibition space in the Volkshalle of the Neues Rathaus, 
provided by the Gemeinde Wien.
249
 
Beyond exhibitions held within the museum?s own venues, the Gesellschafts- 
und Wirtschaftsmuseum contributed visual materials to approximately thirty major 
outside exhibitions?both local and international?during its nine years of existence, 
beginning with the Hygieneausstellung in Vienna in 1925. Other important 
exhibitions included the GeSoLei exhibition in D?sseldorf (1926),
250
 the Wien und die 
Wiener exhibition in Vienna (1927), the Pressa exhibition in Cologne (1928), 
Wohnungs- und St?dtebau Kongress in Paris (1928), Wohnung und Siedlung in Linz 
(1929), the Werkbundausstellung in Vienna (1930), the Internationale Ausstellung f?r 
Wohnungswesen und St?dtebau in Berlin (1931), the Internationale 
                                                
248
 This team included the German Friedrich Bauermeister who, like Reidemeister worked as a 
?transformer,? and who had worked with Neurath first in Bavaria and later in the Association for 
Settlement and Allotment Gardens; draftsmen included the Swiss graphic artist Erwin Bernath, and the 
Viennese artists Erich Meixner, Walter Pfitzner, and Fritz Jahnel; the Viennese architect Edith 
Matzalik, who had earlier been in charge of lettering and technical drawing, later took over the task of 
cutting the pictogram-designs into linoleum blocks. Other members included the bookbinder Josef 
Scheer (who constructed the museum?s charts), and Rudolf Modley (who, employed at the museum as 
a tour guide, later played a critical role in popularization of the Vienna Method in the US). 
 
249
 Kinross, ?Otto Neurath?s contribution to visual communication,? 24. 
 
250
 The GeSoLei exhibition (an acronym for Gesundheitspflege, soziale F?rsorgung, Leibes?bungen 
[Health Care, Social Welfare, and Physical Education]) was held in D?sseldorf from May 8
th
 to 
October 15
th
, 1926. The international exhibition was among the largest in Germany during the years of 
the Weimar Republic. See Kunst, Sport, und K?rper: 1926?2004: Ge So Lei (Weimar: VDG, Verlag 
und Datenbank f?r Geisteswissenschaften, 2004). 
 
 
 126 
 
Hygieneausstellung in Dresden (1931), the International Industrial Relations Institute 
Congress in Amsterdam (1931), and the World Association for Adult Education in 
London (1933).
251
 
Publications represented another important vehicle for the dissemination of 
the museum?s work. Over the course of Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum?s first 
years, several issues of the the ?sterreichische Gemeinde-Zeitung, an official 
publication of the Gemeinde Wien, were devoted to the museum?s work, beginning 
with a special issue in the summer of 1925. Over the course of the next two years, 
numerous articles featuring the museum?s information graphics appeared in this 
newspaper, including more than ten essays by Neurath describing both the museum?s 
activities and the principles of the Vienna method, and several more by other 
members of the museum team, including Marie Reidemeister and Friedrich 
Bauermeister. Additionally, information graphics by the museum illustrated articles 
by city officials and experts writing on a variety of topics, ranging from education 
reform to health insurance policy to public housing initiatives. 
 After 1927, Das Bild, a journal associated with the Austrian school reform 
movement and published by the Social-Democratically controlled Deutscher Verlag 
f?r Jugend und Volk, began allotting four pages in each issue of its monthly 
publication to the museum?s work. Between 1927 and 1930 the museum contributed 
more than thirty articles to Das Bild, on subjects ranging from the incorporation of 
visual aids in the school curriculum to the principles of the Vienna Method to 
exhibitions at the museum. In 1931, after the monthly contributions to Das Bild 
                                                
251
 For a complete list of exhibitions in which the Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum participated, 
consult Kinross, ?Otto Neurath?s contribution to visual communication,? 202. 
 
 
 127 
 
ended, the museum began to publish its own journal, initially named Fernunterricht 
[Distance Learning] and later renamed Bildstatistik. Between 1931 and 1933 eleven 
issues of the journal were published, each devoted to a different theme, ranging from 
geographic subjects (India, Spain, France, Britain, China) to global economic themes 
(world economic planning, the world economic crisis).  
Other publications to which Neurath and Reidemeister regularly contributed 
essays during these years?and through which they propagated the work of the 
museum and the principles of Vienna Method?include Die Quelle, a school reform 
periodical; Die Aufbau, a journal of the cooperative housing movement; Kulturwille, 
a journal the workers? movement; and Arbeit und Wirtschaft, a journal of the Austrian 
trade unions. Art and design journals, such as Die Form, the journal of the Deutscher 
Werkbund [German Work Federation] (to which Neurath made frequent 
contributions), represented another important vehicle in the dissemination of the 
Vienna Method. In addition to those aforementioned journals in which the 
Progressives published related articles (a bis z, vtvarn? snahy, and Wendingen), 
publications such as the Dutch architectural journal, De 8 en Opbouw, also carried 
richly illustrated contributions by Neurath and Alma.
252
 Other associates of Neurath, 
                                                
252
 Peter Alma, ?Beeldstatistiek,? De 8 en Opbouw 3, no. 19 (1932): 189-190; Otto Neurath, 
?Beeldstatistieken van het Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum te Weenen,? De 8 en Opbouw 3, no. 
19 (1932): 191-194; ?Internationale Centrale voor Beeldpaedagogie in Holland,? De 8 en Opbouw 5, 
no. 19 (1934): 159-160. This journal, published since 1928, was the combined project of the 
Amsterdam architectural organization ?De Acht? and the Rotterdam-based architects? group 
?Opbouw.? See Pieter Bratinga, Influences on Dutch Graphic Design 1900-1945 (Otterloo: AGI, 
1986), 6. 
 
 
 128 
 
such as Franz Roh and Jan Tschichold, also advocated for the Vienna Method through 
a variety of professional journals.
253
  
The museum also produced a series of pamphlets, beginning with its 1927 
exhibition guide, Bildstatistik,
254
 and followed by an additional five booklets over the 
next two years, which addressed themes ranging from agriculture to organized labor 
and adapted the museum?s exhibition displays for reproduction in black-and-white 
print media.
255
 The museum?s first major color publication, Die bunte Welt: 
Mengenbilder f?r die Jugend [The Colorful World: Quantitative Pictures for Young 
People],
256
 was undertaken in 1928 in collaboration with the Viennese publisher Artur 
Wolf, who approached the museum that year with the proposal to produce a 
children?s book using the Vienna Method. Employing some fifteen colors and 
containing thirty-seven illustrations, Die bunte Welt was the museum?s most elaborate 
publication to date, aiming through its rich illustrations to make the subjects of 
history, geography, and current world events engaging for school children (see 
discussion on pages 132-134 and accompanying illustrations). The book loosely 
                                                
253
 See Jan Tschichold, ?Statistics in Pictures: A New Method of Presenting Facts,? Commercial Art 
11, no. 63 (1931): 113-117; and ?Neue Formen der statistischen Darstellung,? Graphische 
Berufsschule 3 (1931-32): 26-28; also published in Typographische Monatsbl?tter 4, no. 2 (1936): 37-
39; see also Franz Roh, ?Statistische Betrachtung geschichtlicher Zusammenh?nge,? Die Form 8, no. 5 
(1933): 159. In addition to the articles written by members and associates of the museum team, 
assessments of the museum?s work from these years by outside reviewers can also be found in a wide 
variety of publications, including the New York Times and Survey Graphic. For a list of 
contemporaneous reviews see the bibliography in Graphic communication through ISOTYPE, 47. 
 
254
 Bildstatistik. F?hrer durch die Austellungen des Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseums in Wien 
(Leipzig: Verlag des D?rerbundes, Schl?ter & Co., 1927). The guide was published to coincide with 
the opening of the new exhibition space in the Volkshalle of the Neues Rathaus. 
 
255
 In 1928 the museum produced four such in-house publications: Entwicklung von Landwirtschaft 
und Gewerbe in Deutschland; Die Gewerkschaften; Der Kreis Calau (commissioned by the 
Wohlfahrtsamt (welfare office) of Calau); and Zur Weltwirtschaft. These were followed in 1929 by 
Mengenbilder und Kartogramme. 
 
256
 Die bunte Welt: Mengenbilder f?r die Jugend (Vienna: Artur Wolf Verlag, 1929). 
 
 
 129 
 
followed the departmental structure of the museum itself, moving from a long view of 
history, which examined the development of populations, cultures, and economic 
forms over the course of millennia, to themes connected with modernity and the 
impact of the First World War. Only eight of the book?s forty-seven pages are 
devoted to text. The rest of the book consists of pictorial statistic charts, which 
illustrate and elaborate upon the brief textual interludes that occur approximately 
every five or six pages.  
The museum?s largest and most extensive undertaking, however, came the 
following year, when the Bibliographisches Institut in Leipzig (a major reference 
book publisher) approached the museum about producing a work to mark its one-
hundredth anniversary.
257
 Neurath saw in this opportunity ?a chance to review and 
rework his method for international use? and produce a work ?that could be 
distributed on the international market.?
258
 The result was a monumental historical 
atlas, titled Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft,
259
 consisting of one hundred large-format 
charts printed on loose-leaves, largely reworked from earlier publications such as Die 
bunte Welt (1929), and Die Gewerkschaften (1928), as well as from earlier 
exhibitions such Wien und die Wiener (1927).
260
 Again, the atlas?s structure largely 
corresponded to the program of the museum itself as described in Neurath?s 
aforementioned article, beginning with global geography and population distribution, 
                                                
257
 Nikolow, 263. 
 
258
 Ibid. 
 
259
 Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft. Bildstatistisches Elementarwerk (Leipzig: Bibliographisches Institut 
AG, 1930). 
 
260
 Nikolow, 265. 
 
 
 130 
 
and proceeding to cover specific economic and political developments?while 
progressing from ancient to modern civilizations. In his introduction, Neurath 
described the atlas as ?a new Orbis Pictus,? referencing the picture-book 
encyclopedia for children, published in the mid-seventeenth-century by the educator 
Comenius.
261
 Another historical reference is to be found in the work?s subtitle, 
?pictorial statistic elementary work,? which refers to a 1787 children?s textbook by 
the educational reformer Johann Bernhard Basedow.
262
 In evoking these historical 
precedents, Neurath not only expressed his hopes for the atlas?s impact, but also 
sought to situate his work within the Enlightenment tradition that viewed learning as 
central to the improvement of the human condition.
263
 
While Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft has come to be seen as culmination of the 
museum?s publishing activities, the museum did produce two further publications in 
the years before closing in 1934?both issued in conjunction with the Deutscher 
Verlag f?r Jugend und Volk, which had previously published Das Bild. The first of 
the two works, titled Technik und Menschheit [Technology and Humankind],
264
 was 
essentially a continuation of Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft. Composed of three separate 
portfolios?each consisting of eight charts?Technik und Menschheit, was printed in 
the same format as Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft, but dealt with more specialized 
                                                
261
 Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft, 103.  
 
262
 As Nikolow notes (275), Basedow?s Elementarwerk?illustrated with copperplate engravings by 
the printmaker Daniel Chodowiecki?set the standard for the production of encyclopedias and 
textbooks in Central Europe during the latter period of the Enlightenment. 
 
263
 Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft was, in fact, distributed widely within German and Austrian schools in 
the years immediately following its publication. See Nikolow, 275. 
 
264
 Technik und Menschheit. Bilder des Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseums in Wien. I. Die 
Maschine; II. Die Elektrizit?t; III. Der Verkehr (Vienna; Leipzig: Deutscher Verlag f?r Jugend und 
Volk, 1932). 
 
 
 131 
 
themes (machines, electricity, and transport) in greater depth than its predecessor. The 
second publication, Bildstatistik nach Wiener Method in der Schule [Pictorial 
Statistics in the Vienna Method in Schools],
265
 was Neurath?s most extensive and in-
depth discussion of pictorial statistics to date. Building on the articles that had 
previously been published in the school reform journal, Das Bild,
266
 this book was 
intended for teachers and educators who sought to integrate visual education more 
effectively into the classroom. 
 
The Development of the Vienna Method 
While later publications like Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft or Technik und 
Menschheit bear little resemblance to the earliest pictorial statistic charts, many of the 
conceptual features that characterize the Vienna Method in its mature phase (such as 
the use of pictures rather than abstract symbols, the expression of quantities through 
repetition rather than magnification, and the use of axial arrangements) were already 
present from the beginning. Unlike the later pictorial statistic charts, however, which 
utilized pictograms produced by linocut and text produced by metal type, the earliest 
charts were produced entirely in pen and ink, and utilized approaches that might be 
described as more ?naturalistic? or ?illustrative.? While early charts, such as that in 
1925 depicting ?Police interventions in Vienna? [FIGURE 96], indicated a direction 
to pursue, Neurath was not yet satisfied with the technique. In his aforementioned 
article of the following year, expressing reservations about the initial approach, he 
                                                
265
 Otto Neurath, Bildstatistik nach Wiener Methode in der Schule (Vienna; Leipzig: Deutscher Verlag 
f?r Jugend und Volk, 1933). 
 
266
 Kinross, ?Otto Neurath?s contribution to visual communication,? 41. 
 
 
 132 
 
conceded that the attempt to ?enliven the graphics? through detailed rendering was, in 
fact, counterproductive since it ?detracts from the real theme of the chart?: namely, 
the number of arrests. Neurath?s comment here is worth repeating again: ?If one 
knows nothing except ?arrests under the influence of alcohol,? one must just make one 
type for it and repeat that, as often as the statistical information demands.?
267
 The 
repetition convention thus arose from the realization that the essential content of this 
chart (and most others produced by the museum) was quantity?the number of 
arrests?rather than the physical characteristics of those arrested, or the nature of 
their crimes. While Neurath quickly reached the conclusion that repetition of identical 
pictograms would be the best way to express quantity, it still took some time to 
implement this principle, since it was feared that repetition might make the charts 
boring: ?There was at first a certain timidity to be overcome,? Neurath recalled, 
?before being able to repeat.?
268
  
 Another important and related task was the design of pictograms that better 
lent themselves to counting. After all, the figures in the early chart could actually be 
counted; their forms and arrangement, however, do not facilitate easy counting. The 
inclusion of exact numbers at the ends of the picture-rows, used in this early chart to 
facilitate the quantitative comparison, was, in fact, discontinued in later charts. 
Neurath soon concluded that it was easier to remember even, rounded numbers, 
                                                
267
 Neurath, ?Schwarzweissgraphik? (1926). English translation by Kinross, quoted in The transformer, 
79. 
 
268
 Ibid. 
 
 
 133 
 
arrived at through the process of counting symbols, than to remember the precise 
numbers written in the margins.
269
 
Following the realization about the greater need for repetition and 
simplification, the pendulum swung to the other extreme. This is evident in the charts 
that were subsequently produced for the Gemeinde Wien and shown at the GeSoLei 
exhibition in D?sseldorf in May 1926, wherein figures cut from paper were employed 
in combination with color to designate particular qualities. A chart illustrating 
insurance coverage among workers in Vienna [FIGURE 109], for example, 
employed a single, uniform pictogram to indicate a certain number of wage earners 
(in this case, each figure indicates 250,000). Colored backgrounds were then 
employed to indicate the type of coverage: blue indicates employer-provided private 
coverage; orange, public coverage for state employees; green, state-regulated 
agricultural insurance programs; and grey, uninsured. While this chart did achieve 
greater clarity through the reduction of forms than had earlier charts, quantification 
was still relatively difficult. It is not immediately apparent, for instance, that there are 
three times as many workers in private plans as in public plans. 
The GeSoLei exhibition would, in fact, prove to be a turning point in the 
development of pictorial statistics, since Neurath?s involvement in the exhibition 
brought him into contact with Gerd Arntz, who was then exhibiting work at several 
D?sseldorf venues. The critic, photographer, and art historian, Franz Roh (a long-time 
                                                
269
 Or as Neurath formulated the idea: ?Es ist besser, sich vereinfachte Mengenbilder zu merken, als 
genaue Zahlen zu vergessen. [It is better to remember simplified quantitative pictures, than to forget 
exact numbers].? Otto Neurath, ?Das Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum in Wien,? in Gesammelte 
bildp?dagogische Schriften, 192. The article originally appeared in Minerva-Zeitschrift 7, no. 9/10 
(1931): 153-156. 
 
 
 134 
 
friend of Neurath), was the first, in 1926, to suggest the suitability and potential 
application of Arntz?s work for Neurath?s pictorial statistic project and appears to 
have arranged the first meeting between them. Roh shared Neurath?s assessments 
regarding the inadequacy of the solutions so far developed for pictorial statistics and, 
in an article for Das Kunstblatt, suggested Arntz?s stylistic approach as a potential 
improvement: ?Where it would be necessary to find figures for the graphic 
presentation of colored symbols for industry or any new visual statistic,? Roh wrote, 
?as they have tried with sensuous (yet not always flawless) stylization in the Austrian 
economic hall at Gesolei, one could consider [Gerd Arntz].?
270
  
The ideological and theoretical underpinnings of Arntz?s figurative 
constructivist work would likely have had some appeal for Neurath (who, after all, 
had himself played an important role in the council movement in Munich and the self-
management movement in Vienna). However, it was, above all, the functional aspect 
of the figurative constructivist style?that is, its potential application in the design of 
standardized statistical pictograms?that was paramount in his decision to recruit 
Arntz for the project. For Arntz?s formal approach already corresponded to Neurath?s 
demand that educational pictures eliminate extraneous detail and provide the most 
important information within the viewer?s first few glances at the picture.
271
 
                                                
270
 ?Wo es n?tig w?re, M?nner f?r Darstellung graphisch farblicher Symbole der Industrie oder jener 
neuen Anschaulichkeitsstatistik zu finden, wie sie der ?sterreichische Wirtschaftssaal der Gesolei mit 
sinnlich noch nicht immer einwandfreier Stilisierung erstrebte, w?re bereits dieses noch jungen 
Menschen zu gedenken.? Franz Roh, ?Zur j?ngsten niederrheinischen Malerei,? Das Kunstblatt 10 
(1926): 365. 
 
271
 It is precisely here, in Neurath?s emphasis upon immediate visual recognition, that Roth sees a 
divergence between the artistic project of the Cologne Progressives and the social-scientific project of 
pictorial statistics. In her catalog, Painting as a Weapon (123), Roth asserts that Seiwert and Hoerle?s 
later paintings, as well as the painted woodblocks that Arntz produced throughout the 1920s, were 
intended by means of their carefully worked surfaces to foster close examination and sustained visual 
 
 135 
 
Furthermore, the duplication of forms and their ordered arrangement in rows and 
columns?features characteristic of pictorial statistic charts?were already recurring 
motifs in Arntz?s own woodcuts.
272
 
Upon meeting Arntz in 1926, Neurath invited him to work for the museum,
273
 
though Arntz did not relocate to Vienna to begin his full time employment there until 
September 1928.
274
 Even before Arntz?s arrival in Vienna, however, the museum?s 
graphic team had begun to conform in their pictogram designs to figurative 
constructivist conventions derived from Arntz?s woodcuts, which Neurath had begun 
collecting and making available to the museum team since his first meeting with 
                                                                                                                                      
engagement. She maintains, furthermore, that this kind of slow looking, in which the viewer?s attention 
is directed to the painterly process and to subtleties of the medium, runs counter to the aesthetic 
experience provided by pictorial statistics?the latter having been designed to accommodate the 
distracted types of viewing characteristic of mass audiences, whose visual sensibilities had been 
impoverished by the ?optical impressions? of film and advertisements. Roth?s argument, which seems 
to apply less in the case of the Progressives? woodcuts and linocuts, may help to explain the privileging 
of graphic works as illustrations for those articles by Alma, Tschinkel, and Neurath that emphasized 
the links between figurative constructivism and pictorial statistics (which will receive closer 
examination in the next chapter). 
 
272
 As Arntz later recounted their first meeting: ?Neurath zeigte besonderes Interesse f?r die Art meiner 
Arbeiten, in denen gleiche Figuren in horizontalen Schichten und vertikalen Reihungen dargestellt 
sind, so beispielsweise bei Ruhe und Ordnung.? [Neurath showed particular interest in those works, 
wherein identical figures were presented in horizontal registers and vertical sequences, as with Ruhe 
und Ordnung, for example.] See Arntz, Zeit unterm Messer, 21.  
 
273
 There appears to be some ambiguity in the accounts regarding which works by Arntz were decisive 
in Neurath?s decision to hire him. In Arntz?s account from 1988, he recalls that Neurath and Roh had 
together seen his painted woodblocks, rather than his prints, which were then exhibited in the Gro?e 
Kunstausstellung D?sseldorf, dates of which coincided with the GeSoLei exhibit. See Arntz, Zeit 
unterm Messer, 21. The catalog for this 1926 exhibition identifies these works as Stra?e (1926) and 
Mitropa (1926). Michael Twyman, however, referencing a ?conversation with Gerd Arntz in 1982,? 
asserts: ?Arntz is on record as having stated that it was [the] particular print [Ruhe und Ordnung 
(1926)] that led Neurth to persuade him to undertake ISOTYPE work and eventually join the team in 
Vienna.? See Twyman, ?Observations on ISOTYPE Symbols and their Varied Applications,? in 
Neurath. Zeichen, ed. Jeff Bernard and Gloria Withalm (Vienna: ?sterreichische Gesellschaft f?r 
Semiotik/Institut f?r Sozio-Semiotische Studien, 1996), 163. 
 
274
 Prior to this moment, according to Kees Broos? account, the museum lacked the necessary funding 
to offer Arntz a full-time position. See Broos, ?Bildstatistik: Wien ? Moskau ? Den Haag 1928-1965,? 
in Bool and Broos (1976), 49. 
 
 
 136 
 
Arntz in 1926.
275
 Additionally, Arntz collaborated with Neurath in the interim period 
by means of post, sending sketches for particular pictograms (though these sketches 
have not survived).
276
 
When Arntz at last arrived in Vienna in September 1928, the museum was 
nearing completion of its first full-color publication, Die bunte Welt. Stylistically, this 
book occupies a position between the earlier stages of pictorial statistic design and its 
mature phase, which would characterize the work produced after 1930. Much of Die 
bunte Welt had been designed prior to Arntz?s arrival in September of 1928, but his 
hand is evident in the design of the book?s cover [FIGURE 110] and in a few of the 
charts, such as those illustrating marriage statistics and automobile production. As 
revealed by the cover design, Arntz brought the language of the international 
modernism to the museum: the division of the cover into asymmetrical sections, 
separated by bars of varying thickness, evokes conventions associated with De Stijl, 
Constructivism, and the ?new typography? movement. The pictograms on the cover 
also reflect Arntz?s distinct ability to produce figures that are simple and schematic, 
without lapsing into a rigid geometry. This can be seen in the figure holding a Korean 
flag at the right: despite its simplicity, there is a level of nuance in the draftsmanship 
that provides it with a sense of fluidity and life. The depiction of the African figure in 
                                                
275
 As Arntz recounts: ?Man hatte unter meinem Einfluss die anf?nglichen Scherenschnitte mit denen 
man die Anschauungstafeln beklebte inzwischen durch Linoleumschnitte ersetzt... Die angewendeten 
Figurensymbole waren schon stark orientiert nach den Vorbildern entnommen aus den Holzschnitten, 
die Neurath in seiner Begeisterung, einen Zeichner gefunden zu haben der seinen Intentionen 
entsprach, ab 1926 von mir gekauft hatte.? [Under my influence the initial paper-cutouts, which were 
pasted on the viewing panels, were now replaced by linocuts? The applied figure-symbols were 
already heavily oriented towards the prototype, taken from the woodcuts, which Neurath, in his 
enthusiasm to find a draftsman who corresponded to his intentions, had purchased from me since 
1926.] Gerd Arntz, Manuscript of 3 July 1972, Otto & Marie Neurath Isotype Collection, University of 
Reading. 
 
276
 See Arntz, Zeit unterm Messer, 22. 
 
 
 137 
 
the combined frontal and profile view (a formula inspired by ancient Egyptian 
hieroglyphs) is less typical for Arntz; this device of combined views is generally 
absent from both his woodcuts as well as his pictogram designs. That he incorporated 
this device in the cover suggests an attempt to bridge the pre-existing designs with his 
own approach, and thereby achieve an overall unity in the book?s design. 
The book?s first illustration [FIGURE 111] representing the ?five groups of 
the world,?
277
 also shows certain characteristics typical of Arntz, despite the fact that 
it appropriates pictograms likely designed prior to Arntz?s arrival?again 
demonstrating Arntz?s attempt to force a continuity between his approach and the 
previous one. This becomes clear in a comparison, for example, between this 
illustration and the population chart from which the figure-types are taken [FIGURE 
112]. The illustration tries to establish an evenness of line between the different 
figures, as well as with the buildings in the background describing the settings for 
each group. Other details, such as the thicker legs for the South Asian figure (colored 
reddish-brown and wearing a turban) or the slight bend at the knee in the figures 
representing ?red? and ?white? groups, introduce a fluid and dynamic quality into the 
figures, which in the chart appear rather stiff. The combined frontal and side view 
presentation, which still used in these figure-types, is generally abandoned in later 
publications produced entirely under Arntz?s direction. 
Charts such as Automobilebestande der Erde [FIGURE 113] and 
Eheschliessungen in Deutschland [FIGURE 114], are examples in which Arntz 
appears to have had more control. These charts appear to be more directly derived 
                                                
277
 The terminology and classifications of the book reflect the historical moment of its production: 
world populations are rather crudely divided into five main groups??whites, reds, blacks, browns, and 
yellows.? 
 
 138 
 
from the forms developed in his earlier woodcuts [FIGURES 115, 116, 117, 118, 
119]. Woodcuts such as Vornehme Stra?e (1924), Mitropa (1925), Die Ordnung 
(1926), and Hotel (1927)?as well as works produced later, like Oben und unten 
(1931)?feature similarly schematized automobiles. The gray-tone cityscape 
background in the automobile chart also reflects features typical of Arntz?s graphic 
work: the even outline, the alternation between opacity and transparency, and the use 
of grid-based patterns and windows as rhythmic elements can also be seen in these 
earlier prints. Arntz?s distinctive hand is even more apparent in the chart showing 
fluctuating rates of marriage in Germany between 1911 and 1926. The conventions 
here used to represent the female figure?the comparatively curved body and legs 
that end in points?also appear in earlier woodcuts by Arntz [FIGURES 120, 121, 
122, 123], such as Schauenfenster I (1925), Spiegel (1925), and Bank (1927). In his 
woodcut Warenhaus (1927), the transparent elevator lift at the top center of the image 
features men?s and women?s legs represented identically to those in the chart. Charts 
like Altersaufbau [FIGURE 124], on the other hand, reflect the pre-linocut, scissors-
based method of production, which characterize the charts prior to Arntz?s arrival. 
Die bunte Welt also reflects the introduction of some conventions associated 
with the ?new typography,? a movement then in a still early phase of its 
development.
278
 Paul Renner?s Futura type [FIGURE 125], which was adopted by 
the museum as its official typeface in the year of Die bunte Welt?s publication, was 
                                                
278
 This movement corresponded to other developments in modern design in its demand that function 
(rather than aesthetic considerations) dictate form, and in its embrace of mechanical reproduction and 
standardization. Jan Tschichold emerged as one the of the movement?s most important spokesmen with 
the 1928 publication of his book, Die neue Typographie, which, among its numerous prescriptions, 
advocated the use of sans-serif type as ?the only one in spiritual accordance with our time.? See Jan 
Tschichold, The New Typography: A Handbook for Modern Designers, trans. Ruari McLean 
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995), 73. 
 
 
 139 
 
one of the few sans-serif types to receive the praise of the new movement?s main 
spokesman, Jan Tschichold, who described Futura as ?[making] a significant step in 
the right direction.?
279
 The impetus to adopt Renner?s Futura may have, in fact, come 
from Tschichold himself, who briefly collaborated with Neurath around this time.
280
 
Arntz, whose responsibilities at the museum included typographic design as well as 
the design of pictograms, was well acquainted with the principles of the ?new 
typography? movement.
281
 Besides the influence of Tschichold, Arntz would have 
also absorbed ideas about typography from Seiwert, several of whose designs were 
actually included in Tschichold?s book [FIGURES 126]. In addition to the use of 
Renner?s sans-serif typeface, publications such as Die bunte Welt exhibit features of 
the ?new typography? in the asymmetrical layouts, the use of open or negative space, 
and the incorporation of heavy rules to emphasize textual elements [FIGURE 127].  
This shift, which coincided with Arntz?s arrival, becomes particularly clear 
when comparing the title page of Die bunte Welt?as well as the front and back 
covers of the 1929 K?rnten exhibition guide [FIGURE 128]?with publications 
produced just prior to Arntz?s arrival, such as the 1928 pamphlet on the 
?Development of agriculture and business in Germany? [FIGURE 129], which still 
employed symmetrical layouts, and hand-drawn letters. Nonetheless, the Vienna 
                                                
279
 Tschichold, The New Typography, 74. 
 
280
 Tschichold had, since 1926, taught alongside Renner at the Meisterschule f?r Deutschlands 
Buchdrucker in Munich, and in 1929 was offered a position at the Gesellschafts- und 
Wirtschaftsmuseum, which he declined on account of financial considerations. See Burke, Active 
Literature: Jan Tschichold and New Typography, 120. Neurath?s involvement with Tschichold was 
likely brought about through their mutual friend, Franz Roh, who had previously arranged the meeting 
between Neurath and Arntz. Roh, who was also based in Munich, collaborated with Tschichold around 
this time on the publication Foto-Auge (Stuttgart: Wedekind, 1929). 
 
281
 According to Kinross, Arntz?s copy of Tschichold?s book is inscribed with the date 1928, the year 
of its publication. See Kinross, ?Otto Neurath?s contribution to visual communication,? 28.  
 
 140 
 
Method can only be said to have reached near-maturity with the publication of the 
Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft atlas. While certain earlier stylistic conventions still 
persisted in this work?and while the idiosyncratic character of individual artists? 
hands had not yet been entirely subordinated to a single style?Gesellschaft und 
Wirtschaft reflected the new level of aesthetic unity that had been achieved under the 
leadership of Gerd Arntz, and which he would continue to refine and standardize in 
the coming months and years. 
Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft has often been referred to as an ?atlas,? on 
account the numerous maps (or, more accurately, cartograms), which constitute more 
than half of its one hundred charts. Some of the cartograms feature a small map 
alongside the pictorial statistic chart (as in the example of the chart showing world 
cereal and rice production), but the majority of them superimpose statistical 
pictograms on top of the map projections themselves. In fact, some of the 
publication?s most important formal and conceptual innovations took place within the 
realm of cartography, under the guidance of the renowned cartographer Karl Peucker 
(1859-1940), who Neurath brought in to oversee this aspect of the work. Peucker 
employed a variety of different projections?as well as innovative croppings and 
orientations?in order to illustrate a wide range of historical and contemporary 
themes. The book?s final chart provided an overview of the thirteen different types of 
maps featured throughout [FIGURE 130], with an accompanying explanation in the 
appendix. The projection chosen most often for the atlas, Neurath explains, is 
?Eckert?s equal-area planisphere,? which, as a ?sinusoidal projection,? avoids the 
 
 141 
 
distortions of the more commonly used Mercator map,
282
 in which Africa and South 
America appear to be equal in size to the much smaller Greenland. Neurath and 
Peucker, in fact, designed a chart to demonstrate the distorting character of the 
Mercator projection [FIGURE 131], which was reproduced in Neurath?s article of 
the same year, ?Das Sachbild? [The Factual Picture]. The use of Eckert?s projection 
rather than Mercator?s, in this sense, corresponds to the Vienna Method?s principle of 
expressing quantities through repeating pictograms of the same size, rather than 
through their magnification, in that both the equal-area projection and the equal-sized 
pictograms were meant to avoid the potential misreadings created by distortions of 
scale. Other inventive cartographic devices include the shift from a northern to a 
north-western orientation in the maps depicting the eighth-century Arabian empire 
[FIGURE 132], which, Neurath explained, better served to illustrate the outward 
expansion of power from the Arabian peninsula.
283
 In contrast to maps like this one, 
however, in which pictograms are distributed across the map in order to show the 
geographic location of densely populated areas, maps depicting the corresponding 
expansion of the geography and populations of individual cities [FIGURES 133, 
134], separated the individual rows of pictograms from the maps themselves. Writing 
later about the experience designing these city maps, Marie Neurath recalled: 
how I sat beside [the draftsman] Hans Thomas as he worked on the map of 
Rome and, street for street, said to him: keep, or leave out. The surviving 
                                                
282
 Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft, 103. 
 
283
 Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft, 103. Marie Neurath later wrote: ?[Otto] Neurath had many new 
projections drawn, always equal area, which were appropriate for our quantitative presentations. He 
ordered world maps with different meridians in the center, in order to see the world in different 
perspectives. For the Arabian Empire he wanted a map in which Arabia stood in the middle like a 
pillar and the conquered areas spread out to the sides like wings.? See Marie Neurath, ?Wiener 
Methode and Isotype: my apprenticeship and partnership with Otto Neurath,? in The transformer, 41  
 
 
 142 
 
pattern of the ancient streets had to be clearly visible in medieval and modern 
Rome.
284
 
 
Marie Neurath?s description highlights the critical role that selection and omission 
played in the ?transformation? process, both with regard to cartographic design in 
particular, and the design of pictorial statistic charts generally.
285
 Otto Neurath was 
always emphatic with regard to this point, which he viewed as a fundamental feature 
of the Vienna Method: 
A good teacher is conscious that only a certain amount of knowledge will be 
kept in mind. So he puts into his picture only what is necessary. He is of the 
opinion that a simple picture kept in memory is better than any number of 
complex ones which have gone out of it.
286
 
 
Beyond cartographic innovations, Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft solidified the 
overall aesthetic conventions (including the further standardization of many of the 
pictograms and the typographic devices) that Neurath?s future pictorial statistic 
publications would follow. The stylistic unity and cohesiveness that was achieved 
under Arntz?s direction becomes especially clear in comparing the charts representing 
?Peoples of the world? in Die bunte Welt and Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft [FIGURES 
135, 136]. In their frontal orientation, the pictograms in Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft 
appear sturdier, more streamlined and simplified. Their outlines are more evenly and 
consistently drawn, and their proportions have been coordinated with one another to 
achieve a visual equality. Also, the figures fill out their allotted space more evenly 
than in earlier versions, which allows for greater possibilities of combination with 
                                                
284
 Marie Neurath, The transformer, 44. 
 
285
 Neurath, in fact, compared the work of the transformer to that of the cartographer. See Nikolow, 
262. 
 
286
 Neurath, International Picture Language, 28. 
 
 
 143 
 
other pictograms. This becomes clear in the revised chart for ?Religions of the 
World.? In Die bunte Welt entirely new pictograms were invented for each religion, 
each one vastly different from the other [FIGURE 137]. The same chart in 
Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft by contrast, utilizes the same pictograms as the ?Peoples 
of the world? charts, merely superimposing religious symbols [FIGURE 138].   
The advantages that come with the adoption of compound pictograms are also 
apparent in a comparison of the charts representing the ?Development of economic 
systems? from the two respective publications. The pictograms representing 
economic systems in the chart from Die bunte Welt [FIGURE 139] are set as 
background forms (the gear wheel represents modern industry-based economies; the 
hammer, traditional craft-based economies; and the bow and arrow, ?primitive? 
economies based on hunting, gathering and basic farming), above which the rows of 
figures are superimposed. But these superimpositions obscure the pictograms for 
economic systems. Additionally, the background drawings, intended to link the 
economic systems with different cultural and geographic settings, tend to clutter the 
chart. The solution reached in Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft was to eliminate this 
aspect from the chart showing chronological development [FIGURE 140], and 
design a second chart, ?Economic systems of the world,? connecting economic 
systems with cultural groups [FIGURE 141]. Here again for the third time, the 
pictograms depicting cultural groups are reused in combination with the standardized 
pictograms for economic systems to form new compound pictograms. 
The charts representing ?World auto supply? [FIGURES 142, 143] give 
additional insight into the refinement of pictorial statistic conventions between 1928 
 
 144 
 
and 1930. Three features are noteworthy in these charts. The first two features 
concern the F?hrungsbilder (literally ?guide pictures??the thematic pictorial bands 
that often run along the upper part of the charts) and the axial arrangement. Where the 
earlier version in Die bunte Welt included two F?hrungsbilder, set as backdrops for 
the two rows of cars and indicating the part of the world car supply belonging to the 
US, the later version?on account of its central axial composition?was able to move 
the F?hrungsbild to the top of the image and the avoid the redundancy of the two 
backdrops. Through this compositional realignment (which represents the design 
work of the ?transformer?), the overall image is opened up and allows for an easier 
comparative reading. In a third development, also meant to facilitate counting and 
comparison, the automobile pictograms have been given frontal orientation in the 
later version, while the stacking of cars has been abandoned altogether. Beyond 
considerations of countability, however, the frontal orientation of the cars may also be 
seen as an aesthetic strategy: in their turn towards the direction of the viewer, the car 
pictograms become more engaging as images. 
 Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft was a monumental undertaking, and completing 
the book in time for its scheduled publication required an increase in resources and a 
significant expansion of the museum team. To this end, the Bibliographisches Institut 
provided the museum with a generous budget; a wide range of specialists, including 
several more artists, were brought in to help complete the work. Peter Alma and 
Augustin Tschinkel, both of whom had only come into the Progressives? circle in the 
previous year, joined the team in Vienna during the summer of 1929, having been 
 
 145 
 
recommended to Arntz by Franz Wilhelm Seiwert.
287
 Together with older members of 
the museum team, such as the artist Erwin Bernath, the three members of the Group 
of Progressive Artists designed (and redesigned) a vast assortment of pictograms. The 
pictograms and charts for Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft were produced under Arntz?s 
artistic direction, but the vast scale of the project and the limited time allotted for its 
production did not allow for systematic control over all aspects of the production. The 
result was a publication that still does not possess the thorough and complete stylistic 
unification that later pictorial statistic charts would exhibit. The figural pictograms, 
for example, still exhibit a variety of stylistic conventions [FIGURE 144].  
 It was only after the completion of Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft when, as 
Marie Neurath recalled, ?there was more leisure,? that ?[Otto] Neurath sat down with 
Arntz and started a systematic review of the symbols, their interrelation and 
combination.?
288
 The museum?s next major work, Technik und Menschheit, reflects 
this further systematization and refinement of the Vienna Method. The publication, a 
set of three portfolios, each containing eight charts printed on loose-leaves, exhibits 
continuity with Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft in its physical format and overall 
aesthetic, but addresses a narrower and more specialized range of themes (machinery, 
electricity, and transportation). In addition to reflecting the further refinement of the 
Vienna Method, however, Technik und Menschheit also illustrates the method?s 
flexibility and adaptability. The chart describing ?Manpower in the transport of a 
heavy object? [FIGURE 145], for example, introduces perspectival arrangements of 
                                                
287
 See Arntz, Zeit unterm Messer, 24. 
 
288
 Marie Neurath, The transformer, 44. 
 
 
 146 
 
the figure groups, in order to suggest their spatial relationship to the objects being 
moved. 
Furthermore, Technik und Menschheit incorporated several photographic 
images?something uncharacteristic for pictorial statistics. While photography did 
play a relatively important role as visual aids in the museum?s displays, the medium 
was generally considered unsuitable for pictorial statistic representation, since, as 
Neurath argued, ?one cannot photograph social facts.?
289
 That is to say, while one 
could photograph a particular instance?an individual arrest, for example?one 
cannot photograph a trend or fluctuation in arrests over a period of time. Neurath 
therefore favored drawn symbols over photographs in the representation of ?social 
facts,? for the same reason he favored schematic pictograms over detailed drawings. 
Exceptions are to be found only in the rare charts that deal with comparisons of a 
qualitative nature, rather than comparisons of quantities or geographic distributions. 
The chart describing the differences between first and third class carriages [FIGURE 
146], for example, utilized photographs in order to illustrate contrasts in material 
comfort. In another illustration from Technik und Menschheit, depicting specific 
instances of the application of electrical power?rather than trends in its 
application?photographic images were also seen as the logical choice [FIGURE 
147]. Such charts demonstrate the variety and adaptability of the museum?s work in 
visual education. 
 
                                                
289
 Neurath, ?Visual Education: Humanisation Versus Popularisation,? 291-92. 
 
 
 147 
 
Concluding Remarks 
The work of the Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum in visual education?
above all, the pictorial statistic project?can be seen as the outcome of several 
intersecting trajectories. Certainly, the project is unthinkable without Otto Neurath?s 
unique vision: the work largely stemmed from his professional activities, political 
commitments, and longstanding personal interests. At the same time, Neurath was 
always emphatic about the collective character of the project, and in this light, the 
contributions of Gerd Arntz as draftsman and Marie Reidemeister as transformer 
were equally critical to the project?s realization and success. Additionally, larger 
modernist trends exerted considerable influence on the project?s principal designers, 
whose ideas were developed through interactions and exchanges with an international 
network of cultural and intellectual figures from a vast array of disciplines. Finally, it 
is important to emphasize that the Vienna Method was initially developed to meet a 
set of needs specific to interwar Vienna and was sustained until 1934 through the 
support of the Social Democratic Workers? Party of Austria, which embraced the 
museum?s work as part of its strategy of Bildungspolitik. 
Towards the end of the 1920s, however?as the precarious position of Social 
Democracy in Austria became increasingly apparent?Neurath realized that the long-
term viability of his project could only be secured through international support. To 
this end he began taking steps to expand the museum?s operations internationally, 
establishing partnerships, consultancies, and parallel organizations in a variety of 
locations including Moscow, Berlin, Brussels, Amsterdam, The Hague, London, and 
New York (developments which will be discussed in the concluding chapter). That 
 
 148 
 
the work of the museum was so successfully adapted outside Vienna can be attributed 
to several factors, including the internationalist outlook of the Vienna Method?s 
designers, the increasingly international character of the subjects they treated, the 
flexibility of the design approach, and the modernist aesthetic that characterized its 
formal presentation. In this way, the museum?s work stood apart from the aesthetic 
conservatism and cultural specificity that generally characterized the Social 
Democratic Bildungsvereine in Vienna.
290
 In addition to Neurath?s contacts with 
policymakers and connections within the academic community, the Vienna Method 
was dispersed through channels and networks maintained by members of the 
international artistic avant-garde. The next chapter will examine the part played by 
the international avant-garde in the dissemination of this method; it will further 
consider how the pictograms? designers?Arntz, Alma, and Tschinkel?viewed the 
Vienna Method, both in relation to the modern movement generally, and in relation to 
their own ?free? work in particular. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                                
290
 See Anson Rabinbach, ?Red Vienna: Symbol and Strategy,? in The Austrian Socialist Experiment: 
Social Democracy and Austromarxism, 1918-1934 (Boulder: Westview Press, 1985), 190. 
 
 149 
 
Chapter 4: Sociological Graphics and Pictorial Statistics 
 
 
Figurative Constructivism at the Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum 
Beyond their role as source material for pictogram design, figurative 
constructivist artworks were themselves exhibited at the Gesellschafts- und 
Wirtschaftsmuseum in Vienna. In 1929 Arntz executed a large-scale painting for the 
Volkshalle in the Neues Rathaus (where the museum had maintained an exhibition 
space since 1927), wherein he presented Viennese society as an architectural cross-
section [FIGURE 148].
291
  The painting, titled Sozialarbeit der Stadt Wien [Social 
Work in the City of Vienna], depicted subjects relevant to the museum?s educational 
program, and illustrated accomplishments of the municipal government. The 
construction of large-scale workers? housing blocks dominates the center of the 
painting and serves as a compositional hub around which are organized images of 
amenities related to education (such as kindergartens), welfare (school lunches), 
health (dental care), and recreation (public parks and pools). The painting in this way 
illustrated the social policy of ?Red Vienna,? of which the Gemeindebauen 
                                                
291
 This work, titled Sozialarbeit der Stadt Wien [Social Work in the City of Vienna], was lost after the 
museum?s closing in 1934. It was the only wall painting ever executed by Arntz (though murals were a 
significant medium for several members of the Progressives circle, including Seiwert, Hoerle, and 
much later for Alma). See Peter Hielscher, ?Die Wandbilder der ?Progressiven,?? in Politische 
Konstruktivisten: die?Gruppe progressiver K?nstler? K?ln (Berlin: Neue Gesellschaft f?r bildende 
Kunst, 1975).  
 
 
 150 
 
[communal building projects] were the crowning achievement, and to which many 
aspects of working class social life were connected.
292
 
A small space within the painting (in the lower left center, adjacent to the 
construction scaffolding) is also allocated to the subject of settlement housing and 
garden allotments, indicated by the one-storey building and small fenced-in yard 
[FIGURE 148b]. By this moment apartment block construction had long since 
superseded such small-scale housing schemes, but the theme would have been an 
important one for the museum: in its earliest incarnation as the Museum f?r Siedlung 
und St?dtebau, it had been an advocate of this latter type of housing. Additionally, 
depictions of city infrastructure?bridge construction, modern public transportation, 
street lighting?occupy the periphery of the image, all linked through a cross-section 
style of presentation, which echoes the construction scaffolding at the painting?s 
center. Arntz had previously used this cross-section device in woodcuts like Ruhe und 
Ordnung (1926) [FIGURE 149], where disparate settings and social contexts (work, 
leisure, residential) were brought together into a single architectural structure. This 
type of presentation was also employed by the museum in charts, such as the one 
Arntz designed for the 1929 ?Carinthia exhibition,? showing the scope of functions 
for the Chambers for Workers and Employees [FIGURE 150].  
In addition to the cross-section presentation, Arntz?s painting also evokes the 
conventions of pictorial statistic charts through the standardization of the figure-
types. The three figures at the left side of the painting stand for the lower, middle, and 
upper classes, as indicated by variations in their respective uniforms [FIGURE 
148c]: the worker, at the far left is unadorned, in a plain shirt with his left arm 
                                                
292
 See Rabinbach, ?Red Vienna: Symbol and Strategy,? 187-193. 
 
 151 
 
outstretched and holding a single coin; to the right stands a figure in identical pose, 
but adorned with a bowler hat and suit jacket?a petite bourgeois?his arm in the 
same position but holding a medium sized money bag; the third figure retains the 
same pose and proportions but wears, in addition to the suit jacket, a vest and top hat, 
and holds a bigger money bag?a member of the haute bourgeoisie or the 
aristocracy.
293
 These standardized figures function in a manner similar to statistical 
pictograms: they are like paper-dolls, repeatable armatures, upon which costumes can 
be attached and slight modifications can be made to differentiate identical figures and 
change their meaning. 
In depicting themes relevant to the museum?s work, and in referencing the 
programs of the Viennese municipal government (which largely financed the 
museum?s projects), Arntz?s painting thus served to link figurative constructivism 
with both the museum and the socially progressive agenda of the city. There were, it 
should be noted, significant differences between the position taken by Arntz (and the 
other Progressives), who expressed support for the revolutionary workers? council 
movement, and that of the Viennese Social Democrats, who advocated a program of 
?revolution through reform.? Nonetheless, the social-educational mission of the 
museum itself and its origins in Neurath?s own efforts to promote self-management 
programs among the Viennese working class had great appeal for Arntz.
294
 Moreover, 
                                                
293
 Hielscher interprets this as a reference to the city?s progressive income tax policy. In any case, the 
three figures point to the theme of income distribution and wealth inequality?one of the subjects 
treated in the museum?s pictorial statistic charts. See Hielscher, ?Die Wandbilder der ?Progressiven,?? 
in Politische Konstruktivisten (1975). 
  
294
 Years later Arntz would comment on this tension between his sympathy for the museum?s program 
and his skepticism about the administered state socialism of Vienna: ?The working [of] this institute 
fitted quite definitely into my political vision. It was above all the enlightenment on social 
relationships in which I could give shape to my ideas. Only I was a bit more revolutionary, more to the 
 
 152 
 
the link between figurative constructivism and Vienna was reinforced in the 
following year when Arntz?s painting was reproduced in the Progressives? journal a 
bis z and in the Wendingen issue devoted to ?sociological graphics and pictorial 
statistics??appearing within the latter as a large-scale reproduction on the first page. 
In these contexts, the image of Arntz?s painting served to connect the work of the 
Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum with the international artistic current 
designated by the terms ?figurative constructivism? and  ?sociological graphics.?  
 Figurative constructivist prints and drawings were also represented within the 
museum?s collection. In addition to Arntz?s woodcuts, Neurath also collected graphic 
work by other members of the Group of Progressive Artists, including Alma, 
Tschinkel, and Seiwert. As an expression of the themes that these artworks shared 
with pictorial statistic representations, Neurath and several members of the 
Progressives circle began at this time to describe figurative constructivist prints and 
drawings as ?sociological graphics.?
295
 In several articles Neurath praised the 
                                                                                                                                      
left than the socialists in Vienna. I was at the time for a real overthrow of society.? Quoted in Max 
Danser, Interview with Gerd Arntz, Pulchri 8, no. 3, 1980. Typed manuscript (translated from the 
Dutch into English by Marie Neurath) in the Otto and Marie Neurath Collection, University of 
Reading. 
 
295
 The term appears to have been introduced by Neurath in 1930 in an article in Die Form, the journal 
of the Deutscher Werkbund [German Work Federation], which featured a reproduction of Arntz?s 
woodcut Bank, from his Zw?lf H?user series. See ?Das Sachbild. 1: Bildhafte P?dagogik,? Die Form 5, 
no. 2 (1930): 34. Alma and Tschinkel quickly followed suit, employing the term in several articles 
published that same year. See, for example, Alma, ?Beeldstatistiek en sociologische grafiek,? 
Wendingen 11, no. 9 (1930): 3-7; and Tschinkel, ?Zobrazen? mnostv? a kolektivn? tvary: k vb	ru ze 
sb?rky sociologick? grafiky sociologick?ho a hospod?
sk?ho musea ve V?dni? [Quantitative Pictures 
and Collective Form: A Selection of Sociological Graphics from the Sociological and Economic 
Museum in Vienna], vtvarn? snahy 11, no. 8 (1930): 136-137.  
 
 
 153 
 
Progressives for their collective vision, and on occasion used the museum as a venue 
to promote their work.
296
  
Likewise, the artists viewed their relationship with the museum as an 
opportunity to publicize and exhibit their work, and reach a still greater audience. 
Tschinkel, for example, in an article about the museum in the Czech arts journal 
vtvarn? snahy, made a point to mention the museum?s ?collection of sociological 
graphics, from which exhibitions are occasionally staged.?
297
 A follow-up article in 
this same journal on the subject of figurative constructivist prints and drawings 
carried the subtitle, ?A selection of sociological graphics from the Sociological and 
Economic Museum in Vienna,? again emphasizing the anticipated partnership 
between the Group of Progressive Artists and the museum.
298
 Perhaps the most 
significant articulation of this partnership came in the form of an announcement that 
appeared in the November 1930 issue of the Progressives? journal, a bis z, describing 
the creation of a new ?Department of sociological graphics? at the museum, with the 
goal of ?connecting the museum?s work to the most progressive formal and critical 
artistic creation of our time.?
299
 While this department was likely a relatively informal 
                                                
296
 In an article from 1931 Neurath describes the occasional exhibition of ?sociological graphics and 
black-and-white woodcuts? within the museum-affiliated Institut f?r bildhafte P?dagogik [Institute for 
Visual Education]. See Neurath, ?Das Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum in Wien,? in 
Gesammelte bildp?dagogische Schriften, 192-196. The article originally appeared in Minerva-
Zeitschrift 7, nos. 9/10 (1931): 153-156. In other essays from this period, Neurath describes his own 
efforts to ?apply the media of visualization in the field of social progress? as ?fortunately coinciding 
with the efforts of a few graphic artists, which apply simplified human and object forms, mainly to 
depict social conditions.? See Neurath ?Isotype en de graphiek,? De Delver 9, no. 2 (Delft 1934): 17-
29. 
 
297
 Tschinkel, ?Pr?ce Sociologick?ho a Hospod?sk?ho Musea ve V?dni? [The Work of the 
Sociological and Economic Museum in Vienna], vtvarn? snahy 11, no. 5 (1929): 81. 
 
298
 Tschinkel, ?Zobrazen? mnostv? a kolektivn? tvary,? 136-137. 
 
 
 154 
 
affair, these repeated references suggest that the collaboration between Neurath and 
the Progressives was soon conceived in broader terms than just the design of charts 
and pictograms?even if this remained the primary and most enduring aspect of their 
collaboration. 
 
Pictorial Statistics in Avant-garde Publications 
While their work designing pictograms for the Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft 
atlas left less time for Arntz, Alma, and Tschinkel to pursue their independent artistic 
production, these years of collaboration in Vienna did in fact mark the most fruitful 
period for the dissemination of their earlier graphic work?mainly in the form of 
avant-garde publications. Additionally, all three artists utilized these publications to 
explain and promote the work of the Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum, in some 
cases drawing parallels between the museum?s work and their own artistic projects.
300
 
Between 1929 and 1930 all three artists produced essays for avant-garde journals in 
their respective languages, elucidating the principles of the Vienna Method, 
reproducing examples of charts, and considering the relationship between the free and 
applied work. One of the first such articulations, an essay by Tschinkel, appeared in 
                                                                                                                                      
299
 ?Der Gr?nder und Leiter des Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseums in Wien hat in seinem 
Bem?hen, der Arbeit des Museums die Verbindung zum fortschrittlichen, formalen und kritischen 
Schaffen unserer Zeit zu geben, dem Museum eine Abteilung ?soziologische Grafik? angegliedert. [The 
founder and director of the Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum in Vienna, in his efforts to connect 
the work of the museum with formally and critically progressive artistic creations of our time, has 
incorporated a department of ?sociological graphics.?]? In a bis z 2, no. 12 (November 1930): 46. 
 
300
 The most emphatic suggestions of this nature came from Alma and Tschinkel. See, for example, 
Alma, ?Beeldstatistiek en sociologische grafiek,? Wendingen 11, no. 9 (1930): 3-7; Tschinkel, 
?Zobrazen? mnostv? a kolektivn? tvary,? vtvarn? snahy 11, no. 8 (1930): 136-137; and ?Statistik und 
Kollektivform,? a bis z 2, no. 13 (January 1931): 51. See also Arntz, ?Bewegung in Kunst und 
Statistik,? a bis z 1, no. 8 (May 1930): 29. 
 
 
 155 
 
1929 in the major Czech arts journal, vtvarn? snahy [FIGURE 151].
301
 In his essay, 
Tschinkel briefly summarized the aims of the Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum, 
and then described the method?s distinctive features, as well as its advantages over 
traditional methods of graphical representation of quantitative data. With regard to 
pictogram design, Tschinkel emphasized Arntz?s leading role, describing ?the matter-
of-fact, constructive expression of symbols, legends, and tables? as ?essentially the 
work of the artist Gerd Arntz and the design department under his supervision.?
302
 In 
contrast to the essays by his colleagues, however, Tschinkel?s discussion dealt more 
broadly with the museum itself, describing the museum?s utilization of a wide variety 
of visual aids beyond pictorial statistic charts, including models, metal wall-panels 
and maps with magnetic signs, lanternslides, and photographs?some examples of 
which are reproduced in the article [FIGURE 152]. Additionally, he mentions the 
museum?s ?archive for pedagogical pictures? where ?sociological graphics? are 
occasionally exhibited. Figurative constructivist prints and drawings from the 
museum?s collection was the subject of a follow up article some months later, 
wherein Tschinkel considered some of the shared aims that linked his ?free? and 
applied work (as will be discussed below). These two essays, however, represent the 
Prague-based journal?s only coverage of the work of the Gesellschafts- und 
Wirtschaftsmuseum.  
                                                
301
 Tschinkel, ?Pr?ce Sociologick?ho a Hospod?sk?ho Musea ve V?dni,? vtvarn? snahy 11, no. 5 
(1929-30): 81. 
 
302
 ??
e v
cn
 konstruktivn? tvarov vraz znaek, n?pis a tabulek je v podstat
 d?lem mal?e Gerta 
Arntze a j?m ?zeneho odd
leni pro n?vrhy.? Tschinkel, ?Pr?ce Sociologick?ho a Hospod?sk?ho 
Musea ve V?dni,? 82. 
 
 
 156 
 
By contrast, the Cologne-based journal and official ?organ? of the Group of 
Progressive Artists, a bis z, carried more sustained coverage of the museum?s work. 
During the course of its three-and-a-half year run (from October 1929 to February 
1933), it featured the work of the Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum on five 
separate occasions (along with passing references in other issues).
303
 Images of the 
museum?s work first surfaced in the journal?s May 1930 issue [FIGURE 153], 
accompanying an essay titled ?Bewegung in Kunst und Statistik? [Movement in Art 
and Statistics], wherein Arntz offered his reflections on the changing socials roles that 
painters and statisticians (or more accurately, information-graphic designers) would 
play, as society underwent political transformation. Here Arntz describes the painter 
and statistician as caught in a transitional historical moment. Both at present still 
serve the interests of the current social and economic order. But as the work of 
painters and statisticians produces an increasingly self-conscious picture of these 
interests, their work, Arntz claims, should lead to the realization that the current order 
could not continue:  
?the clearer a thing is articulated, the more clearly it proves that in the end it 
only has meaning to the extent that it is directed towards the general public; 
and the more this meaning is refined through its good form, the more it urges 
towards the transformation of its position within contemporary life. This is the 
case as well with statistics.
304
 
 
                                                
303
 For reproductions and articles discussing the museum?s work see issues no. 8 (May 1930), no. 9 
(July 1930), no. 13 (January 1931), no. 28 (November 1932), and no. 29 (December 1932); for 
additional references to the museum see issues no. 12 (November 1930) and no. 22 (February 1932). 
 
304
 ?...je klarer eine Sache ausgearbeitet umso klarer erweist sie, dass sie am Ende nur in der 
Anwendung f?r die Allgemeinheit ihren Sinn hat und umso offener dieser Sinn durch ihre gute form 
wird, umso mehr dr?ngt sie zur Umw?lzung ihrer Stellung im heutigen Leben. Bei der Statistik ist es 
auch so.? Arntz, ?Bewegung in Kunst und Statistik,? a bis z 1, no. 8 (May 1930): 29.  
 
 
 157 
 
While at present, Arntz laments, painting and statistics can only observe, describe, 
and analyze contemporary social conditions, ultimately these analyses should 
generate an active demand for social change. Arntz?s position here was surely meant 
to evoke Marx?s critique of philosophy?that it has only ever interpreted the world, 
when its goal should really be to change the world?though it also echoes the title of 
Franz Seiwert?s 1924 linocut, ?Erkenntnis der Welt treibt zur ?nderung der Welt? 
[Awareness of the World Drives the Transformation of the World] [FIGURE 33]. In 
cultivating this greater awareness and more effective powers of observation, 
developments in modern art, according to Arntz, were leading the way, and set an 
example for visual education: 
The work in nascent instructional media is a task that can be carried out with 
the experience of painting in the last years. The development of the means 
provides ever more possibilities for greater versatility in its use and further 
leads from mere observation to the vital demand for change?
305
 
 
While Arntz?s rather abstract discussion made no direct mention of the 
Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum, the accompanying illustrations made clear 
that the questions he tried to address with this essay had arisen from his work at the 
museum. The illustrations, which included two pages from the recently published 
Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft atlas, an image of Arntz?s painting for the Neues Rathaus 
                                                
305
 ?Die Arbeit an den darniederliegenden Belehrungsmitteln ist eine Aufgabe, die mit den 
Erfahrungen der Malerei der letzten Jahre durchgef?hrt werden kann.  Die Ausbildung der Mittel gibt 
immer mehr M?glichkeit zur Benutzung in gro?er Vielseitigkeit und f?hrt weiter von der blo?en 
Konstatierung, zur lebendigen Aufforderung zur ?nderung...? Arntz, ?Bewegung in Kunst und 
Statistik,? a bis z 1, no. 8 (May 1930): 29. It is curious that Arntz employs the term ?painting? in his 
discussion, rather than ?art,? ?designing,? or ?printmaking,? since he generally used these latter terms 
in reference to himself; in speaking of his limited painting production, described himself as a ?Sunday 
painter.? See Arntz, Zeit unterm Messer, 29. 
 
 
 158 
 
Vienna, and Seiwert?s linocut Feierabend [Quitting Time],
306
 served to indicate both 
formal and iconographic points of overlap between these two types of work 
[FIGURES 153, 154]. Additionally, the charts chosen from the atlas for reproduction 
(one showing changing proportions of workers over several decades in different sized 
commercial enterprises in Germany, and the other illustrating the number of strikes 
and factory lockouts over the previous decades in Germany, France, and England),
307
 
would have had particular resonance for the creators and readership of a bis z: the 
iconography featured in these charts?the worker-types, the saw-tooth rooftops, and 
factory smokestacks?had long been persistent features within figurative 
constructivist artworks, as can be seen in Seiwert?s linocut, reproduced on the 
following page at the end of Arntz?s essay. 
Arntz did address the work of the museum directly and in more concrete terms 
in a second essay published in the journal?s next issue, which was accompanied by 
further examples of the museum?s pictorial statistic work [FIGURE 155].
308
 After 
summarizing some of the basic features of the Vienna Method?the expression of 
quantity through repetition, the simplification of forms, the utilization of ?a clear 
typography,? and the function of the thematic guide pictures (Arntz calls them 
?Einf?hrungsbilder?)?Arntz?s discussion turns to the social significance of the 
museum?s work. ?What must then be considered,? he writes, ?is the extent to which 
                                                
306
 This work had earlier served as the cover image of Die Aktion 15, no. 11 (1925), and was later used 
as the cover image for the booklet soziale grafik (Kladno, 1932). The print was also included in the 
1934 compilation, f. w. seiwert ? gem?lde ? grafik ? schriften (1934), published in Prague by Arntz 
and Tschinkel. The work, which was produced in 1922, is misdated as it appears in a bis z.  
 
307
 See Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft, 85, 88. 
 
308
 See Arntz, ?Zur Methode des Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseums in Wien,? a bis z 1, no. 9 
(July 1930): 34. 
 
 
 159 
 
the different subjects and especially the representation of the developing social 
struggles would transform the method itself, which is currently applied in a certain 
democratic ?objectivity.??
309
 With this last comment regarding ?democratic 
?objectivity???by which Arntz seems to imply political neutrality?a fundamental 
difference between Arntz (as well as the other members of the Group of Progressive 
Artists) and Neurath becomes apparent. While for Neurath, the Vienna Method?s 
perceived neutrality constituted its strength, Arntz seems to have viewed this same 
feature with skepticism. Arntz concludes his discussion with the implication that the 
method?s emancipatory potential might be better realized outside the Social 
Democratic institutional framework in which it is currently made to operate: ?But, 
one can only repeat that a start has been made, and the further application and 
development of the method depend not least upon anyone who uses it to mobilize the 
transforming process of our worldview.?
310
 
Shortly after the first appearance of the museum?s work in a bis z, an issue of 
the Amsterdam-based journal Wendingen appeared, devoted to the combined themes 
of ?pictorial statistics and sociological graphics,? and featuring an essay on the 
subjects by Peter Alma. The essay is divided into two short sections, each 
corresponding to the two themes. In the first section (on pictorial statistics), Alma 
follows the example of his colleagues, defining the Vienna Method, explaining its 
                                                
309
 ?Es m?sste dann untersucht werden: [...] wie weit die verschiedenen Gebiete und besonders die 
Darstellung sozialer K?mpfe umformend wirken w?rde auf die Methode selbst, die jetzt in einer 
gewissen demokratischen ?Objektivit?t? angewandt wird.? Arntz, ?Zur Methode des Gesellschafts- und 
Wirtschaftsmuseums in Wien,? 34.  
 
310
 ?Es sei nur wieder gesagt, es ist ein Beginn und die weitere Anwendung und Ausbildung h?ngt 
nicht zum wenigsten von demjenigen ab, der sie benutzt zu einer Aktivierung des 
Umbildungsprozesses der Weltauffassung.? Arntz, ?Zur Methode des Gesellschafts- und 
Wirtschaftsmuseums in Wien,? 34. 
 
 
 160 
 
principles, describing the uses to which the method is put and its advantages over 
other methods of statistical representation. The second section of Alma?s essay (on 
sociological graphics) defines some of the features of figurative constructivism and 
considers some of the aims and concerns that this artistic movement shares with the 
pictorial statistic project. In contrast to Arntz?s essay on ?art and statistics,? which 
positions painting at the forefront of cultural change, Alma privileges science?
specifically, sociology?as the example to follow: ?Sociology as a science is 
relatively young, but already it has many practitioners. In art it has made relatively 
little appearance.?
311
 Sociological graphics, Alma asserts, represent the exception 
here. Just as ?the sociological chart depicts the life, interactions, shifts and 
contradictions among social groups,? writes Alma, in reference to pictorial statistics, 
?the movements of the masses, wealth-poverty, labor-capital, rural and urban life, the 
conflicts arising from the contradiction of class interests, are the main sources from 
which sociological graphic artists take their data.?
312
 What distinguishes sociological 
graphics from other socially oriented artistic tendencies, Alma notes, is the depiction 
of a mass-subject, rather than an individual one: ?there are only few,? he writes, ?who 
have discovered that the mass has its own life.?
313
 
                                                
311
 ?De sociologie als wetenschap is van betrekkelijk jonge datum, maar heeft reeds vele beoefenaars. 
In de kunst is zij nog betrekkelijk weinig tot uiting gekomen.? Alma, ?Beeldstatistiek en sociologische 
grafiek,? 3. 
 
312
 ?De sociologische grafiek beeldt het leven, de wisselwerkingen, verschuivingen en tegenstellingen 
der sociale groepen uit. [...]Het bewegen der massa, rijkdom-armoede, kapitaal-arbeid, het leven op het 
land ? in de steden, de conflicten, die uit de belangentegenstellingen der klassen ontstaan, zijn de 
hoofdbronnen, waaruit de sociologische grafiker zijn gegevens put.? Alma, ?Beeldstatistiek en 
sociologische grafiek,? 3. 
 
313
 ?Niet de individu, maar de massa spreekt hier in de eerste plaats en het zijn er nog maar weinigen, 
die ontdekt hebben, dat de massa een eigen leven heeft.? Ibid. 
 
 161 
 
Alma?s comparisons are illustrated by an extensive selection of examples: 
twelve pages from the recently completed Gesellschaft and Wirtschaft atlas (which 
appear to have been selected both for the diversity of conceptual and stylistic 
approaches they represented, as well as for their thematic variety) [FIGURE 156], 
and twenty-one prints and drawings to represent sociological graphics. One of the 
shared features, which becomes especially evident in the comparison, is the centrality 
of social typologies within the two types of production. Alma?s Acht portretten series 
of 1929 (reproduced here in its entirety) and Arntz?s Zw?lf H?user der Zeit of 1927 
(of which four prints were included) both exemplify this typological approach, 
wherein, as Alma asserted, a mass subject?rather than an individual one?is shown. 
In these print series, figures generally function as symbols for professions, 
distinguished from one another only by their respective uniforms and compositional 
placement. In Arntz?s Stadion [Stadium], for example [FIGURE 157], figures are 
distributed within the arena?s seating according to type: the upper echelons of 
society?military officials, politicians, business elites and their wives?occupy the 
front tiers; behind them, in greater numbers but with fewer distinguishing 
characteristics, sit the masses, indicated only by their workers? caps and fedoras. This 
typological approach is even more pronounced in Acht portretten [FIGURE 158]. 
There is some irony in the title, given the contrast between the connotations of 
individuality associated with portraiture and the series? reduction of individual figures 
to symbols for their respective professions. In this case the categories are limited to 
professions associated with power, wealth, and authority: military official, 
government minister, diplomat, banker, priest, lawyer, judge, and jailer.
314
 
                                                
314
 Images of a bishop and a pensioner were added to the original eight ?portraits? in 1931, which were 
 
 162 
 
 As the accompanying reproductions from Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft reveal, 
the classification of society according to profession was also a central feature within 
pictorial statistic charts. The chart depicting ?social stratification in Vienna? is 
exemplary in this regard [FIGURE 159].
315
 This graphic presents a cross-section of 
society organized according to profession, charting developments between the 
eighteenth and twentieth centuries. By classifying the population of Vienna along 
professional lines, industrialization?s social impact becomes immediately evident: 
certain professional categories, such as nobility, clergy, and itinerant workers appear 
to have dropped out (or at least constitute such a small proportion of the population 
that they no longer register), replaced by new categories such as industrial workers 
and government administrators. Most notably, the proportion of laborers (colored red 
and implicitly defined within the context of the chart as people working for someone 
else, rather than those self-employed) appears to have increased from less than half of 
the population in 1700 to more than two thirds in the present, with the vast majority 
employed by the industrial sector. Seen through this typological lens, figures in both 
sociological graphics and pictorial statistic charts thus become collective protagonists, 
expressing class relations in a way that individual actors could not?or would be less 
effective in so doing. 
 
                                                                                                                                      
then published in the following year by the Socialistische Kunstenaarskring [Socialist Artists? Circle] 
as a small ten-part accordion-format booklet titled Kapitalistische orde [Capitalist Order]. Like Arntz?s 
Zw?lf H?user, the logic behind the chosen categories is not entirely clear. Conspicuously absent are 
some of the figures frequently vilified in other works by these artists, such as industrialists, police 
officers, and party functionaries. 
 
315
 Figures that were colored in red in the original version [FIGURE 159] are re-presented in black in 
the black-and-white reproduction in Wendingen [FIGURE 156], while figures originally colored blue 
appear in the latter as grey. 
 
 
 163 
 
Figurative Constructivism, Pictorial Statistics, and Collective Form 
In depicting this collective subject?both within figurative constructivist 
artworks and pictorial statistic charts?form was always a central concern for the 
Group of Progressive Artists. Tschinkel addressed this concern specifically in an 
article titled ?Statistics and Collective Form,? which appeared in the thirteenth issue 
of a bis z (accompanying an announcement of the publication of the Gesellschaft und 
Wirtschaft atlas).
316
 For pictorial statistic charts, which, Tschinkel explains, aim ?to 
present social and economic conditions in a concise and generally understandable 
manner? serial and standard forms prove to be the most suitable.?
317
 Tschinkel 
illustrated his point by means of an analogy between the design of pictograms and 
typefaces, where?in the case of the latter?the standardization of forms facilitate 
collective recognition and use. ?An ?a? is all the more an ?a,?? writes Tschinkel, ?the 
more it corresponds to its standard form, and it is less an ?a? the more personally it is 
adorned.?
318
 Beyond modern typeface design, however, Tschinkel also locates models 
of collective expression in the arts of antiquity. Invoking Egyptian and Assyrian relief 
carvings, as well as Byzantine mosaics, Tschinkel observes how in these examples 
masses are depicted by ?long rows of forms, each like the other,? wherein ?unique 
                                                
316
 Tschinkel, ?Statistik and Kollektivform,? a bis z 2, no. 13 (January 1931): 51. 
 
317
 ?Der Zweck der statischen Tafeln ist, in knapper und gemeinverst?ndlicher Weise gesellschaftliche 
und ?konomische Verh?ltnisse darzustellen. [...] Serien- und Standardformen erweisen sich als die 
entsprechendsten f?r Zwecke, die ebenfalls eine Angelegenheit des Kollektivs sind.? Ibid. 
 
318
 ?Ein a ist umso mehr ein a, je mehr es seiner Standardform entspricht, und es ist umso weniger ein 
a, je pers?nlicher es sich ziert.? Tschinkel, ?Statistik and Kollektivform,? 51. 
 
 
 164 
 
differences are not individual, but refer to distinctions of class and status.?
319
 
Tschinkel remarks that the Vienna Method shares with these earlier examples the 
convention of depicting quantities through repetition of forms; at the same time, 
Tschinkel notes, pictorial statistics forego the hierarchical expressions that were 
typical of these earlier works, whereby ?a god or master is greater in proportion.? 
This, Tschinkel explains, comes from the requirements of an exclusively quantitative 
representation, which ?develops a corresponding form for itself.? Echoing Neurath?s 
earlier discussion of the earliest, pre-schematic pictorial statistic charts, Tschinkel 
concludes: ?The more [this form] is pushed towards a schematized type, the more 
precisely it establishes what should be said, and the less it should allow room for the 
possibility of subjective interpretation.?
320
 
This article, which appeared in the January 1931 issue of a bis z, was actually 
an abbreviated version of his second article for the journal, vtvarn? snahy, which had 
appeared during the previous year. In its original version, illustrated with artworks 
said to come from the collection of the Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum, 
Tschinkel went on to draw parallels between the museum?s work and figurative 
constructivist graphics. The accompanying reproductions, Tschinkel explains, 
?should help to elucidate the insight that certain purposes and themes require 
                                                
319
 ?Auf ?gyptischen und assyrischen Reliefs sehen wir lange Reihen von Gestalten, eine wie die 
andere, vorkommende Unterschiede sind nicht individuelle, sondern Klassen- und 
Standesunterschiede. ?hnliche Reihungen auf byzantinischen Mosaiken und bei den Exoten.? Ibid. 
 
320
 ?Der Zweck schafft sich seine eigene, ihm entsprechende Form, die umso mehr zum 
schematisierten Typus dr?ngt, je genauer feststeht, was gesagt werden soll, und je weniger der 
subjektiven Deutungsm?glichkeit Spielraum gelassen werden soll.? Ibid. 
 
 
 165 
 
corresponding expressive forms.?
321
 In the case of ?social graphics,? these themes are 
described in terms of ?the human being, the individual as part and member of society; 
the individual as antithesis to the multitude; the masses as such and the masses as a 
historical factor.?
322
 Again Tschinkel compares the depiction of the masses in this 
new art to ancient precedents, wherein repeating, undifferentiated forms often served 
to represent entire populations or groups. ?But for the first time in our pictures,? 
writes Tschinkel, ?these masses become conscious themes and tendencies.?
323
 
Tschinkel?s remark is reminiscent of Alma?s aforementioned claim, that sociological 
graphics reflect the realization ?that the mass has its own life.? For Tschinkel, as well 
as for Alma, the schematization of forms was the critical feature that overlapped with 
pictorial statistics and distinguished sociological graphics from other socially oriented 
tendencies, such as the social realism of Hans Baluschek or the ?Verism? of George 
Grosz. These other, more popular tendencies (which Tschinkel characterizes as 
?belonging formally to bourgeois, sentimental, picturesque ?poor people art,??
324
 and 
Alma describes as ?still too under the spell of the traditions of naturalism and 
individualism?
325
) also sought to cultivate a collective political consciousness, but 
                                                
321
 ?Sie soll... die Erkenntnis erl?utern helfen, dass bestimmte Zwecke und Themen ihnen 
entsprechende Ausdrucksformen erfordern.? Tschinkel, ?Das Mengenbild und die Kollektivformen: 
Zur Auswahl aus der Sammlung soziologischer Graphik des Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseums 
in Wien,? German translation of the original Czech text, ?Zobrazen? mnostv? a kolektivn? tvary,? 
vtvarn? snahy 11, no. 8 (1930): 136-137; typed manuscript in the Historisches Archiv der Stadt K?ln.  
 
322
 ?Das Thema dieser Kunst ist: der Mensch, der Einzelne als Teil und Mitglied der Gesellschaft, der 
Einzelne als Gegensatz zur Menge, die Masse als solche und als historischer Faktor.? Ibid. 
 
323
 ?Aber erst auf unseren Bildern werden diese Massen zu bewussten Themen und Tendenzen.? Ibid. 
 
324
 ??die naturalistische Richtung, die formal teilweise zur b?rgerlich-sentimentalen, malerischen 
?Armeleutekunst? geh?rte?? Tschinkel ?Die Kunst des Maschinezeitalters.? 
 
325
 ?Over het algemeen is men nog te veel beneveld door de tradities van naturalisme en 
individualisme.? Alma, ?Beeldstatistiek en sociologische grafiek,? 7. 
 
 166 
 
largely relied on traditional pictorial strategies in order to foreground narrative 
content. In contrast to these tendencies?Tschinkel uses the terms ?Tendenzkunst? 
and ?Proletkult???the tendency [in sociological graphics] is not based on literal 
content alone, but rather, above all, on form.? Indeed, it is the emphasis on form, 
Tschinkel notes, ?that is fundamental and decisive? in figurative constructivism.
326
 To 
this end, Tschinkel explains, figures in social graphics are depicted with a serial 
quality similar to that employed in pictorial statistics, wherein differences indicate 
social rather than individual characteristics: ?attention is not paid as to whether one is 
shaved or not, how many wrinkles he has in his face, or how many calluses he has on 
his hands.?
327
 
 The issue of collective form was again raised in a later issue of a bis z, this 
time in relation the concept of the portrait, which according to the critic Carl Oskar 
Jatho, ?requires a creative reevaluation? in order to make a portrait-art that is 
spiritually suited to a time in which the need for physiognomic and milieu-faithful 
memory values can be satisfied by a decent photographer.?
328
 The ?traditional 
personality-painting,? associated by Jatho with such names as Max Liebermann, is no 
                                                                                                                                      
 
326
 ?Wobei die Tendenz (und das ist wesentlich und entscheidend) nicht allein w?rtlichen Inhalt, 
sondern vor allem der Form beruht.? Tschinkel, ?Das Mengenbild und die Kollektivformen.? 
 
327
 ?In den aufgezeigten graphischen Beispielen wird nicht darauf geachtet, ob jemand rasiert ist oder 
nicht, wie viel Falten er im Gesicht, wie viel Schwielen an den H?nden.? Ibid. 
 
328
 ?Es bedarf einer sch?pferischen Umwertung des Portr?ts Begriffs, um Portr?tkunst in geistiger 
Weise brauchbar zu machen f?r eine Zeit, die ihren Bedarf an physiognomischen und milieugetreuen 
Erinnerungswerten durch den anst?ndigen Fotografen decken kann.? Carl Oskar Jatho, ?Zur 
Problematik des Portr?ts,? a bis z 3, no. 28 (November 1932): 110. 
 
 
 167 
 
longer adequate; ?in the cultural space of the present,? he remarks, it can only 
produce ?the semblance of life.?
329
 By contrast, Jatho continues: 
Wherever artists today think in terms of detaching depicted people from their 
isolation and arbitrariness, they allow them to appear as a reference at large in 
the world. [?] Superseding the private apotheosis of the individual, ever 
more noticeably, is an art of social interpretation, an art of contact, of 
relationships, of connections of the individual with the human and cosmic 
events.
 330
 
 
In this new ?social art? [Gesellschaftskunst], Jatho concludes, ?the individual only 
serves as the expression of a collective whole.?
331
 
The essay is illustrated by two reproductions [FIGURE 160]?a selection of 
Arntz?s pictogram ?types? created for the Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum, and 
a portrait of a shepherd from August Sander?s photographic album, Antlitz der Zeit.
332
 
Jatho makes no direct mention of either image?which suggests that Seiwert, the 
journal?s editor, had chosen and arranged the accompanying illustrations. Initially, the 
contrast between the two images is striking: Arntz?s faceless and schematized figures 
have been purged of all but the most generally descriptive features; by contrast, an 
unmistakably individual countenance looks out from Sander?s photograph, his 
likeness captured in minute detail. The juxtaposition between pictogram and 
                                                
329
 ?Die ?bliche Pers?nlichkeitsmalerei, das beweisen gesch?tzte Namen, wie Liebermann, f?hrt im 
Kulturraum der Gegenwart nur noch ein Scheinleben.? Ibid. Max Liebermann (1847-1935) was a 
renowned and successful painter in Germany, who is best known for his portraits. As one of the 
founders of the Berlin Secession in 1898, he was a prominent figure within the late nineteenth-century 
German avant-garde; by the time of Jatho?s essay in 1932, however, he had served for more than a 
decade as president of the Prussian Academy of the Arts, and was regarded by younger generations as 
hopelessly antiquated. 
 
330
 ?Wo heute K?nstler so denken, l?sen sie den darzustellenden Menschen aus seiner Vereinzelung 
und Zuf?lligkeit heraus und lassen ihn als Bezugswert erscheinen im Allgemeinen der Welt. [...] An 
die Stelle privater Ich-Verherrlichung tritt, immer deutlicher bemerkbar, eine Kunst sozialer 
Sinngebung, eine Kunst der Ber?hrungen, der Beziehungen, der Verkn?pfungen des Einzelwesens mit 
dem menschlichen und kosmischen Geschehen.? Ibid. 
 
331
 ??das Einzelwesen [dient] nur noch als Ausdruck f?r ein gemeinschaftliches Ganzes.? Ibid. 
 
 
 168 
 
photograph calls to mind Neurath?s comments about the suitability of the former and 
the inadequacy of the latter for the purposes of statistical representation?that ?one 
cannot photograph social facts.?
333
 But Seiwert did not set these images up in entirely 
in opposition; rather, they were likely chosen for their common typological approach 
to human representation?each work demonstrating an approach suitable to its 
specific medium, and pointing towards a ?creative reevaluation of the portrait-
concept.?  
Sander?s Antlitz der Zeit (published in 1929 as the intended first installment of 
a larger project to create an encyclopedic documentation of German society) was 
organized in terms of seven social groups, which, according to the publisher, 
?correspond to the existing social order.?
334
 The groups were arranged in a social 
narrative, beginning ?with the peasant, the earthbound man,? and progressing 
?through every social stratum and every walk of life up to the highest representatives 
of civilization, and then? back down all the way to the idiot.?
335
 While later 
commentators have pointed out the essentially conservative and hierarchical 
worldview underlying this social narrative,
336
 contemporaneous critics praised the 
                                                                                                                                      
332
 Antlitz der Zeit: Sechzig Aufnahmen deutscher Menschen des 20. Jahrhunderts (Munich: Kurt 
Wolff, 1929). August Sander was himself a member of the Progressives circle, and had photographed 
most of group?s Rhineland-based members as part of his Menschen des 20. Jahrhunderts [People of 
the Twentieth-Century] project. While Seiwert, Hoerle, Arntz, Freundlich, Kubicki, and other 
members of the Group of Progressive Artists all sat for portraits, Jankel Adler?identified only by his 
profession, ?painter??was the only group member?s portrait to be featured in Antlitz der Zeit. 
 
333
 Neurath, ?Visual Education: Humanisation Versus Popularisation,? 291-92. 
 
334
 Quoted in Walter Benjamin, ?Little History of Photography,? in Walter Benjamin: Selected 
Writings, Vol. 2: 1927-1934 (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 1996), 520. 
 
335
 Ibid. 
 
336
 See Benjamin Buchloh, ?Residual Resemblance: Three Notes on the End of Portraiture,? in Face-
Off: The Portrait in Recent Art (Philadelphia: Institute of Contemporary Art, 1994), 56. 
 
 169 
 
work for its perceived scientific approach and socially progressive character. Alfred 
D?blin, for example, called Sander?s approach ?comparative photography,? drawing a 
parallel with ?comparative anatomy,? which helps us ?achieve an understanding of 
the nature and history of the physical organs.?
337
 Walter Benjamin, meanwhile, 
described Sander?s work as ?a training manual? in ?the ability to read facial types??
?a matter of vital importance? in a time of ?sudden shifts of power.?
338
  
Seiwert, in a review of Antlitz der Zeit for a bis z, was slightly more measured 
in his praise.
339
 While ?taking an affirmative position with regard to Sander?s work 
generally,? he writes, ?one would yet wish for a sharper and clearer sociological 
formulation in reference to some of the classification.?
340
 His cautiously expressed 
reservations seem to hinge upon the narrative aspect of the classification. ?The goal 
here,? writes Seiwert, ?should be an herbarium of human existence: place, year, 
activity.?
341
 Ideally, he asserts, the work should describe ?class order? 
[Klasseneinordnung] in a manner akin to Marx?s Capital. To this end, Seiwert cited a 
passage from the text?s foreword, justifying the broad brushstrokes with which 
?landlords? and ?capitalists? had been painted, and describing these individuals as 
                                                                                                                                      
 
337
 Alfred D?blin, ?Faces, Images, and Their Truth,? Introduction to Face of Our Time (Munich: 
Schirmer/Mosel Verlag, 1994), 13. 
 
338
 Benjamin, ?Little History of Photography,? 520. 
 
339
 See Seiwert, ?Fotob?cher,? a bis z 1, no. 6 (March, 1930): 22.  Seiwert?s commentary on Antlizt der 
Zeit is also accompanied by reviews of Roh and Tschichold?s Foto-Auge and Werner Graeff?s Es 
kommt der neue Fotograf?all of which appeared in the same year. 
 
340
 ?Stellen wir uns so zu der Arbeit Sanders an sich vollkommen bejahend, so m?chte man in Bezug 
auf die Einordnung teilweise eine sch?rfere und klarere soziologische Formulierung w?nschen.? 
Seiwert, ?Fotob?cher,? 22. 
 
341
 ?Hier m?sste das Ziel sozusagen ein Herbarium menschlichen Daseins sein: Standort, Jahr, 
T?tigkeit.? Seiwert, ?Fotob?cher,? 22.  
 
 
 170 
 
relevant ?only in so far as they are the personification of economic categories, bearers 
of particular class relations and interests.?
342
 
This seems to have also been the motivation behind Alma?s Acht portretten 
[Eight Portraits] [FIGURE 69], partially reproduced in a bis z under the title Die 
Ordnung der Welt [The Order of the World]. The woodcut series exhibits certain 
parallels with Sander?s (much larger) work and would seem to have also anticipated 
Jatho?s call for ?a creative reevaluation of the portrait concept.? Alma?s ?portraits? 
represent what Jatho called ?an art of social interpretation,? in that figures appear not 
in isolation but within their social contexts?they are depicted within their 
institutional settings, in their uniforms with their accoutrements and subordinates. In 
this they share certain characteristics with the images in Sander?s Antlitz der Zeit: his 
Kohlentr?ger [Coal Carrier] portrait, for example, reproduced in an earlier issue of a 
bis z [FIGURE 161], depicts the subject at work with the clothing and implements of 
his profession. Such portraits represented a departure from the photographic traditions 
of the nineteenth-century, which?as Benjamin noted in his ?Little History of 
Photography? essay?had uprooted and isolated the individual by framing him within 
artificial studio settings.
343
  
In an earlier essay in Die literarische Welt on the subject of ?collectivist art,? 
Benjamin significantly noted a parallel between this narrative practice, which 
recovers the individual from isolation and entrenches him in a larger social context, 
                                                
342
 ?Klasseneinordnung, wie sich aus dem Satz von Marx ergibt, den wir folgen lassen: ?aber es handelt 
sich hier um die Personen nur, soweit sie die Personifikation ?konomischer Kategorien sind, Tr?ger 
von bestimmten Klassenverh?ltnissen und Interessen.?? Ibid. 
 
343
 Benjamin, ?Little History of Photography,? 515. 
 
 
 171 
 
and the science of statistics.
344
 In Benjamin?s parallel, the ?type? (within film and 
photography in particular) functions as the pictorial equivalent to statistical data. In 
illustrating this point, Benjamin evokes Eisenstein?s film Battleship Potemkin:  
Potemkin was made consistently with a sense of collectivism. [?] The 
antagonist must of course conform to the collective character of the mutinous 
masses. It would have made absolutely no sense to have juxtaposed it to 
differentiated individuals. The ship?s doctor and captain must be typical 
characters. They must be types drawn from the bourgeoisie. [?] Nothing is 
more helpless than the appeal to individual cases. [?] Certainly many facts 
exist which only obtain their meaning, their contours, if they are recovered 
from isolated observation. These are the facts with which statistics deal. That 
a Mr. X takes his own life in March rather than April may be of little 
consequence in terms of his individual fate. But it would be extraordinarily 
interesting if one were to learn that the annual suicide curve attains its 
maximum in that month.
345
 
 
This hypothetical Mr. X?the individual whose significance becomes 
apparent only when considered in a mass context?also appears in texts by both Alma 
and Tschinkel in 1930, at the height of their involvement with Neurath, as well as in 
later texts by Neurath himself.
346
 ?We are interested in worker X,? Alma explains in 
his essay for Wendingen, describing the features of sociological graphics, ?not for his 
private life but as a social driving force in a factory with 15,000 workers who are 
                                                
344
 Walter Benjamin, ?A Discussion of Russian Filmic Art and Collectivist Art in General,? in The 
Weimar Republic Sourcebook, ed. Anton Kaes et al. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994), 
625-629. First published as ?Eine Diskussion ?ber russische Filmkunst und kollektive Kunst 
?berhaupt,? Die literarische Welt 3 (March 11, 1927): 7-8. 
 
345
 Benjamin, ?A Discussion of Russian Filmic Art and Collectivist Art in General,? 627.  
 
346
 ?The sign ?man,?? Neurath wrote in his description of pictogram design requirements, ?has not to 
give the idea of a special person with the name XY, but to be representative of the animal ?man.?? Otto 
Neurath, International Picture Language: The First Rules of Isotype (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, 
Trubner & Co., Ltd., 1936), 33. Neurath makes an exception for the representation of individual 
figures in the teaching of history, where ?it may be necessary to give the picture of a special person in 
a teaching picture?that is not at all out of harmony with the rules of picture language.? 
 
 
 172 
 
jointly producers and class warriors.?
347
 Likewise, ?the personal interests of a factory 
owner do not interest us, but the fact that the goods he produces have an important 
place in the world order, thereby becoming a source of power and making him a 
?socially? influential man.?
348
 
Tschinkel echoed this sentiment when, in a later essay, he stated that 
sociological graphics should not prompt the response: ?Ah, this figure is remarkably 
similar to Herr X.Y.!? Rather, they should ?allow the recognition: this person is the 
product of his relationships and of his time.? This, Tschinkel noted, ?is the true reality 
that one must see.?
349
 In depicting this ?true reality,? the question of form was 
paramount for the Progressives, and it was ?machine forms and standard forms? in 
particular that, according to Tschinkel, were most appropriate in this regard. 
Tschinkel illustrated this point in another essay for a bis z titled ?Tendenz und Form,? 
accompanied by large selection of representative graphic works, several of which 
depicted factory scenes [FIGURE 162]. ?The picture of the factory,? Tschinkel wrote 
of these works, ?shows individual people as really constituent parts of an operation, 
which the employer can calculate numerically, like other inventory.?
350
 The factory 
                                                
347
 ?Het priv? leven van den arbeider X. die in een fabriek met 15000 man werkt, heeft onze 
belangstelling niet, maar gezamenlijk zijn medearbeiders, als producent en klassenstrijder wordt X. een 
sociaal-drijvende kracht.  De ?massa? geeft hier de doorslag.? Alma, ?Beeldstatistiek en sociologische 
grafiek,? 7. 
 
348
 ?De persoonlijke liefhebberijen van een eigenaar van een warenproductie een belangrijke plaats in 
de wereldhuishouding inneemt en daardoor een machtsfactor wordt, maakt hem tot een ?sociaal? 
invloedrijk man.? Ibid. 
 
349
 ??Ach, diese Figur ist dem Herrn X.Y. auffallend ?hnlich!? Aber alle Dargestellten lassen erkennen: 
der Mensch ist das seiner Verh?ltnisse und seiner Zeit.  Das ist die wahre Realit?t, die man sehen 
muss.? Tschinkel ?Die Kunst des Maschinezeitalters.? 
 
350
 ?Das Fabrikbild zeigt Einzelmenschen als wirkliche Bestandteile eines Betriebes, die der 
Unternehmer zahlenm??ig kalkulieren kann, wie anderes Inventar.? Tschinkel, ?Tendenz und Form,? a 
bis z 2, no. 12 (November 1930): 45. 
 
 173 
 
workers in the accompanying reproduction of Seiwert?s linocut, Die Fabrik, do in fact 
appear like ?constituent parts? of the factory operation: their bodies are integrated 
into the machinery so that their potential movements seem governed by the wheels 
and belts that frame their bodies, and their facial features have been replaced with the 
same printed numbers that appear on the surfaces of the factory machinery. Indeed, 
these workers could literally be ?calculated numerically? by an employer. ?To show 
this fact,? Tschinkel wrote, ?is more important than illustrating wrinkles and drops of 
sweat.?
351
 The notion that workers had been reduced to calculations on a balance 
sheet, was expressed even more forcefully in Seiwert?s ink drawing of 1924, Die 
Menschen fallen?die Profite steigen [People Fall?Profits Rise], which was 
reproduced on the last page of the same issue [FIGURE 163]. Significantly, this 
work was re-titled Statistik [Statistics] when, two years later, it was reproduced in the 
booklet soziale grafik. 
 
Figurative Constructivism in the 1930s 
Gerd Arntz, especially in later statements, always maintained a clear 
distinction between his ?free? work in woodcut and linocut, and his applied work for 
the museum in pictorial statistics. ?Compared with the free work,? he wrote in 1980, 
?the applied things are a kind of compromise.?
352
 This is not to say, however, that the 
free and applied work was unconnected for Arntz, or that there was no reciprocal 
influence. In a 1982 essay, Arntz discussed the practical relationship between the two 
                                                                                                                                      
 
351
 ?Das zu zeigen ist wichtiger als Runzeln und Schwei?tropfen.? Ibid. 
 
352
 Danser, Interview with Gerd Arntz in Pulchri 8, no. 4 (October 1980).  
 
 
 174 
 
types of production, describing his encounter with Neurath in 1926, and his 
subsequent full-time employment at the museum after 1929, as ?a great stroke of 
luck,? in that, above all, it provided him with ?a steady income at a time of 
widespread unemployment.?
353
 Additionally, employment at the museum afforded 
Arntz the possibility to produce woodcuts on social themes that he felt compelled to 
address but from which, he believed, he could never have earned a living?given both 
the politically radical character of his prints, and the lack of enthusiasm in the market 
for such work.
354
 Finally, Arntz describes the impact of Neurath himself on the 
artist?how Neurath?s ?multifaceted personality of Otto Neurath opened [him] up to 
new points of view regarding the past and the present,? and how ?the set of problems 
related to pictorial statistics enriched [his] attitude towards the environment.?
355
 
Beyond the practical relationship between the museum work and the free 
work, woodcuts and linocuts produced by Arntz in the period after joining the 
museum reveal a reciprocal influence as both types of work engaged common 
pictorial problems. Woodcuts like Fabrikbesetzung [Factory Occupation] (1931) or 
Krise [Crisis] (1931) [FIGURES 164, 165], for example, share with statistical 
pictogram design [FIGURE 166] an increasingly ordered approach in the 
                                                
353
 ?R?ckblickend erwies sich die Begegnung mit Otto Neurath in D?sseldorf im Jahre 1926 f?r mich 
ein gro?er Gl?cksfall. Erstens brachte mir das Interesse Neuraths an meinen grafischen Arbeiten von 
1929 an in Wien eine T?tigkeit in der Bildstatistik und ihren Randgebieten und somit eine feste 
Lebensgrundlage in der Zeit gro?er Arbeitslosigkeit ein.? Arntz, ?Otto Neurath, ich und die 
Bildstatistik,? 32. 
 
354
 ?Zweitens erhielt ich die M?glichkeit, in meiner eigenen Arbeit des Holzschnittes, von der ich nie 
leben konnte, das machen zu k?nnen, wozu mich die politische Zuspitzung der Zeit vor dem Zweiten 
Weltkriege anregte, fast zwang.? Ibid. Elsewhere Arntz has stated: ?I have had the satisfaction that my 
work [for the museum] was socially useful and that at the same time I could express my social 
criticism in my free work.? See Danser, Interview with Gerd Arntz in Pulchri 8, no. 4 (October 1980). 
 
355
 ?Drittens bereicherte die Problematik der Bildstatistik meine Einstellung zur Umwelt: Im 
besonderen wurden mir durch die vielseitige Pers?nlichkeit Otto Neuraths neue Gesichtspunkte ?ber 
Vergangenheit und Gegenwart er?ffnet.? Gerd Arntz, ?Otto Neurath, ich und die Bildstatistik,? 32. 
 
 175 
 
representation of clusters of figures, evident in the gathering masses of workers 
depicted at the images? lower right corners. In comparison with the depiction of 
crowds in earlier prints, such as Spartakusbund (1926), Politische wirtschaftliche 
Einheitsorganisation (1927), or Tag der Freiheit (1927) [FIGURES 167, 168, 169], 
the images of the masses in later works exhibit both a far greater degree of unity and 
clarity, and far less decorative patterning. Later prints like Fabrikbesichtigung 
[Factory Inspection] (1935), Alle macht aan de arbeidersraden [All Power to the 
Workers? Councils] (1935), F?r?s Vaterland [For the Fatherland] (1936) and Streik 
[Strike] (1936) [FIGURES 170, 171, 172, 173], in addition to revealing more ordered 
and interlocking arrangements of figure-clusters, also employ pictograms in a more 
rhetorical, self-conscious manner. This is to say that depicted objects are understood 
within these works to function as pictograms. In contrast to an earlier work such as 
Tag der Freiheit (1927) [FIGURE 169], for example, wherein the image of the 
factory sits on the horizon in realistic scale to the objects in the foreground, the 
factories in Alle macht aan de arbeidersraden and F?r?s Vaterland are to be 
understood exclusively as symbols rather than as concrete, inhabitable buildings; for 
this reason they are drawn in an even more reduced manner without any indication of 
relative location. The figures on the upper deck of the bus in Streik even hold 
miniature buildings representative of their affiliated institutions, which, as Arntz 
notes, are taken directly from pictorial statistic designs.
356
 
Beyond the employment of pictograms themselves, several later prints by 
Arntz also recall the compositional arrangements of pictorial statistic charts, as well 
                                                
356
 ?Aus der Bildstatistik kommt der kleine Fabrik, die der Fabrikant auf dem Scho? hat.? Arntz, Zeit 
unterm Messer, 101. 
 
 176 
 
as their visualizations of quantities through repeating rows and columns. Krieg (1935) 
[FIGURE 174], for instance, utilizes a layout similar to charts from Gesellschaft und 
Wirtschaft [FIGURE 175], depicting the relative sizes of historically opposing 
armies. The material resources expended in battle (aircraft and tanks), along with the 
number of human casualties (here represented by skulls), are depicted in Krieg by in a 
central, dividing column, where the skulls are neatly ordered in pyramid arrangement. 
Similar devices are employed in F?r?s Vaterland: a line of soldiers, whose 
interlocking arrangement again recalls the rows of soldiers in pictorial statistic charts 
on modern armies [FIGURES 176, 177], march forth from the factory to the 
battlefield as if products from an assembly line conveyor belt, ending in neatly 
ordered rows of cemetery crosses. 
 Devices from pictorial statistic charts were employed even more explicitly in 
some of Peter Alma?s later works. His 1936 anti-war poster De oorlog maakt de man 
[War Makes the Man] [FIGURE 178], utilizes pictograms similar to those in earlier 
pictorial statistic charts, and arranges them in rows and columns to express the 
quantity of casualties. The influence of pictorial statistic charts is also evident in 
Alma?s monumental wall paintings for Amstel station in Amsterdam, commissioned 
in 1938 and executed in the following year [FIGURE 179]. Certain features, such as 
the evolution of train engine designs and the map of the world illustrating railroad 
track coverage [FIGURE 180], are adapted directly from charts on the development 
of the railroad in Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft [FIGURE 181] and Technik und 
Menschheit. Other details, such as the rendering of cityscapes along the painting?s 
 
 177 
 
lower edge [FIGURE 182], also appear to borrow conventions from these 
publications [FIGURE 183, 184]. 
 Augustin Tschinkel?s prints and drawings from after 1930 also appear to 
exhibit the influence of pictorial statistic chart design. Works like B?rgerliche 
Ordnung [Bourgeois Order] (1930), Anbetung des goldenen Kalbes [Worship of the 
Golden Calf] (1932), and Kohle [Coal] (1932) [FIGURES 185, 186, 187] feature 
figures arranged in rows and columns, and utilize social typologies, wherein class and 
profession are expressed through uniforms and symbols. Tschinkel?s print Kohle even 
uses the device derived from pictorial statistics, in which symbols are superimposed 
figures. More so than his two colleagues, Tschinkel also became increasingly 
interested in the pictorial origins of writing and the historical development of symbols 
in different cultures?an interest he shared with Otto Neurath. In the later 1930s, 
Tschinkel produced a series of books related to these themes, published by the state 
graphic art school in Prague, in which he was given the opportunity to apply his 
modernist design approach to subjects of ancient and early history?thereby 
suggesting a continuity and unity within his modern project and the larger history of 
visual communication [FIGURE 188].
357
 
 
Concluding Remarks 
The relationship between figurative constructivist graphics and pictorial 
statistic design may best be understood as one in flux. At the outset, the connection 
                                                
357
 See Symbol, rebus, p?smeno [Sign, Rebus, Letter] (1937), Gotick? a renesann? filigr?ny [Gothic 
and Renaissance Filigree] (1938), O zobrazen? slunce [Sun Imagery] (1940). All were published in 
Prague by St?tn? grafick? kola [State Graphic Art School], though, in the case of the 1940 publication, 
the school was under the control of the Nazi occupation. 
 
 178 
 
appears to have been merely practical: many of the forms that Arntz and the 
Progressives had developed already satisfied Neurath?s requirements?or at least 
pointed towards formal solutions?in their tendency towards reduction and 
standardization. But as the Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum?s increased 
activities brought other members of the group to Vienna (who in turn began to 
promote the pictorial statistic project in their own publications and saw in the 
museum an opportunity to promote their ?free? work), the connection was 
increasingly framed in terms of shared values. One such value was the belief in art?s 
communicative and social-educational function?wherein education was conceived in 
interactive rather than passive terms. In achieving this end, both projects sought to 
create strategies of presentation that would communicate social content at the 
broadest level possible, and provide to audiences new analytical tools with which to 
reflect upon social issues that affected them. Above all, it was in their intention to 
appeal to a mass audience at an intellectual level that both projects most clearly 
reflect the shared belief that the general population possessed the ability to draw well-
informed conclusions and participate responsibly in a democratic society. However, 
as the Group of Progressive Artists dissolved after 1933, and the character of pictorial 
statistics began to shift away from its earlier engagement with local audiences and 
towards the standardization of its symbols for international use, the earlier excitement 
over the two projects? potential connections began to abate. By the mid-1930s, Alma 
and Tschinkel appear to have backed away from the claim made earlier in their 
writings, that sociological graphics and pictorial statistics represented two fronts in 
 
 179 
 
the same struggle.
358
 The short-lived period of their collaboration in Vienna, from 
1929 through 1930, represents the high-water mark for this notion. 
 
  
                                                
358
 The short essay in a 1935 pamphlet advertising Alma?s private pictorial statistic design studio was 
largely taken from the first section of his Wendingen essay, wherein Alma had first defined and 
described the Vienna method for a Dutch audience. Significantly, this updated text omits the earlier 
version?s references to Neurath and?perhaps more importantly?references to pictorial statistics? 
anticipated social and political functions. 
 
 180 
 
Conclusion 
 
The Fate of Figurative Constructivism 
Soziale grafik, which appeared in 1932, was the last publication to bring 
together work by this international network of artists at such a scale. The 
Progressives? journal, a bis z, published its last issue in February of the following 
year, a month before the collapse of the Weimar Republic. With the National 
Socialist seizure of power in Germany in 1933 and the subsequent defeat of the Social 
Democratic government in Vienna in February 1934, Czechoslovakia took on an 
increasingly important position in the promotion of both figurative constructivist art 
and pictorial statistics. As ?an act of protest against the powers of reaction? in 
Germany?but also as a commemoration of their friend who had died during the 
summer of 1933?Arntz and Tschinkel published an anthology of Seiwert?s art and 
writings in Prague in 1934 [FIGURE 189], mostly collated from a bis z and Die 
Aktion.
359
  
Although Arntz, Alma, and Tschinkel continued to work intermittently in a 
figurative constructivist idiom, the loss of the movement?s base in Germany?along 
with the death of its main spokesman, Seiwert, in the summer of 1933?spelled out 
the end for the Group of Progressive Artists.
360
 As the decade progressed and the 
                                                
359
 See f. w. seiwert ? gem?lde, grafik, schriften, eds. Gerd Arntz and August Tschinkel (Prague, 1934).  
 
360
 While Hoerle?s early stylistic contributions were crucial for the development of a figurative 
constructivist style, he ultimately played a less prominent organizational role within the group (when 
compared to Seiwert). Hoerle does not appear to have maintained close contacts with the members in 
Vienna (as Seiwert did), and, at the time of his death in 1936, had long since moved away from 
figurative constructivist tendencies in his own work. 
 
 
 181 
 
political situation on the continent continued to deteriorate, international ties became 
increasingly difficult to maintain and the possibilities for artistic collaboration in the 
form of publications and exhibitions quickly dried up. Arntz, Alma, and Tschinkel 
did participate together in one last group exhibition in Amsterdam in 1936?an anti-
fascism-themed exhibition titled De Olympiade onder dictatuur [Olympics under 
Dictatorship] (for which the acronym D.O.O.D. ominously spelled out ?death? in 
Dutch), organized to coincide with the Berlin Olympics [FIGURE 190].
361
  
Arntz, Alma, and Tschinkel tried to remain active as artists through the 
remaining years of the decade, though each survived primarily on commercial work 
(which largely involved the design of pictorial statistic charts). Beginning in 1932 
Alma appears to have briefly discontinued his ?free? artistic work altogether, 
devoting himself instead to pictorial statistic work?initially as member of Neurath?s 
team in the Soviet Union, and ultimately as an independent practitioner in the 
Netherlands. He resumed artistic projects again in 1936, but for the remainder of the 
decade limited his production to oil painting and public murals. When he took up 
printmaking again after the war, he had adopted a more expressionist-derived idiom.   
Tschinkel?s artistic production, from the late-1920s through the mid-1930s, 
was fairly evenly divided between graphic and painterly work, though very few 
                                                
361
 See the exhibition catalog De olympiade onder dictatuur (D.O.O.D): tentoonstelling: sport, kunst, 
wetenschap, documenten. Amsterdam, 1936; see also Peter Hofland, et al. Die Olympiade unter der 
Diktatur. Rekonstruktion der Amsterdamer Kunstolympiade 1936: Kunst im Widerstand (Berlin: 
Stadtmuseum Berlin, 1996). Alma was one of the exhibition?s organizers, and contributed a series of 
drawings entitled Fascistische terreur [Fascist Terror] that included the aforementioned work, 
featuring amputee symbols in an arrangement evoking pictorial statistic charts. Tschinkel was the only 
artist included from Czechoslovakia, however?with nine works in the exhibition?he was one of the 
best-represented artists there. A woodcut by Arntz (who now worked and exhibited under the 
pseudonym ?Dubois?), which was critical of the Nazi regime, created some controversy when German 
officials intervened to have it removed from the exhibition. 
 
 
 182 
 
original paintings?and only a fraction of his original work in general?survived the 
Second World War. Following the end of his contract at the Gesellschafts- und 
Wirtschaftsmuseum, and his return to Prague in 1931, Tschinkel became increasingly 
active as a graphic designer and book illustrator?as well as a teacher?and worked 
in this capacity into the first years of the war. Tschinkel?s postwar painting, which 
might be described as a hyper-illusionistic strain of surrealism, bears little 
resemblance to the figurative constructivist idiom in which he had worked during the 
interwar years. 
Living in The Hague after 1934, Arntz continued for a time to produce 
politically committed graphics, many of which were reproduced in the Dutch left-
communist publication, De Arbeidersraad [Workers? Council] [FIGURE 191]. After 
1936, however, the politically oriented works grew increasingly fewer, with only a 
couple explicitly political images produced in 1938. By 1939, with the outbreak of 
war, Arntz had turned to classical subjects from Greek mythology [FIGURE 192] 
and eighteenth-century French literature. Of the three members of the Group of 
Progressives Artists who had together collaborated in Vienna, only Arntz resumed a 
version of figurative constructivism in the postwar period?at this point working 
exclusively in linocut. This later version, however, exhibits little of the austerity, 
rigor, and formal economy that had characterized the earlier work.  
 
Pictorial Statistics Beyond Vienna 
Beginning around 1929, the Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum became 
increasingly engaged in exporting of its work internationally. This was motivated, in 
 
 183 
 
part, by the realization that?given Vienna?s uncertain political fate?the future 
development of the museum?s work would depend upon a network of international 
support. Key to the internationalization of the museum?s operations was the 
standardized approach that it had developed, not only with regard to the Vienna 
Method itself, but also as it related to exhibition display and the utilization of 
reproducible media. Because the museum?s displays were designed for mass 
reproduction, the same exhibitions could exist simultaneously in multiple locations 
[FIGURE 193].
362
 An illustration from Neurath?s 1936 treatise, International Picture 
Language, visualizes the way in which standardized and reproducible media could be 
effectively adapted and reconfigured for display in varying locations [FIGURE 194]. 
This premise of reproducible exhibitions had been implicit since the 
museum?s inception and had been developed over the years through the museum?s 
contributions to international venues; however, an official organization was founded 
in 1932 named the Mundaneum Wien, specifically to oversee the internationalization 
of the museum?s operations and the wider distribution of the museum?s displays.
363
 
This organization served as the hub for the museum?s international branches 
                                                
362
 See Otto Neurath, International Picture Language, 69-73. See also Hadwig Kraeutler, Otto 
Neurath. Museum and Exhibition Work: Spaces (Designed) for Communication (Frankfurt am Main: 
Peter Lang GmbH, 2008); and Nader Vossoughian, ?The Modern Museum in the Age of its 
Mechanical Reproducibility: Otto Neurath and the Museum of Society and Economy in Vienna,? in 
European Modernism and the Information Society: Informing the Present, Understanding the Past, ed. 
W. Boyd Rayward (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2008), 241-255. 
 
363
 The Mundaneum?s creation was announced in several publications including a bis z 3, no. 29 
(December 1932): 116. The name ?Mundaneum? was, in fact, coined by one of Neurath?s 
collaborators, the Belgian author and bibliographer Paul Otlet; between 1910 and 1934, Otlet worked 
in Brussels to create an ?international museum of world cultures? and a centralized repository that 
would function as ?a ?collective brain? for organizing and disseminating knowledge on a worldwide 
basis.? See Charles van den Heuvel, ?Building Society, Constructing Knowledge, Weaving the Web: 
Otlet?s Visualizations of a Global Information Society and His Concept of a Universal Civilization,? in 
European Modernism and the Information Society, 127-153. See also Voussoughian, Otto Neurath: 
The Language of Global Polis, 96-110.  
 
 
 184 
 
established over the following year in Amsterdam, London, and New York,
364
 and 
coordinated activities with other international organizations, including the Izostat 
Institute in Moscow, where members of the museum team were invited in the 
previous year to serve as consultants.
365
 
The Izostat Institute was founded in November 1931 following a decree two 
months earlier from the Council of Peoples Commissars that established the Vienna 
Method of Pictorial Statistics as the official visual-educational technique for ?all 
state, cooperative, trade union and other social organizations? in the Soviet Union.
366
 
The main purpose of the institute was the production of state propaganda, directed at 
both domestic and international audiences [FIGURE 195, 196]. Publications of the 
institute charted the Soviet Union?s economic progress relative to other nations, with 
particular emphasis on the policies of the first and second Five Year Plans. Between 
1931 and 1934 several members from the core team of Gesellschafts- und 
Wirtschaftsmuseum, including Otto Neurath, Marie Reidemeister, Gerd Arntz, and 
                                                
364
 These branches were established in cooperation with other institutions. In Amsterdam, the 
Economisch-Historische Bibliotheek hosted the Dutch branch. The Lodon branch was set up at the 
offices of the World Association for Adult Education. The New York branch had offices at the Russell 
Sage Foundation. Neurath was connected to the later organization through his involvement in the 
International Industrial Relations Institute, for which he had designed charts in 1929. See Kinross, 
?Otto Neurath?s contribution to visual communication,? 34. 
 
365
 Kinross has suggested that the creation of the Mundaneum as a formal organization was prompted, 
in part, by this invitation from Moscow in the previous year to assist in the development of the Izostat 
Institute. This appears to be confirmed by an announcement about the Mundaneum in a bis z 3, no. 29 
(December 1932), describing the central task of its Vienna branch as the training of Soviet designers. 
 
366
 Reported in the Moscow Daily News (March 25, 1933): 3. Quoted in Kinross, ?Otto Neurath?s 
contribution to visual communication,? 37. Sophie Lissitzky-K?ppers has suggested that El Lissitzky, 
who had been in contact with Neurath since 1928, initiated this later collaboration with Moscow. See 
Lissitzky-K?ppers, El Lissiztky: Life, Letters, Texts (London: Thames and Hudson, 1968), 86. 
According to Marie Neurath, the invitation ?followed from reports back to Moscow from the Soviet 
embassy in Vienna.? See Kinross, ?Otto Neurath?s contribution to visual communication,? 37. 
 
 
 185 
 
Peter Alma spent extended periods to the Soviet Union training the staff of the Izostat 
Institute in the Vienna Method.  
The work produced by the Izostat Institute varies widely in its quality. Works 
such as Aviacija i vozduchoplavanie [Aviation and Floatation] (1934) [FIGURE 197] 
exhibit a high degree of sophistication, reflecting the close involvement of the 
museum team. Other works do not meet Vienna Method standards, either due to 
misapplication of the method?s principles or through their stylistic deviation from the 
Vienna aesthetic. In the case of charts from some earlier publications, which employ 
abstract symbols, line graphs, cluttered backgrounds, and naturalistic illustrations 
[FIGURE 198], the deviations may have been a function of the designer?s autonomy 
from the Vienna group?s oversight, or lack or coordination within the overall 
operation. In later works, however, violations of the Vienna Method reflect a 
conscious shift in policy [FIGURE 199]. As Arntz recalls: 
The final decree of 1933 regarding art and artists? associations now also had 
repercussions for the Izostat Institute. We were asked why our figures have no 
faces. ?Facelessness? was an objectionable approach for the Party. Also the 
?western,? constructivist, ?decadent? design was no longer in line with the 
now mandated ?Socialist realism.? The discussions with the management that 
followed allowed for the drawing of samples with figures that appeared more 
?Russian.? After our contract expired, it did not take long before the ?Vienna 
Method? was supplanted by another design approach.
367
 
 
The irony, of course, as Arntz points out, is that the Soviet criticism mirrored that of 
the National Socialists: ?Really [it was] the same criticism that we received after the 
                                                
367
 ?Der endg?ltige Ukas von 1933 ?ber Kunst und K?nstlervereinigungen hatte nun auch seine 
Auswirkungen auf das Isostat-Institut. Warum unsere Figuren keine Gesichter h?tten, wurde gefragt. 
?Gesichtslosigkeit? war eine bei der Partei unerw?nschte Einstellung. Auch die ?westliche,? 
konstruktivistische, ?dekadente? Formgebung lag nicht mehr auf der Linie des jetzt vorgeschriebenen 
?Sozialistischen Realismus.? Es folgten einige Diskussionen mit der Direktion, die Proben mit mehr 
?russisch? anmutenden Figuren anfertigen lie?. Nach Auslaufen unseres Vertrages sollte es nicht mehr 
lange dauern, bis die ?Wiener Methode? ihr Ende fand am Isostat eine andere Formgebung ma?gebend 
wurde.? Arntz, Zeit unterm Messer, 35. 
 
 
 186 
 
civil war in Austria. There it was said that our style was not true enough to the 
homeland. It must be more folk art, and not so international.?
368
 Thus, later Izostat 
works attempt to employ more ?naturalistic? pictorial symbols, in keeping with the 
state-sanctioned socialist realist aesthetic. Ultimately, however, the characteristic 
repeating pictograms were gradually supplanted by bar graphs and pie charts since, as 
Arntz notes: 
Statistical symbols are like numerical symbols, they must be kept strict. [The 
Soviet designers] have well understood this, and that is why in the long run 
they went back to bar graphs and curves, with photos or a bad drawing in 
addition, so that one could see what the subject matter was.
369
 
 
This approach, however?which combines abstract representations with naturalistic 
illustrations?only partially characterizes the Izostat album designed by El Lissiztky 
for the New York World?s Fair in 1939 [FIGURE 200].
370
 Indeed, this work (which, 
at one hundred statistical charts and an additional fifty pages of photomontage and 
text, ranks among the largest pictorial statistic publications ever produced) still 
employed the Vienna Method?s original principles in a number of its charts 
[FIGURE 201]. Nonetheless, the pictograms (designed in the best tradition of the 
Vienna Method by Alexander Grigorovich, who had trained with Arntz in Moscow) 
were offset by illustrations in the ?socialist realist? style. 
With the termination of the Vienna-team?s contract in Moscow in late 1934 
and the closing of the Vienna museum earlier that year, Otto Neurath, Marie 
Reidemeister, and Gerd Arntz (along with several members of the museum?s core 
                                                
368
 Max Danser, Interview with Gerd Arntz, Pulchri 8, no. 4 (October 1980). 
 
369
 Ibid. 
 
370
 USSR: An Album Illustrating the State Organization and National Economy of the U.S.S.R. 
(Moscow: Scientific Publishing Insitute of Pictorial Statistics, 1939).  
 
 
 187 
 
team), moved to The Hague, where the Dutch branch of the Mundaneum had been 
relocated during the previous year. The Hague branch of the Mundaneum was soon 
superseded by a new organization, the International Foundation for Visual 
Education, though the two organizations existed side by side through 1935, sharing 
the same address, with the former covering local Dutch language projects and the 
latter responsible for internationally commissioned work [FIGURE 202].
371
  
The Foundation?s first major international projects were the two Basic English 
books?International Picture Language (1936) and Basic by Isotype (1937)?
produced for the British publisher Kegan Paul?s Psyche Miniature Series. 
Commissions for these books had come from the series? editor and inventor of Basic 
English, C.K. Ogden, with whom Neurath had already begun collaborating during the 
Vienna Period.
372
 It was at this moment as well, that Marie Reidemeister devised the 
name ?Isotype? (a ?not entirely satisfactory? acronym for ?International System of 
Typographic Picture Education?) to supplant the now anachronistic term ?Vienna 
Method??inspiration for which, she recalls, actually came from Ogden?s BASIC 
acronym (British American Scientific International Commercial).
373
 The English 
derivation of the acronym reflected the increasingly western orientation of the 
                                                
371
 Some of the first projects came from organizations based in The Hague, such as the International 
Industrial Relations Institute and the Vredeshuis [Peace House]; later projects, such as the Rondom 
Rembrandt exhibition, came from the Bijenkorf department store chain. Throughout The Hague years, 
Trio printers collaborated with the foundation, issuing publications and providing them an exhibition 
space. See Ferdinand Mertens, An Idealist in The Hague: Otto Neurath?s Years in Exile (The 
Municipality of The Hague, 2007); see also Marie Neurath, The transformer, 47-61. 
 
372
 As Kinross notes, Ogden shared with Neurath and the Vienna Circle ?the same belief in clarity of 
communication achieved through a reduced and constrained vocabulary, the same belief in the 
importance of communication across languages and cultures.? Kinross, ?Otto Neurath?s contribution to 
visual communication,? 43. 
 
373
 Marie Neurath, The transformer, 47.  
 
 
 188 
 
Foundation?s new projects, as the rise of fascist and totalitarian regimes precluded the 
possibility of continued work in Central and Eastern Europe.  
Through the remaining years of the decade, the most important commissions 
came from the United States. Neurath had, in fact, been cultivating connections in the 
U.S. since the beginning of the decade, when, in 1931, the Gesellschafts- und 
Wirtschaftsmuseum began contributing work to the Museum of Science and Industry 
in Chicago. Neurath made further inroads through his involvement with the 
International Industrial Relations Institute (IRI) and the Russell Sage Foundation: a 
trip to the U.S. in 1933, sponsored by the latter organization, led to the establishment 
of the New York branch of the Mundaneum that year.
374
 Additionally, Neurath?s 
frequent contributions to the New York-based magazine Survey Graphic between 
1932 and 1937, helped to gain exposure for his group?s work [FIGURE 203].  
The first substantial project to come out of the U.S., however, was for the 
New York-based National Tuberculosis Association, which in 1936 commissioned an 
extensive series of posters and an accompanying booklet for a traveling exhibition 
[FIGURE 204]. The Foundation produced a similar poster series for the New York 
City Department of Health in 1939 [FIGURE 205]. Additional commissions came in 
1937 from the Chicago publisher Compton for its illustrated children?s encyclopedia 
[FIGURE 206], and soon after from the New York publisher Alfred A. Knopf for ?an 
Isotype picture book,? Modern Man in the Making, which appeared in 1939. 
Neurath and his team, which by this point had been reduced to only 
Reidemeister and Arntz, were given complete freedom in the writing and designing of 
the book. It was decided that the book would address the broad range of themes to 
                                                
374
 Kinross, ?Otto Neurath?s contribution to visual communication,? 35. 
 
 189 
 
which Neurath had devoted his career, which could be summarized in terms of 
modernity?s costs and benefits to humanity. In contrast to earlier pictorial statistic 
publications in which charts and text were kept separate, Modern Man in the Making 
integrated the two [FIGURE 207]. More than this, the book differs from much of the 
earlier pictorial statistic work in the reduced division of labor behind its production?
the effect of which, Marie Neurath later described, produced a level of unity and 
integration that was unique: 
My transformation responsibilities did not now end just with the graphic 
presentation, but extended to its arrangement with the text on the page; I was 
also much involved in the gathering of material. We now just had Arntz for 
graphic design, which helped the unity of the whole book.
375
 
 
Indeed, it is on account of this work?s unity and total vision that some commentators 
have described Modern Man in the Making as the culmination of Neurath?s entire 
pictorial statistic project.
376
 
With the German invasion of the Netherlands in May 1940, Neurath and 
Reidemeister fled to England where, following a period of internment as ?enemy 
aliens,? they were reunited in February 1941 and married shortly thereafter. They 
resumed their work at this time, establishing the Isotype Institute in June 1942, which 
employed teachers and pupils from the Oxford School of Art to work in the style of 
Arntz (who had elected to remain in the Netherlands). Throughout the immediately 
ensuing years the institute collaborated with the British documentary filmmaker, Paul 
Rotha, producing films with animated Isotype graphics, commissioned by the British 
                                                
375
 Marie Neurath, The transformer, 59. 
 
376
 See, for example, Robin Kinross, ?The Work of Otto Neurath in Visual Communication,? 
Fundamenta Scientiae 5, no. 2 (1984): 196. 
 
 
 190 
 
Ministry of Information on a variety of subjects ranging from public health to the war 
effort. After Otto Neurath?s death in 1945, Marie Neurath continued the institute?s 
work in visual education for more than two decades, producing educational children?s 
book series on a variety of subjects, ranging from natural history to applied science to 
world history.
377
 
While the invention and initial applications of pictorial statistics were all 
carried out by organizations led by Otto Neurath, several independent actors emerged 
in 1930s to make significant contributions to the dispersal and popularization of the 
method?though all of these figures had some connection to Neurath. Among the 
earliest independent practitioners was the graphic designer Willem Jacob Henri 
Berend Sandberg (1897-1984), who, during 1927, visited the Gesellschafts- und 
Wirtschaftsmuseum and studied under Neurath the then still-evolving Vienna Method. 
Soon after his return to Amsterdam, Sandberg published a pamphlet elucidating the 
principles of the Vienna Method and advertising his own independent practice, titled 
Het verleden in egyptische reliefs, het heden in statistich beeld [The Past in Egyptian 
Reliefs, the Present in Statistical Pictures] [FIGURE 208]. Sandberg received 
commissions for pictorial statistic charts from a number of government institutions 
including the State Insurance Bank, the Labor Councils, the Economic Information 
Service, and the Postal Service?as well as from the Stedelijk Museum, for their 1928 
exhibition on ?Work for the Disabled.?
378
 
                                                
377
 Between 1947 and 1971 the London publisher Max Parrish produced over eighty titles in eight 
different series, the majority of which were authored by Marie Neurath. For a complete bibliography 
see Graphic communication through ISOTYPE (University of Reading, 1975). 
 
378
 W.J.H.B. Sandberg, Ad Petersen, and Pieter Brattinga, Sandberg: een documentaire (Amsterdam: 
Kosmos, 1975). 
 
 
 191 
 
Another significant figure in this regard was Peter Alma, who, after a period 
supervising the Kharkiv branch of the Izostat Institute, returned to Amsterdam in 
1934 to set up his own pictorial statistic design studio. Alma?s pictorial statistic 
commissions in this period were generally commercial in nature [FIGURE 209]. In a 
pamphlet from 1935 advertising his practice, Alma listed among his clients the 
municipal government of Amsterdam, the port of Rotterdam, and A.V.R.O. (the 
General Association of Radio Broadcasting in the Netherlands). Arntz (having 
remained in The Hague after 1940) carried out work of a similar nature?though at a 
much larger scale?for the Nederlandse Stichting voor Statistiek [Dutch Foundation 
for Statistics], the successor organization to Neurath?s International Foundation for 
Visual Education. Initially, this organization collaborated with the Dutch 
governmental body, the Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek [Central Bureau for 
Statistics], producing annual publications on population and economy [FIGURE 
210]; during the postwar year period, however, its work turned increasingly to 
?market and opinion analysis.?
379
 
In contrast to the generally corporate and commercial applications in the 
Netherlands, pictorial statistics in interwar Czechoslovakia were employed in an 
educational context. This was largely the achievement of Augustin Tschinkel, who, 
having returned to Prague in 1931 to take a position as a book designer with the state 
publisher, worked over the ensuing years to introduce the Vienna Method of Pictorial 
Statistics into the Czechoslovak state school system. His greatest achievement in this 
regard was the 1935 publication, Mal? vlastivda [Little Civics Reader] [FIGURES 
                                                
379
 See Broos, ?Bildstatistik: Wien ? Moskau ? Den Haag 1928-1965,? in Bool and Broos (1976). 
 
 
 192 
 
211, 212]?an elaborately and elegantly designed atlas of Czechoslovak history and 
geography, largely modeled after the Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft atlas, on which he 
had worked five years earlier.
380
 Co-designed with Ladislav Sutnar and printed by the 
state publisher, Mal? vlastivda ranks?alongside Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft and 
Modern Man in the Making?as one of the great pictorial statistic works of the era. 
Within the United States, pictorial statistics were employed in a wide variety 
of areas, ranging from public health campaigns to market analysis to textbook design. 
While Neurath?s work was important in this regard, his former employee, Rudolf 
Modley, played an even greater role in the dissemination and popularization of the 
method in America. Prior to his immigration to the U.S. in 1930, Modley had worked 
in varying capacities at the Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum in Vienna. After a 
period of employment at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, Modley 
established the New York-based Pictograph Corporation (initially named Pictorial 
Statistics, Inc.), which, over the ensuing decade produced materials for a wide range 
of clients including such government agencies as the Department of Agriculture, the 
Office of Education, the Interior Department, the Social Security Board, and the 
Works Progress Administration; and such publications as The New York Times, Time 
Magazine, The Nation, The New Republic, Fortune, and Survey Graphic, to name 
only a few [FIGURES 213, 214, 215]. 
While organizations such as the Isotype Institute in London, the Nederlandse 
Stichting voor Statistiek in The Hague, and the Pictograph Corporation in New York 
continued (to varying extents) to produce material over the subsequent years and 
                                                
380
 Mal? vlastivda (Prague: St?tn? nakladatelstv?, 1935). Compiled and edited by Ladislav Sutnar; 
written by Bedich Mendl; maps and illustrations by Augustin Tschinkel. 
 
 
 193 
 
decades, postwar production generally did not match that of the prewar period?
either with regard to the scale of the projects, the rigor of the method, social 
aspirations, or aesthetic sophistication. As bar graphs and pie charts came to dominate 
graphic representations of quantitative data in the postwar period, the function of 
statistical pictograms shifted increasingly from the representation of quantities to the 
illustration of themes?that is to say, from a method to a style. This is evident in the 
later pictograms designed by Arntz for the Nederlandse Stichting voor Statistiek 
[FIGURE 216], which lack the ?typographic? rigor of the prewar pictograms and 
only awkwardly fulfill most basic function of pictorial statistics: the expression of 
quantity through the repetition of identical forms. 
 
 
 
 335 
 
Appendix: Artists? and Designers? Biographies 
 
Peter Alma  
(b. Medan, Sumatra, 18 January 1886; d. Amsterdam, 23 May 1969) 
 
After his father?s death in 1888, Peter Alma?s family relocated from the Dutch East 
Indies to the Netherlands, and settled in The Hague.  Following his studies from 1904 
to 1906 at The Hague?s Koninklijke Academie voor Beeldende Kunsten [Royal 
Academy of Fine Arts], Alma traveled to Paris, where he remained until the outbreak 
of the First World War. Here he continued his training as a painter at the Acad?mie 
Humbert (where artists such as Georges Braque and Marie Laurencin had also 
previously studied). Alma?s earliest paintings incorporate features derived from 
Impressionism and Pointillism; however, by 1912?after having made the 
acquaintance of Fernand L?ger, Diego Rivera, and Piet Mondrian?his work had 
begun to show the influence of Cubism. During his years in Paris, Alma began 
exhibiting his work in major international venues. His paintings were included in the 
famous 1912 Sonderbund exhibition in Cologne, and he exhibited with the 
Ind?pendants in Paris as well as with the Moderne Kunstkring in Amsterdam. After 
returning to the Netherlands in 1914, Alma became an active member within the 
artistic circle that later established De Stijl. His work at this time consisted largely of 
landscape motifs, and reflected this group?s tendency towards geometric abstraction. 
However, as Alma?s longstanding leftist political convictions intensified with the 
Russian Revolution in 1917, he began to distance himself from the formalist concerns 
 
 336 
 
of the artists of De Stijl, and sought to introduce themes of a more explicit social and 
political character into his work. Inspired by the revolutionary wave that engulfed 
Central Europe in 1918 and 1919, Alma joined the Dutch Communist Party (of which 
he remained a member until 1932), and aimed to bring his artistic activity into the 
service of the revolution. To this end he worked increasingly in woodcut and ink 
drawings after 1920, since graphic media was more perceived to be effective in 
reaching a broader audience than painting, and better suited for reproduction in the 
leftist publications (such as De Tribune) to which he contributed illustrations 
throughout the decade. In 1921 Alma traveled to Moscow to attend the congress of 
the Third International with Dutch Communist Party delegates Henriette Roland 
Holst (1869-1952) and David Wijnkoop (1876-1941). There he became familiar with 
the latest artistic developments then being carried out within Soviet avant-garde 
circles; and, he made the personal acquaintance of such artists as Wassily Kandinsky, 
Kasimir Malevich, Vladimir Tatlin, and El Lissiztky. In 1923, Alma played a crucial 
role in bringing the seminal Erste Russische Ausstellung [First Russian Exhibition] to 
the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, following its premier showing in Berlin late in 
the preceding year. Alma was again instrumental in bringing a major exhibition of 
international artists to the Stedelijk Museum in 1930, when he collaborated with the 
Amsterdam-based Socialistische Kunstenaars Kring [Socialist Artists? Circle] to 
produce the exhibit, Socialistische kunst heden [Socialist Art Today], in which 
several members of the Group of Progressive Artists participated. Alma had become 
involved with the Progressives two years earlier, after meeting Franz Wilhelm 
Seiwert at the Pressa exhibition in Cologne in 1928. It was through his connection to 
 
 337 
 
the Progressives that Alma was recruited in 1929 to work at the Gesellschafts- und 
Wirtschaftsmuseum in Vienna, where, over the course of the following two years, he 
designed pictograms for the museum?s 1930 Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft atlas, as well 
for subsequent publications. Between 1931 and 1934 Alma was intermittently 
employed at the Izostat Institute in Moscow (and its affiliate branch in Kharkiv), 
where, alongside several other members of the Gesellschafts- und 
Wirtschaftsmuseum, he trained soviet designers in the Vienna Method of Pictorial 
Statistics. Following his return to Amsterdam in 1934, Alma set up his own 
independent pictorial statistics design firm, producing material for commercial 
organizations and local governmental agencies. During the previous period in the 
Soviet Union, and in the immediately ensuing years after his return to Amsterdam, 
Alma appears to have briefly discontinued his ?free? artistic work altogether, 
devoting himself exclusively to pictorial statistic work. He resumed artistic projects 
again in 1936, but for the remainder of the decade limited his production mainly to 
painting. From the late 1920s through the late 1950s, Alma painted murals in public 
buildings throughout Amsterdam and The Hague, beginning in 1928 with a 
commission to paint a frieze in the reading room of one of Amsterdam?s public 
libraries. His most well known murals are those commissioned in 1938 and executed 
the following year for Amstel station. After the Second World War, Alma returned to 
printmaking for the first time since 1931. In these works, Alma adopted an 
expressionist-derived idiom, which departs significantly from the figurative 
constructivist style of his prewar prints. Furthermore, these works no longer contain 
the political themes that were so prevalent in his earlier work. 
 
 338 
 
 
Gerd Arntz  
(b. Remscheid, 11 December 1900; d. The Hague, 4 December 1988) 
 
Following a half-year of military service in 1918 (during which his field artillery unit 
saw no combat), and a brief period of employment in his father?s Remscheid iron 
works, Gerd Arntz moved to D?sseldorf in the autumn of 1919. There he began his 
artistic training under the instruction of the painter Lothar von Kunowski. Inspired by 
the revolutionary activities of the workers? movement in D?sseldorf, Arntz 
participated in demonstrations against the Kapp-Putsch in 1920, and became active 
within D?sseldorf?s politically radical artistic circles. While attending discussion-
evenings of the Akitivistenbund in D?sseldorf, Arntz made the acquaintance of 
Polish-born artist Jankel Adler (1895-1949), who in turn introduced Arntz to the 
politically likeminded Cologne artists Franz Wilhelm Seiwert and Heinrich Hoerle. 
Arntz would only have intermittent contact with Seiwert and Hoerle over the 
subsequent four years; however, after a two-year period in Hagen, and coincident 
with his return to D?sseldorf in 1924, he became closely involved with them. Arntz 
produced his first woodcuts in 1920, initially working in an expressionist-influenced 
style. Gradually, however, he came to incorporate geometric forms and pictographic 
symbols that emulate aspects of Seiwert and Hoerle?s graphic work. In 1925 he was 
given his first one-man show at Der neue Buchladen in Cologne, for which Seiwert 
designed the catalog and wrote a short essay. The following year he participated 
alongside Seiwert and Hoerle in numerous group exhibitions in a variety of national 
 
 339 
 
and international venues, and continued to exhibit with these artists?as well as with 
other members of the Progressives circle?over the course of the next decade. It was 
at one such group exhibition in 1926 in D?sseldorf that Otto Neurath first saw Arntz?s 
work, leading to a collaboration that would last fourteen years. In the two years 
between Neurath?s discovery of Arntz and the latter?s move to Vienna in 1928, Arntz 
became increasingly engaged with leftist publications, contributing to both the Berlin-
based Aktion and the Frankfurt-based Proletarische Revolution. Furthermore, in these 
years, during which Arntz collaborated with Neurath intermittently and from afar, he 
produced his best-known series, Zw?lf H?user der Zeit [Twelve Houses of the 
Times]. While Arntz?s graphic production was interrupted during his first years 
working at the museum in Vienna, these years mark the height of his activity as a 
painter: twelve of Arntz?s fourteen oil paintings were produced between 1928 and 
1931. Following his return to woodcut in 1931, Arntz gave up painting and devoted 
himself again exclusively to printmaking. From 1931 to 1934 Arntz divided his time 
between Vienna and Moscow, working as head of the graphics department at the 
Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum in Vienna, and serving as a consultant for 
Neurath?s team in at the Izostat Institute in Moscow. With the termination of the 
Moscow contract in 1934, and the closing of the Vienna museum, Arntz fled with 
Neurath, Marie Reidemeister, and other museum team members to The Hague. There 
the members of the Vienna museum reconstituted themselves as the International 
Foundation for Visual Education, which operated until the outbreak of the Second 
World War. After Neurath and Reidemeister?s forced emigration in 1940, Arntz went 
to work for the newly founded Nederlandse Stichting voor Statistiek (NSS) [Dutch 
 
 340 
 
Foundation for Statistics], and collaborating there until his conscription into the 
German army in 1943. Arntz was stationed in Normandy in the summer of 1944, 
where he briefly served in the German army as a truck driver before surrendering to 
the French resistance. Following his release in 1946 from military prison, he returned 
to his family in The Hague and resumed working for the NSS, designing new 
pictograms for them until his retirement in 1965. Of the three Progressives who had 
together collaborated in Vienna, only Arntz resumed a version of figurative 
constructivism in the postwar period?at this point working exclusively in linocut. 
This later version, however, exhibits little of the austerity, rigor, and formal economy 
that had characterized the earlier work. 
 
 
Heinrich Hoerle  
(b. Cologne, 1 September 1895; d. Cologne, 3 July 1936) 
 
During his studies at the Kunstgewerbeschule [School of Arts and Crafts] in Cologne 
in 1912, Heinrich Hoerle first met some of the artists with whom he would eventually 
collaborate in the ?Stupid? group, including Angelika Fick (1899-23) and her brother 
Willy Fick (1894-1970). Around this time Hoerle became acquainted with the 
personalities and trends of the Rhineland art world, mostly through his attendance of 
discussions at the Caf? Luna (a gathering place for Cologne avant-gardes). He also 
became involved with circle around the Berlin-based journal Die Aktion, and in 1917 
began contributing politically satirical prints and drawings to the journal. Hoerle was 
 
 341 
 
drafted into the German army in 1917, and sent to the front as a telephone operator. 
While suffering no physical injuries himself, he was deeply affected by the 
experience, and took as the theme for much of his subsequent work the physical and 
psychological traumas experienced by wounded veterans returning from the front. In 
the summer of 1919 Hoerle married Angelika Fick and together they moved into an 
apartment, which quickly became a center of artistic activity. Known by Cologne?s 
avant-garde artists as the Dadaheim, the Hoerles? apartment served as a studio, a 
gathering place, and a publishing house. Here Hoerle published his lithograph series, 
Die Kr?ppelmappe, as well as print portfolios by Seiwert, Angelika Hoerle, and Max 
Ernst. Along with these artists, Hoerle was part of the circle of the Gesellschaft der 
K?nste [Society of Arts], founded in November 1918 by Karl Nierendorf as a branch 
of the Berlin-based Arbeitsrat f?r Kunst [Workers? Council for Art]. Hoerle designed 
the emblem for the organization?s publication, Der Strom [The Current], in which he 
advertised the print series published out of the Dadaheim. When Nierendorf?s 
Gesellschaft der K?nste held an exhibition in the Cologne Kunstverein, a split 
occurred between those more populist and politically committed members of the 
group (which would ultimately form the ?Stupid? group), and those (like Ernst) more 
drawn to the anarchic spirit of Dada. While Hoerle initially tried to operate in both 
camps, over the subsequent year he moved closer to artists like Seiwert, who viewed 
Dada as politically ineffectual. This shift towards a more activist, politically oriented 
artistic practice coincided with a stylistic shift in Hoerle?s work, as he adopted a 
geometric approach to figuration that would later earn the name ?figurative 
constructivism.? The ?Stupid? group?s activities at the Dadaheim ended abruptly in 
 
 342 
 
1922 when Angelika Hoerle contracted tuberculosis.  Heinrich Hoerle, fearing 
infection, abandoned Angelika at this point, who died in the following year. Heinrich 
Hoerle, in fact, suffered his own attack of tuberculosis in 1925, and ultimately 
succumbed to the illness in 1936. The years between 1920 and 1923 mark the most 
prolific period for Hoerle?s graphic work, after which he turned increasingly to easel 
painting. His work from these years also had the greatest influence on the artistic 
development of his peers in the Group of Progressive Artists, many of whom adapted 
his geometric, automaton figures to their own versions of figurative constructivism. 
Hoerle?s paintings from the later part of the decade depart significantly from the 
figurative constructivist character of his earlier graphic works, incorporating, by 
contrast, an illusionist approach more characteristic of Surrealist painting. While 
Hoerle followed a stylistic path distinct from his fellow Progressives, he remained 
closely involved with them, participating in group-shows throughout the 1920s and 
early 1930s, and contributing to many of the same periodicals. When the group?s 
journal, a bis z, first appeared in 1929, Hoerle was listed (along with Franz Wilhelm 
Seiwert and Walter Stern) as one of the editors. Hoerle briefly returned to working in 
a figurative constructivist manner again at this time, producing what is likely his best-
known work, the 1930 painting Denkmal der unbekannten Prothesen [Monument to 
the Unknown Prostheses]. Hoerle?s work underwent yet another shift in 1932, 
following a falling out with Seiwert, at which point Hoerle substituted wax-pigment 
for oils, and began employing a pointillist technique in his paintings. Hoerle 
continued to work in this manner until shortly before his death in 1936; however, 
following the ascension of the National Socialist government, he was unable to 
 
 343 
 
exhibit his work publicly. A painting by Heinrich Hoerle, along with work by fellow 
Progressive Otto Freundlich (1878-1943), was included in the 1937 Nazi-sponsored 
Degenerate Art Exhibition. 
  
 
Marie Neurath (n?e Reidemeister) 
(b. Brunswick, 27 May 1898; d. London, 10 October 1986) 
 
Marie Reidemeister became the first permanent member of the Gesellschafts- und 
Wirtschaftsmuseum?s design team in March of 1925, just two months after the 
museum?s opening. She had completed her studies earlier that year in G?ttingen, 
where he she had trained to become a teacher, specializing in mathematics and 
physics?though she also maintained a long-standing interest in visual art. 
Reidemeister had visited Vienna in September of 1924 on a student trip, and was first 
introduced to Otto Neurath at this time through her brother, the mathematician Kurt 
Reidemeister. Initially her duties were administrative, but as the museum began 
contributing to larger scale exhibitions (such as the 1926 GesoLei exhibition in 
D?sseldorf) Reidemeister became increasingly involved in the design of the displays 
themselves?compiling statistical data and making decisions about their spatial 
arrangement within the charts. This activity later came to be known as the work of 
?transformation,? and by the time the museum was producing its major publications 
(such as Die bunte Welt in 1928), Reidemeister had become the head ?transformer.? 
Reidemeister was among the members of museum?s core-team, who (along with Otto 
 
 344 
 
Neurath, Gerd Arntz, Peter Alma and others) traveled to Moscow between 1931 and 
1934 to help with the development of a soviet institute for pictorial statistic education, 
known as the Izostat Institute. Following the termination of this collaboration with 
Moscow, and the subsequent closing of the Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum in 
Vienna, Reidemeister immigrated to The Hague in April of 1934 along with Otto 
Neurath and Gerd Arntz. Together they formed the core team of the museum?s 
reconstituted operations, working under the name of the International Foundation for 
Visual Education. As a reflection of the increasingly western orientation of the 
Foundation?s new projects, Reidemeister devised the name Isotype (an acronym for 
?International System of Typographic Picture Education?) to supplant the now 
anachronistic term ?Vienna Method of Pictorial Statistics.? The last Isotype project 
on which Reidemeister, Neurath, and Arntz worked together as a team was the 1939 
publication Modern Man in the Making?a book which, in its broad range of themes, 
summarizes the previous fifteen years of her collaboration with Neurath at the 
Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum and, subsequently, at the International 
Foundation for Visual Education. With the German invasion of the Netherlands in 
May 1940, Reidemeister fled to England with Neurath, where, following a period of 
internment as ?enemy aliens,? they were reunited in February 1941 and married 
shortly thereafter. Together they resumed their work at this time, establishing the 
Isotype Institute in Oxford in June 1942. After Otto Neurath?s death in 1945, Marie 
Neurath moved to London where she continued the institute?s work in visual 
education for more than two decades, working with a host of collaborators on a broad 
range of projects. Together with the London publisher Max Parrish, she produced 
 
 345 
 
numerous educational book series on subjects ranging from natural history to applied 
science to world history, generating more than eighty titles between 1947 and 1971. 
Following her retirement in the early 1970s, Marie Neurath began working to 
preserve the legacy of her and her late husband?s work in visual education. To this 
end, she collaborated with the students and faculty at the University of Reading?s 
Department of Typography and Graphic Communication to establish the Isotype 
Collection, where materials representing nearly fifty years of design work are housed 
today. 
 
 
Otto Neurath  
(b. Vienna, 10 December 1882; d. Oxford, 22 December 1945) 
 
Otto Karl Wilhelm Neurath was born the first of two sons to Getrud Kaempfert 
(1847-1914) and Wilhelm Neurath (1840-1901), a professor of economics at the 
Hochschule f?r Bodenkultur [Agricultural Academy] in Vienna since 1889. Otto 
Neurath?s lifelong interest in economics appears to have stemmed from early 
discussions with his father, and in 1902, after a brief period studying mathematics and 
physics at the University of Vienna, he decided to pursue the subjects of political 
economy, history, and philosophy. In 1906 he received his doctorate at the School of 
Philosophy of the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universit?t in Berlin, having submitted a 
dissertation on the subject of commerce, trade, and agriculture in antiquity. He 
returned to Vienna in 1907 to accept a position teaching political economy at the 
 
 346 
 
Neue Wiener Handelsakademie [New Vienna Business Academy]. With the outbreak 
of the First World War, Neurath was drafted into the Austrian army and, after a 
period of service, was appointed head of the General War and Economics Section of 
the Scientific Committee for War Economy in the Austrian War Ministry. Two years 
later, in 1918, Neurath was hired as director of the Kriegswirtschaftliches Museum 
[Museum of War Economy] in Leipzig, where he gained his first practical experience 
in designing materials for visual education. After the end of the war, and the 
subsequent dissolution of the Leipzig museum, Neurath was invited by the Social 
Democratic-led government in Munich to head Bavaria?s Central Economic 
Administration. Neurath remained in this position throughout the turbulent months 
that followed, during which the SPD government was ousted and a succession of 
council republics was established in its place. With the defeat of the final council 
republic in May 1919, Neurath was arrested and convicted of assisting in high 
treason?but later released to Vienna through the intervention of the Austrian 
government. In Vienna, Neurath served as General Secretary for the ?sterreichischer 
Verband f?r Siedlungs- und Kleingartenwesen [Austrian Association for Settlement 
and Allotment Gardens], an organization dedicated to addressing Vienna?s housing 
shortages and improving the standard of living among the working class. In 
connection with this organization, Neurath created the Museum f?r Siedlung und 
St?dtebau [Settlement and Town Planning Museum] in 1923, which two years later 
he expanded to become the Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum [Museum for 
Society of Economy]. Here, in collaboration with a team that included Marie 
Reidemeister and, later, Gerd Arntz, Neurath developed a unique approach to visual 
 
 347 
 
education, initially called the Vienna Method of Pictorial Statistics and later known as 
Isotype. Following the closing of the Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum in 
Vienna in 1934, Neurath fled to The Hague where, together with his collaborators 
Reidemeister and Arntz, he continued his work in visual education. In addition to his 
projects at the Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum (and its later incarnation as the 
International Foundation for Visual Education in The Hague), Neurath was a 
member of the Vienna Circle?an association of philosophers generally linked by 
their commitment to logical positivism?and served as the main author for the 
group?s 1929 manifesto.  
After his immigration to The Hague, Neurath was a central figure within the Unity of 
Science movement, which represented a continuation of the Vienna Circle?s earlier 
work. Together with other exiled members of the group, Neurath edited the first 
monograph of the International Encyclopedia of Unified Science, published in the 
U.S. in 1938. Along with Marie Reidemeister, Neurath fled to England in May of 
1940, just after the German invasion of the Netherlands. Following a period of 
internment, Neurath and Reidemeister reunited and married in February 1941. The 
following year they resumed their work in visual education, establishing the Isotype 
Institute in Oxford, where they employed teachers and pupils from the Oxford School 
of Art to work in the style of Arntz (who had elected to remain in the Netherlands). 
Throughout the immediately ensuing years the institute collaborated with the British 
documentary filmmaker, Paul Rotha, producing films with animated Isotype graphics, 
commissioned by the British Ministry of Information on a variety of subjects ranging 
from public health to the war effort. At the time of Neurath?s death in December 
 
 348 
 
1945, he was at work on host of projects, including designs for community housing in 
the city of Bilston, a ?visual history of mankind? book series, and a ?visual 
autobiography.? This last project, which Neurath completed just before his death, has 
only now (in 2010) at last appeared in print.  
 
 
Franz Wilhelm Seiwert  
(b. Cologne, 9 March 1894; d. Cologne, 3 July 1933) 
 
Between 1910 and 1913, Seiwert attended the Kunstgewerbeschule [School of 
Applied Arts] in Cologne, where he produced his first works in woodcut and 
sculpture. When the First World War broke out in 1914, Seiwert was exempt from 
service on account of the x-ray burn to his head that he had sustained in his 
childhood, from which he suffered lasting complications throughout his life. 
Dismayed at the inhumanity and senseless destruction of the war, Seiwert became 
increasingly radical in his political views. He would find likeminded peers in the 
intellectual circle around Franz Pfemfert?s Berlin-based literary journal, Die Aktion, 
and in 1917 began contributing graphic works to the publication. Around this time 
Seiwert also met the Polish-born artist Jankel Adler, who would later serve as an 
important link between Seiwert and artists outside of Cologne?among them, Gerd 
Arntz in D?sseldorf and Stanislaw Kubicki (1889-1943) and Margarete Kubicka 
(1891-1984) in Berlin. By 1918 Seiwert had also forged connections with the 
Cologne artists who would soon comprise the ?Stupid? group, such as Heinrich and 
 
 349 
 
Angelika Hoerle, Anton R?derscheidt (1892-1970) and Martha Hegemann (1894-
1970), as well as with those who would later join him in the Group of Progressive 
Artists, such as Hans Schmitz (1896-1977) and Otto Freundlich. In the period just 
after the war, most of these artists were broadly involved in the city?s avant-garde 
scenes, contributing to publications and exhibitions connected with the Dadaist circle 
around Max Ernst as well as with Karl Nierendorf?s Gesellschaft der K?nste [Society 
of the Arts]. When early in 1920 a schism began to form between these two camps, 
Seiwert and his colleagues in the ?Stupid? group distanced themselves from Cologne 
Dada?a movement they deemed politically ineffective. In seeking to reach a mass-
audience with his radical political message, Seiwert (along with other members of the 
group) turned to graphic media in the years between 1919 and 1923?working 
primarily in woodcut and linocut. During this period, Seiwert published several 
portfolios of his prints through presses associated with the radical political journals to 
which he contributed. Seiwert also joined or collaborated with several political 
organizations at this point, including the revolutionary council AAU-E (Allgemeine 
Arbeiter Union ? Einheitsorganisation) [General Workers? Union ? Unitary 
Organization], to whose publications he contributed articles and artworks, and the 
Internationale Arbeiter-Hilfe [International Workers? Aid], for which he designed 
graphic works. These years, which mark the high point of Seiwert?s graphic 
production (after 1923 his focus shifted increasingly to easel painting), also coincided 
with a stylistic transformation, as Seiwert moved away from his earlier expressionist-
derived idiom and began working in a style that he would later characterize as 
?figurative-constructive.? Around this time Seiwert also began to produce what 
 
 350 
 
would become a prolific body of political-theoretical texts, many of which were 
published over the ensuing years in such journals as Die Aktion and the Sozialistische 
Republik, and later (between 1929 and 1933) in the Progressives? own journal, a bis z. 
This last publication, which featured more than 27 articles and 20 artwork 
reproductions by Seiwert, established Seiwert as the central figure and leading 
spokesman of the Group of Progressive Artists. Many of these articles and artwork 
reproductions were collected in an anthology published in Prague by Seiwert?s 
colleagues Gerd Arntz and Augustin Tschinkel, the year following Seiwert?s early 
death in 1933. 
 
 
Augustin Tschinkel  
(b. Prague, 3 August 1905; d. Cologne, 1 May 1983) 
 
From 1921 to 1924 Tschinkel studied at Prague?s School of Applied Arts, where he 
met his longtime collaborator, the designer Ladislav Sutnar. Sutnar, who was 
appointed director of the children?s puppet theater at the Workers? Academy in 
Prague in 1924, hired Tschinkel that same year to design stage sets. At this same 
time, Tschinkel began contributing graphic works to a variety of publications, 
including the Czech puppetry journal, Loutk? [Puppeteer], and the German literary 
journal, Die Aktion. It was through the latter publication that Tschinkel had first 
become acquainted with the work of Franz Wilhelm Seiwert two years earlier?an 
encounter that would prove critical to Tschinkel?s artistic development. Tschinkel 
 
 351 
 
only became personally acquainted with Seiwert years later, when, in 1928, he 
accompanied Sutnar in Cologne to collaborate on the displays for the Czech pavilion 
at the Pressa exhibition. This meeting brought Tschinkel into the orbit of the Group 
of Progressive of Artists, and over the course the following four years he became a 
frequent contributor to the group?s journal, a bis z, as well as becoming a regular 
participant in national and international exhibitions featuring group members. 
Tschinkel also proved to be an important link between the Group of Progressive 
Artists and avant-garde circles within Czechoslovakia. Reproductions of the 
Progressives? graphic works proliferated in Czech publications throughout the early 
1930s, and exerted a significant influence on the Czech artists? group Linie, with 
whom Tschinkel exhibited later in the decade. It was through his connection to the 
Group of Progressive Artists, that Tschinkel was invited to Vienna to work at the 
Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum. Between the summer of 1929 and the end of 
1930, Tschinkel worked with Gerd Arntz and Peter Alma in the museum?s graphic 
department, designing pictograms for the museum?s Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft 
atlas, and learning the principles of the Vienna Method of Pictorial Statistics. 
Tschinkel published Czech-language articles at this time, explaining and promoting 
the work of the museum in his homeland. Following his return to Prague in 1931 to 
take a position as a book designer with the state textbook publisher, Tschinkel worked 
to introduce the Vienna Method into the Czechoslovak state school system. His 
greatest achievement in this regard was the 1935 publication, Mal? vlastivda [Little 
Civics Reader]. Produced in collaboration with Sutnar, this elaborately and elegantly 
designed atlas of Czechoslovak history and geography was largely modeled after the 
 
 352 
 
Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft atlas on which he had worked years earlier. Alongside his 
design work for the state textbook publisher in Prague, Tschinkel was hired in 1936 
as a drawing instructor at the Prague State School of Graphics, where Sutnar had 
served as director since 1933. Between 1936 and 1940 Tschinkel published a series of 
books through the school press treating themes connected to the history of visual 
communication. Additionally, Tschinkel authored numerous articles during these 
years on a wide variety of related themes, ranging from children?s book illustration to 
the history of typography. Many of these articles appeared in the journal, 
eskoslovensk kresl? [Czechoslovak Draftsman], for which Tschinkel served as 
typographic designer from 1938 through 1939. In 1941, Tschinkel was forced out of 
his positions at the State School of Graphics and the state textbook publisher by the 
German occupation, and was left unemployed for the remaining years of the war. 
Tschinkel continued to struggle in the years immediately after the war. Ultimately, he 
found employment with a map publisher in Salzburg in the mid-1950s, where he 
remained for the next decade. In 1964 Tschinkel moved to Germany, where he was 
hired as an anatomical draftsman at the University of Cologne. Tschinkel?s artistic 
production in the postwar decades, which may be described as surrealist, has very 
little in common with his figurative constructivist work of the interwar years, much of 
which was destroyed during the war. 
 
 353 
 
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