Hanns Katz, expressionist painter in exile

Der Eiserne Steg in Frankfurt am Main, 1930

Hanns Ludwig Katz (1892–1940) was a German expressionist painter and graphic artist. He was born in Karlsruhe, and moved to Frankfurt on Main in 1920, after having studied painting, architecture, and art history. Despite initial success and renown as an expressionist painter, Katz had to work in a whitewashing company with his partner in order to support himself and his wife.
                         

During Nazi rule, Katz’ paintings were denounced by the Nazis as "degenerate art. He was active in the Jüdischer Kulturbund, a cultural federation of German Jews that hired thousands of artists, musicians, and actors fired from German institutions.                                                                                   

      
In 1935 he started preparations for the foundation of a semi-autonomous Jewish settlement in Yugoslavia. The plans fell through, so in 1936 he emigrated to South Africa. After he left Germany, an expressionist portrait of the philosopher and anarchist Gustav Landauer, painted in 1919-1920, was denounced as degenerate art by the Nazis. Landauer, who believed in a kind of spiritual socialism and was a friend of Martin Buber, fell victim to a political murder in 1919.

Portrait of Gustav Landauer, 1919-1920

In South Africa, Katz's works never found the recognition they’d had in Germany, and he was forced to revert to house painting to support himself and his wife. Katz developed cancer and died in 1940 in abject poverty.