Original etching using aquatint, sandpaper, and soft ground on copperplate paper. According to Knesebeck, this impression is state seven of eight, with engraved script along the lower edge of the plate. At left: “Orig. Rad. von Käte Kollwitz.” At center: “VERLAG VON EMIL RICHTER, DRESDEN.” At right: “Druck v. O. Felsing, Berlin-Chlttbg.” From the Richter edition of 1921. Plate no longer in existence.

Platemark: 17 1/4" x 21 1/2", sheet: 18" x 22 7/8"
Catalogue reference: Klipstein 100; Knesebeck 104 VII/VIII

This impression depicts the hardships of living when jobs were scarce in pre-World War I Germany. Politically charged works such as this and the Weavers’ Revolt cycle angered the authorities and displeased the Kaiser. Kollwitz would later return to the subject of the effects of unemployment twenty years later, during the Weimar Republic.