Master illustrator, illustration master

Munich on the cusp of modernism just before 1900. For decades, the art academy had been a magnet for young people from half of Europe. Eduard Thöny, born in Brixen in 1866, moved to the German art capital with his father, the woodcarver Christian Thöny, in 1872. He wanted to become a battle painter and studied under the masters of this noble craft. In 1896, the literary-political satirical magazine "Simplicissimus" was founded in Munich. Competition from steel engravings is driven out of the market by color pictures. Eduard Thöny was there from the beginning. He drew more than 3,000 pages for "Simplicissimus" - up to date, critical and polemical, with a timeless view of human nature - including 300 covers.

He captured rural-moral, bourgeois, petty-feudal and gutter milieus. He caricatures peasants, civil servants, the nouveau riche, prelates, officers, matrons and cocottes. He studied them in beer gardens, salons, barracks and tennis courts. He devoured political news from around the world. His most famous trademark: the Prussian lieutenant. His greatest love: horses in motion, on the racetrack, in the military.

"Simplicissimus" resists pressure from the church, heavy industry and Kaiser Wilhelm. In 1914, the drawing pacifists mutated into national German comrades-in-arms. Thöny became a war painter in the Austro-Hungarian Army. The empires collapsed, Thöny became a German, and the National Socialists emerged victorious from the postwar chaos. In 1933, "Simplicissimus" was brought into line. The critical spirit renounces itself. Or is driven out.

Curators: Gustav Peichl (design), Hans Haider