The sculptor and graphic artist Ernst Barlach counts among the most important artists of Expressionism.
The predominant topic of the humanist Ernst Barlach was man and all his needs, hopes and miseries. The most influential encounter in this respect was Barlach's contact with impoverished peasants during a journey through Russia. Ernst Barlach's fame is based particularly on his sculpting: The characteristic expressive figures in robes, simplified and integral with a tense verve, unite both severity and dynamic. The multi-faceted Ernst Barlach also created expressionist plays and left behind a vast graphic oeuvre, which comprises dawings for the magazines "Jugend" and "Simplicissimus", as well as woodcuts and lithographs. Defamed as "degenerate" during NS dictatorship, Ernst Barlach did not live until his work would be internationally acknowledged.
Works by Ernst Barlach are on display in the most prominent museums, The largest collection is presented by Ernst Barlach Foundation in Güstrow, which was established in 1994.