Despite the drab setting,the man’sposture, his legs slightlyapart and knees
tightlylocked, conveys confidenceand strength. His arms are extended forward,
with both digit fingers pointingatanimaginedaudience beyond the frame. His
wide corduroy pants and short light-brown jacket are not typical sartorial
choices forafactory worker and suggest aparty functionary.For Querner,anac-
tive memberofKPDand ASSO,the proletariatwasinseparable from its uni-
forms–the pea coats,simple tunics, and soft caps worn by the marchingwork-
ers in his best-known work,Demonstration(1930), and the overalls and smocks
donned by the artist himself in several probingself-portraits. Perhaps the agita-
tor’smountaineering-type jacket is an allusionto communism’sheroic climb to
the summit of world history,and his chiseled face and tight lips an expression of
the self-control required of all party members. In either case, Quernerwas inter-
ested less in the representation ofaparticular socialmilieu or political type than
in the performance of an ideological position. The fact that the agitator does not
even requirethe visiblepresenceofanaudience strengthens the implied connec-
tion between communist orthodoxy and aggressive militancy and adds some cre-
dence to the claim by Hellmuth Heinz thatanearlier,largerversion of the paint-
ing includedaworker’shand wieldingagun.¹³
Thegenderednature of the communist habitus becomes glaringlyobvious
throughacomparison ofAgitatorto earlier treatments of scenes of agitation
that explicitlydrawonChristian iconographiesofsuffering. These are on full
view in Magnus Zeller’sexpressionistAgitator/Volksredner(1920,Agitator/Ora-
tor,oil on canvas), which relies on religious tropes and symbols to depict agita-
tion asastate of ecstatic communitarianism (seefigure 13.3). In choosing the
subjectmatter,Zeller (1888–1972), who studied withBerlin Secession member
Lovis Corinth, drew on his personal experiencesduring the revolutionary upris-
ingsinthe capital and his close familiarity with the conventions of the expres-
sionist stage. Hisreenactment of the transformative effect ofagitation centers on
apreacher-like figure,ayoung,slender man inagarish green suit,who is sur-
rounded by an enrapturedaudience in what could beareligious revival–
wereitnot foralarge silhouettedman in the foreground ominouslyshaking
his fist.The danger emanating from the scene is captured in therawemotions
on the facesofthe worshippers and the formaldynamismofstark contrasts, di-
agonal lines, and elongated shapes. The constitutive tension between reverie and
revolt,tocite the title ofarelated portfolio of Zellerlithographs,foregrounds
HellmuthHeinz,CurtQuerner(Dresden:Verlag derKunst,1968), 24.Onthe figure of theag-
itator (also fromaGDR perspective), see Dieter Schmidt,“Die Figurdes Agitators in der prole-
tarisch-revolutionärenKunst,”Bildende Kunst11 (1964): 576–83.
TakingaStand: The Habitus of Agitprop 245