During its heyday, the group consisted of some of the most influential and prominent expressionist artists of their generations, including Will Heckrott, Lasar Segall, Otto Schubert and Constantin von Mitschke-Collande, as well as the architect Hugo Zehder and writers Walter Rheiner, Heinar Schilling, and Felix Stiemer.
During his activities in Germany's progressive art and youth movements, Felixmüller worked for various newspapers including Die Sichel in Regensburg and Rote Erde in Hamburg).
Rather than adopting the nihilistic social criticism and cynicism of their Die Brücke predecessors, these new expressionist would instead rally around optimistic and utopian beliefs that a happier world built on the ideal of peaceful coexistence could emerge from the ruins of 1918.
Even though the group was officially dissolved in 1925 due to financial difficulties, the members would continue to have active and relatively successful political and artistic careers until the 1930s-40s when many were considered "Degenerates" by the newly formed Nazi Government and declared enemies of the state.
Under antimodernist Alfred Rosenberg, many forms of modern art including Impressionism, Abstract, Cubism, Dada and Expressionism were declared illegal in the German state in preference for more realistic classical styles.