and forward thrust of the group’smovement.¹⁰The symmetrical composition in-
cludesamiddle-aged burgher with old-fashionedVatermörderhighcollarand
bowler hat andapoliceman withTschako(shako, or military cap) and pulled
gunasthe representativesoflaw and order,easy targets for the kind of social
caricature usually associatedwith Grosz. The workers’faces are reducedto
basic ovals (with caps or hair)and simple features (eyes, mouths) that distin-
guish them as human beings;vertical lines suggesting noses add spatial depth
through the use of shading.Meanwhile, anyreferences to their masculinity,
still visible on the front pageofSozialistischeRepublik,havebeenremoved
from the uniformgeometricalfigures whose gender is nonetheless beyond
doubt.The similarities of shapes and their staggered arrangement inside the
frame present the group as the sum of individual bodies andasocial class in
the moment of formation. The warmand vibrant colors–browns,oranges,
andreds–infuse this collective bodywith asemblance of life,with the red
half circles in the center,areferenceperhaps to flags, addingadistinct commu-
nist halo: confirmation that the demonstrators are to beread as saviors fighting
for afuture classless societyrather than as mere social types trapped in the cap-
italist present.
On the one hand,Demonstrationand similar works can be interpreted as a
paradigmatic scene of class struggle. The workers claim their right to the street,
that is,to freelyassemble and state their demands. Their strength is conveyed
through the introduction of obstacles, and their determination heightened by
the overall sense of stillness. On the other hand, thesemise-en-scènes suggest
apowerfulmoment of (self‐)recognition. As if standing in front ofamirror,view-
ers are invited to recognize their similarities to individual workers and the group
as awhole. The Marxist dialectic of the particularand universalisessentialto
such classed identifications. These scenes ofrecognitionrecall the work of
Axel Honneth and his insistenceonthe importance ofAnerkennung(recognition)
and its absence,Mißachtung(disrespect), asadriving forcebehind all social
struggles.¹¹What Honneth describes as networks of solidarity and institutional-
In aparticularlycrass example of ColdWarrevisionism,Demonstrationis renamedArbeit-
geber,Arbeitnehmer und Polizeiin Carl OskarJatho,Franz Wilhelm Seiwert(Recklinghausen:
AurelBongers, 1964), 39.Onthe art historical reception of the Cologne Progressivesduring
the ColdWar, see the catalogueHoerle und Seiwert.Moderne Malerei in Kölnzwischen 1917
und 1933: EineMonographie(Cologne:KölnischerKunstverein, 1952).
Axel Honneth,TheStruggle for Recognition:TheMoral Grammar of Social Conflicts,trans.Joel
Anderson(Cambridge:Polity,1995). On the debate, see NancyFraser and Axel Honneth,Redis-
tribution or Recognition?APolitical-Philosophical Exchange,trans.Joel Golb,James Ingram, and
Franz Wilhelm Seiwert’sCriticalEmpathy 211