The City through the Eyes of Expressionism

The process of industrialization and urban growth and the development of cities in the first three decades of the 20^th century are inevitably related to rapid social changes. The new attitude to life, which corresponds to this process, affected the aesthetic perception and the work of artists as well. The study shows the sensitiveness of German expressionism to the dynamics, drive and chaos of the new city life. The expressionistic picture of the city is clearly ambivalent; it oscillates between fascination on the one hand and antipathy on the other. Expressionism also reflects the social alienation and the feeling of being lonely in a crowd as new phenomena of the 20^th century.