Erich Heckel

Born in Döbeln, Saxony, in 1883, Erich Heckel initially pursued architecture in Dresden, a practical compromise with his middle-class parents. However, his true passion lay in art. It was during his studies in 1905 that he, along with fellow architecture students Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, and Fritz Bleyl, co-founded Die Brücke (The Bridge). This avant-garde group aimed to forge a "bridge" between traditional German painting and a new, modern expressionist…