Kaschemme (Dive Bar)

The word Kaschemme comes from Romani language, referring to a disreputable bar or restaurant. In this seedy and cramped space, subjects drink, smoke, and dance to music issuing from a gramophone. Almost none look at each other, and when they do it is with a hollow, lifeless expression. Their psychological emptiness and fatigue is typical of graphic work from Weimar-era Berlin.

Mammen is one of the vital–although often overlooked–artists of Weimar Germany. She was born in Berlin and raised in Paris. She studied throughout Europe, returning to Paris in 1912 as a respected artist. She was forced to return to Germany when her family lost their business and fortune as a result of the reparations agreement with the French after World War I. In interwar Germany, she earned a living primarily from printmaking and book illustration. An out lesbian, Mammen especially featured women in her portraits and genres scenes, from socialites and urbanites, to prostitutes, lovers, and cabaret performers backstage.