Insightful at a Young Age

Dieter Roth: Artist 1930-1988

At the age of ten in 1940, Roth was put into membership with a paramilitary organization of the Hitler Youth,the Pimpfe (Cubs).  He was removed from Germany for a period of time in 1943, and he began writing and drawing frequently commenting on the society’s anxiety from war being a burden on the individual. In 1945 he wrote:

“And as long as this war is raging-it is probably my inner war too - one of development - I will not have personality for the world outside. The war has to be over first, the big one for the development and ultimately the peace of mankind, and the same, small one inside me, then mankind will be mankind, then I will be Dieter.”