M HKA Ensembles

1886 - 1971

Born in Vienna (AT).

At the age of fourteen, Raoul Hausmann moved with his family to Berlin. In 1915 he began an affair with the artist Hannah Höch, forming an artistically productive yet turbulent bond that would last until 1922. As 'Dadasoph', and cofounder of Club Dada in Berlin, Hausmann wrote several key Dada texts, including the 'Dadaist Manifesto' with Richard Huelsenbeck and the sixteen-page Club Dada brochure with Jung and Huelsenbeck. He also edited the journal Der Dada. From 1919 onward, Hausmann prepared the big world atlas Dadaco, though the project fell through due to editorial difficulties. In addition Hausmann played a central role in organizing Dada events, including the First International Dada Fair with John Heartfield and George Grosz and numerous Dada matinees and soirées in Berlin, often in collaboration with Johannes Baader. Hausmann's artistic contributions to Dada were purposefully eclectic, consistently blurring the boundaries between visual art, poetry, music, and dance. His 'optophonetic' poems of early 1918 fused lyrical texts with expressive typography, insisting on the role of language as both visual and acoustic. After his engagement with Dada, Hausmann focused primarily on photography, producing portraits, nudes, and landscapes. He published books and essays on Dada after the war, including Courier Dada, 1958, and Am Anfang War Dada, 1972. Raoul Hausmann died on February 1, 1971, in Limoges.