This autumn, Christie’s 20^th/21^st Century Department presents The Golden Twenties: Berlin through the Eyes of Modern Artists — a historically significant auction of Modern Art from the Weimar period and beyond. Thoughtfully amassed by its owners, this single-owner collection of quality works on paper and prints spanning from the early 1900s to the 1960s is headlined by George Grosz’s Die guten Jahre and a selection of highly important works by Jeanne Mammen, led by Bierseidelbetrachtung II and Kaschemme. Further highlights include a collection of works by Heinrich Zille alongside esteemed pieces by Erich Heckel and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, as well as prints by Otto Dix, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Pablo Picasso and Max Pechstein.

The present works were gathered by an extraordinary couple who had met during the Second World War and began collecting in the post-war period, gradually adding to their collection throughout their lives. Having experienced wartime in their twenties and by sheer luck escaping death in the Baltic Sea on the last voyage of the hospital and military ship Wilhelm Gustloff, wife and husband collected many of their works in reminiscence of long lost times. The works by Jeanne Mammen and Heinrich Zille, in particular, gave them an opportunity to daydream of the carefree youth they never got to experience, of dancing in the evenings and roaming the streets freely. This exceptional collection is thus not only a unique insight into how the city of Berlin was viewed and experienced by its artists, but also an intimate portrait of a couple’s passionate and deeply personal collecting journey.