Heinrich Zille

A museum dedicated to Zille's work opened in Berlin's Nikolaiviertel, in Mitte, in 2002; in 2007 a statue of him by Thorsten Stegmann was erected nearby.

In 1983 director Werner W. Wallroth made an East German film based on a musical written by Dieter Wardetzky and Peter Rabenalt. This movie, Zille und Ick (Zille and I in Berlin dialect), is not a real biopic but uses parts of Zille's life for the story.

Heinrich Zille Park on Bergstraße in Berlin's Mitte borough was named for him by the City of Berlin in 1948 and formerly featured a statue of him from the workshop of Paul Kentsch, but the statue's whereabouts are unknown and the park is now a children's adventure playground. There is a Zille Memorial statue created in 1964–65 by Heinrich Drake in the Lapidary within Köllnischer Park, also in Mitte.

He is known for his work on Die da unten (1926), Mother Küsters Goes to Heaven (1975) and Die Stadt der Millionen (1925). He was married to Hulda Frieske.

The Berlin "Common People" paid him the greatest respect, and very late in life his fame culminated when both poverty and freedom of expression reached new heights in the roaring twenties, with the National Gallery buying some drawings in 1921, the Academy of the Arts honouring him with a professorship in 1924, and Gerhard Lamprecht making the film Die Verrufenen based on his cartoon characters and stories in 1925. His 70th birthday in 1928 was celebrated throughout Berlin. He died one year later.

Zille did not consider himself a real artist: he often said that his work was not the result of talent but merely of hard work. Max Liebermann nevertheless promoted him. He called him into the Berlin Secession in 1903, featured his work in exhibitions, and encouraged him to sell drawings – and when Zille lost his job as a lithographer in 1910, he encouraged him to live from his drawings alone.

In 1883, he married Hulda Frieske, with whom he had three children. She died in 1919.

Heinrich Zille was born in the little town of Radeburg (near Dresden) in Saxony, and spent his early years in Potschappel. His childhood was not without trouble. His father was incarcerated several times in debtor's prison and creditors harassed the family so much that the young Zille was often sent to live with his grandmother. In 1867 the family left town because of their debts and went to Berlin.

Heinrich Zille was born on January 10, 1858 in Radeburg, Saxony, Germany as Heinrich Rudolf Zille.

Zille was born in Radeburg near Dresden, son of watchmaker Johann Traugott Zill (Zille since 1854) and Ernestine Louise (born Heinitz, daughter of a miner from the Ore mountains). In 1867, his family moved to Berlin, where he finished school in 1872 and started an apprenticeship as a lithographer.