The main theme of Gerhard Marcks' is the human - with all his small and large worries, joys and suffering. His sculptures express a deep understanding of and interest in Man. The dictum of post-war art to create only in the abstract is refuted by his figures: "The main thing is not to be contemporary, nor to baffle others with originality. Sculpture is a matter of weight and proportion, form wrung from chaos. There is nothing "new" there. ...Art is not meant to divert, but to concentrate. That does not thrive in the mass. That is why its disciple must remain solitary, as much as his love belongs to the world around him."
Marcks did not leave Germany during World War I, even though he lost his teaching post and 24 of his sculptures were removed from museums as "degenerate art" in 1937. Nearly his entire oeuvre was destroyed in 1943, when a bomb hit his Berlin studio. Works he had hid were plundered and destroyed.
After the war, he tirelessly began anew and also created some works for public places in Cologne, Hamburg, Mannheim and Frankfurt.
