George Grosz was a German artist known especially for his political cartoons and paintings of Berlin life in the 1920s. He was a prominent member of the Berlin Dada and New Objectivity groups during the Weimar Republic. He emigrated to the United States in 1933, and became a naturalized citizen in 1938. John Heartfield was a German visual artist who pioneered the use of art as a political weapon. Some of his most famous photo-montages were anti-Nazi and anti-fascist statements and he was hunted relentlessly by the Gestapo for his art and politics.

John Heartfield said: " There are a lot of things that got me into working with photos. The main thing is that I saw both what was being said and not being said with photos in the newspapers... I found out how you can fool people with photos, really fool them... You can lie and tell the truth by putting the wrong title or wrong captions under them, and that's roughly what was being done."

George Grosz said: " It's an old ploy of the bourgeoisie. They keep a standing 'art' to defend their collapsing culture."