Auszug zum Kampf — Departure for Battle

AUSZUG ZUM KAMPF — DEPARTURE FOR BATTLE

After Arno Breker.

The battle has not yet begun.

Auszug zum Kampf, Departure for Battle, captures the moment before it: men advancing on foot and horseback, swords raised, standards carried high, every figure drawn into the same forward movement.

Conceived around 1940 as part of the monumental sculptural program surrounding the planned Soldatenhalle in Berlin, the relief was designed on an architectural scale.

Breker compresses bodies, horses, weapons and banners into a continuous procession. Individual figures almost disappear into the larger rhythm of the composition. One man advances. Another raises his sword. A horse surges forward. Standards move above them all.

The subject is not combat.

It is departure.

The threshold between preparation and consequence.

Like Breker’s other major state commissions of the period, Auszug zum Kampf was created within the official artistic culture of Nazi Germany. Its classical bodies, martial imagery and monumental scale formed part of the regime’s political visual language, intended to present war, sacrifice and collective action in heroic form.

The enormous architectural project for which the relief was conceived was never completed.

What survives most clearly is the plaster model and its photographic record. Around 1944, photographer Charlotte Rohrbach documented the composition in a series of detailed photographs. Those images survived the collapse of the regime and ultimately entered the collection of the Library of Congress.

They preserve a work that otherwise belonged to an unrealized architectural world.

The horses.

The raised blades.

The standards.

And an entire procession moving toward something still beyond the frame.

Carefully restored and digitally prepared from surviving photographic material to preserve depth, tonal structure and sculptural detail.

Printed on museum-grade matte paper.

This edition is exclusively offered through Thuleism.

Historical note: This print presents a historical artwork in its original context. Its inclusion does not constitute endorsement of the political regime for which the work was conceived.

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Product details

- Museum-grade matte paper

- Archival pigment print

- Thick, durable stock

- Designed for framing

Each piece is set within the chosen paper format rather than printed edge to edge. The surrounding margins are intentional, allowing the work to breathe and making it easier to frame using widely available standard frame sizes.

Please note that the selected size refers to the overall paper size, not the dimensions of the printed image itself. The artwork is proportionally fitted within that format, with margins varying slightly depending on the original composition.

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Age restrictions: For adults
EU Warranty: 2 years
Other compliance information: Meets the small parts and magnetic flux index level requirements.

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