César Klein (14 September 1876 – 13 March 1954) was a German Expressionist painter and designer, probably best known as one of the founders the November Group and the Arbeitsrat für Kunst.
Klein created lithographs and woodcuts, stained glass windows and mosaics, and murals on walls and ceilings, in addition to his easel art.
Given the practical bent of his training, Klein frequently "worked in media that appealed to a mass audience, such as architectural decoration, applied art, poster design, and theater and film design...."[2] In 1913 he decorated the interior of the new Marmorhaus cinema in Berlin.
He was the set designer for Robert Wiene's 1920 film Genuine,[3] and for the 1924 production of Ernst Toller's Hinkemann.
[4] Klein was included in the famous Degenerate Art exhibition mounted by the Nazi regime in 1937.