Die Brücke
Founded in 1905 and considered the starting point for the whole Expressionism movement, Die Brücke (The Bridge) was a group of artists, who met as students at the Technical Institute of Dresden, with no specific art background. The group inspired by Bohemian lifestyle shared the studio and common areas dedicated to socialising, entertainment and all sorts of gatherings. Main objective of the group was to create art that could bridge past, present and future. It tapped into German history of crafts, rediscovering traditional techniques, such as woodcutting and printmaking, but also looked into Symbolism, Primitivism and Fauvism for its inclination towards crude textures, hyper-saturated colours and fragmented lines.
Its founders, Fritz Bleyl, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Erich Heckel and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, are often considered one of the two Expressionist pillars, opposed to the Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) group, more inclined to abstract landscapes.
Other important members of the group were Otto Mueller and Emile Nolde, who was invited to join the group later.