Leno Family Collection

Fargo, ND

We are collectors, curating and organizing our private family collection for estate and insurance purposes.

Message
Kaiser-Wilhelm-Kirche, Berlin by Erhard Kirschstein Image: Erhard Kirschstein Kaiser-Wilhelm-Kirche, Berlin c. late 1940s–early 1950s Hand-colored lithograph on paper In this work, Kirschstein depicts the bomb-damaged Kaiser-Wilhelm-Kirche before the construction of its modern postwar additions. Rather than isolating the ruin as a memorial, he situates it within the flow of everyday city life—trams, automobiles, and pedestrians pass through the scene without pause. Kirschstein’s restrained, observational approach records Berlin as a lived city, capturing a transitional moment between destruction and later memorialization.
Erhard Kirschstein Kaiser-Wilhelm-Kirche, Berlin c. late 1940s–early 1950s Hand-colored lithograph on paper In this work, Kirschstein depicts the bomb-damaged Kaiser-Wilhelm-Kirche before the construction of its modern postwar additions. Rather than isolating the ruin as a memorial, he situates it within the flow of everyday city life—trams, automobiles, and pedestrians pass through the scene without pause. Kirschstein’s restrained, observational approach records Berlin as a lived city, capturing a transitional moment between destruction and later memorialization.
  • Erhard Kirschstein
  • Kaiser-Wilhelm-Kirche, Berlin
  • Lithograph hand colored
  • Signature: E. Kirschstein LL on stone, and in pencil on mat. LR titled on mat.
Prev
Next

Erhard Kirschstein (German, 1920–1972)
Kaiser-Wilhelm-Kirche, Berlin
c. late 1940s–early 1950s
Hand-colored lithograph on paper
Signed in the stone and signed in pencil
Edition: numbered (edition size unknown)
This hand-colored lithograph depicts the bomb-damaged Kaiser-Wilhelm-Kirche in Berlin before the construction of its modern postwar additions. Kirschstein records the ruined church as part of everyday city life, integrated into traffic, pedestrians, and public movement rather than isolated as a memorial site. Trams, automobiles, and figures move through the scene with little pause, emphasizing continuity amid destruction.
Rather than dramatizing the ruin, Kirschstein adopts a restrained, observational approach, treating the church as a functioning urban landmark despite its damaged state. The work belongs to a broader series in which the artist repeatedly returned to Berlin’s monuments over time, documenting how their meaning evolved through war, destruction, and reconstruction. This print represents a transitional moment—after devastation, but before the site’s later memorial framing—capturing Berlin as a lived city rather than a symbolic one.

  • Subject Matter: Urban landmark, street scene

Other Work From Leno Family Collection

See all artwork from Leno Family Collection