While lacking in big names in visual arts a lot of iconic imagery originated in Germany. With it's hundreds of principalities the holy roman empire never really managed to focus and culminate all it's creative and cultural power into one place, one time. Much later than for example France and Britain, Germany found an identifying and unifying artistic expression.
The first might have very well been romanticism, an eventually european movement, born out of the disenchantment with classical ideals and the turn towards one's own inherent culture and thus to the myths and folklore of old. This is the time the Borther's Grimm collect fairytales from oral tradition. Caspar David Friedrich's moody paintings of majestic, almost sacral landscapes and sinister gothic ruins can still be found on many a book cover today. The return to ancient, pristine germanic symbolism resonated well with the people that longed to defeat Napoleon and finally build a united nation.
These hopes were shattered after the Viennese Congress where the rule of many German royal and princely houses was restored. The upcoming bourgeoisie who was the driving force behind the patriotic and progressive changes was in shock and turned inwards to home and family. This return to the social nucleus formed a lot of the concept of „family” we still hold up today as well as Germany's very own brand of "Gemütlichkeit". Many Christmas traditions for example were defined in the sanctuary of home and family during this age of so called "Biedermeier" and by way of Prince Albert to Queen Victoria to the British Empire were popularized worldwide. The Biedermeier however is seen today as culturally reclusive and painfully inoffensive. Liberal Germany laid down it's arms (literally) and succumbed to the reign of the old feudal lords.
After the last spark of the German Revolution of 1849 failed to ignite, the German bourgeoisie gave up on politics for good, enabling the Prussian monarchy to finally unite the german people under the crown of the Hohenzollern and giving way to the ever rising nationalism that spread across Europe. Visual arts only strived again at the end of the age of European monarchy, when industrialization and war became unbearable. Expressionism broke consequently with the tastes of the imperial german society dictated by the emperor. Names like Emil Nolde, Käthe Kollwitz or Franz Marc are known, albeit not as popular as the likes of van Gogh or Picasso. German cinema adapting the expressive paintings on to the big screen bloomed and peaked in it's golden age with classics like Nosferatu and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (public domain, linked are the full movies on youtube).
The pendulum swung back of course when national socialism rose and the NSDAP forbid and confiscated „entartete Kunst” degenerate Art. In post war Germany individual artists struggled with the unspeakable that has happened, strived and became global best sellers like Gerhard Richter. After reunification a new generation of visual artists were able to find a more light hearted but not less critical approach to their homeland like Neo Rauch and Erwin Wurm today. Probably even more successful have been the artists working with the precision of a camera lens like Helmut Newton, Ellen von Unwerth or Michael Ballhaus and recently Wolfgang Tillmans. Beware of NSFW pictures in the last batch of links (except Ballhaus). Photography in post war Germany is sexually charged to the max!
Some key visuals
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