100 Objects from Century of the Child

Niels Brodersen and Richard Grune. Cover of the book Die rote Kinderrepublik (Red children’s republic), by Andreas Gayk. 1930

This book documents the Red Children’s Republic constructed by two thousand Red Falcons, both boys and girls, who gathered on a remote lakeside to create a temporary utopian and egalitarian community. The Red Falcons, a German youth organization established in 1925 with the Social Democratic Party, recruited children from the urban working classes and emphasized personal development through contact with nature. The resulting book, “by workers’ children, for workers’ children,” was designed according to the principles of the New Typography movement, with sans serif type, asymmetrical page layouts, and photomontage, which reinforced the holiday camp’s revolutionary significance. The group was outlawed following Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in 1933.

Learn more at MoMA.org/centuryofthechild