George Grosz's depictions of society in the Weimar Republic are among the harshest analyses of the social reality of that time. In his paintings, drawings, and prints, the big city becomes a stage for moral decay, where sexuality, power, and economic hardship intertwine. With his sharp brush, he characterizes “Babylon Berlin” as a city dominated by money, corruption, and sexual hedonism. His subjects are often not only victims of social injustice, but also symptoms of a society with values marked by corruption, hypocrisy, and aggression.

The bourgeois couple as a character type in Grosz's art
With the print “Liebespaar” (Lovers), he lampoons the world of dubious pleasures. The bald, feisty man embodies the satiated bourgeois, exercising his power in economic and sexual forms. The scene presented here is titled “Liebespaar” (Lovers) on the reverse. Whether they are truly lovers or rather engaged in a transactional affair cannot be conclusively determined. This “couple” is certainly not necessarily married, as indicated by their ringless hands. The tête-à-tête is held in a cramped space; the woman has just been reading and was not prepared for such a demanding encounter from behind, and does not necessarily want to give in to him, but he grabs her buttocks and breasts.

George Grosz's depictions, such as “Liebespaar,” are not voyeuristic observations but rather descriptions of a society that fails to recognize its own paradoxes. The artist holds up a mirror to his audience—“in front of their grimaces,” as he himself said—and exposes the moral foundations of a world driven by capital and hypocrisy. With an analytical eye, Grosz creates an anatomy of desire without offering empathy or redemption. Human beings, with their lust and greed, are part of a system that no longer recognizes any moral authority. The old man gropes the woman, and behind him, the cross, symbol of Christianity, is degraded to a window cross. It is no coincidence that George Grosz chose to place this attribute so prominently in the scene. His intention here is not to depict a window, but a cross as a reference to the institution of the church.
For Grosz, the church is not a moral counterforce, but part of the power structure he so sharply criticizes.

“Lovers” – Reflection or counter-image to prostitution?
This confrontation with religion reveals Grosz’s central concern: he attacks not faith itself, but the institution that corrupts the actual content of the beliefs. In his works from this period, he depicts the church, the military, and the bourgeoisie as accomplices in a system that preaches morality while practicing exploitation.
His art attempts to use exaggeration and satire to reveal the structures that embed violence and hypocrisy in everyday life.
His works document the lasting question of how much hypocrisy a society can tolerate before it no longer recognizes itself. In this way, he becomes a visionary of German culture. He was able to leave Germany in 1932 shortly before Adolf Hitler seized power; his works were removed from museums and defamed as “degenerate art.” [KA/EH]