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拍品专文
Ralph Jentsch has confirmed the authenticity of this work.
She weeps. He, with a cigarette in his mouth, is putting the little wooden coffin on a handcart to be pulled to the next cemetery. She holds a bunch of little twigs in her hand that she will throw on the coffin in the grave. For him, it will be over, the matter with the little one who had just died, as he will have to start his shift. There is a wooden fence in the background with the sign of the coal miners and an advertising sign reading 'Holz' (wood) that can be completed with 'Kohlen' (coal). On the left one can see an advertising sign for the brewery 'Schultheiss-Patzenhofer'. The whole scene is presumably taking place in a working-class area of Berlin such as Wedding, the one Grosz grew up in, and the man will shortly have to start his shift at work.
III. Klasse (third class) is the term for the cheapest and therefore most uncomfortable transportation option in the German railway system, usually avoided by most travellers; however, the poor have no alternative. The only choice this couple has is a third-class funeral. In Interregnum, the scene was given a cynical title, Ein Engelchen mehr, ein Rekrut weniger (One Little Angel More, One Recruit Less), probably influenced by the fact that Nazi Germany had become a reality and the Nazis were now inspiring Germans to increase birth rates in order to recruit future soldiers and fighters for the Reich and Führer.
Ralph Jentsch
She weeps. He, with a cigarette in his mouth, is putting the little wooden coffin on a handcart to be pulled to the next cemetery. She holds a bunch of little twigs in her hand that she will throw on the coffin in the grave. For him, it will be over, the matter with the little one who had just died, as he will have to start his shift. There is a wooden fence in the background with the sign of the coal miners and an advertising sign reading 'Holz' (wood) that can be completed with 'Kohlen' (coal). On the left one can see an advertising sign for the brewery 'Schultheiss-Patzenhofer'. The whole scene is presumably taking place in a working-class area of Berlin such as Wedding, the one Grosz grew up in, and the man will shortly have to start his shift at work.
III. Klasse (third class) is the term for the cheapest and therefore most uncomfortable transportation option in the German railway system, usually avoided by most travellers; however, the poor have no alternative. The only choice this couple has is a third-class funeral. In Interregnum, the scene was given a cynical title, Ein Engelchen mehr, ein Rekrut weniger (One Little Angel More, One Recruit Less), probably influenced by the fact that Nazi Germany had become a reality and the Nazis were now inspiring Germans to increase birth rates in order to recruit future soldiers and fighters for the Reich and Führer.
Ralph Jentsch