[citation needed] He volunteered for army service in the First World War, but soon suffered a breakdown and was discharged.

[2] In 1905, Kirchner, along with Bleyl and two other architecture students, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff and Erich Heckel, founded the artists group Die Brücke ("The Bridge").

[2] The group aimed to eschew the prevalent traditional academic style and find a new mode of artistic expression, which would form a bridge (hence the name) between the past and the present.

[6] They responded both to past artists such as Albrecht Dürer, Matthias Grünewald and Lucas Cranach the Elder, as well as contemporary international avant-garde movements.

[6] Their group was one of the seminal ones which in due course had a major impact on the evolution of modern art in the 20th century and created the style of Expressionism.

[6] Kirchner's studio became a venue which overthrew social conventions to allow casual love-making and frequent nudity.

[6] Group life-drawing sessions took place using models from the social circle, rather than professionals, and choosing quarter-hour poses to encourage spontaneity.

[6] Bleyl described one such model, Isabella, a fifteen-year-old girl from the neighbourhood, as "a very lively, beautifully built, joyous individual, without any deformation caused by the silly fashion of the corset and completely suitable to our artistic demands, especially in the blossoming condition of her girlish buds.

"[8] A group manifesto written by Kirchner in 1906 stated that "Everyone who reproduces, directly and without illusion, whatever he senses the urge to create, belongs to us".

[2] Between 1907 and 1911, he stayed during the summer at the Moritzburg lakes and on the island of Fehmarn (which he revisited until 1914) with other Brücke members; his work featured the female nude in natural settings.

This was not a success and closed the following year, when he also began a relationship with Erna Schilling that lasted the rest of his life.

In July 1915 he was sent to Halle an der Saale to train as a driver in the reserve unit of the 75th Mansfeld Field Artillery Regiment.

In December 1915 he was admitted to Dr. Oskar Kohnstamm's sanatorium in Königstein (Taunus), where he was diagnosed with alcoholism and addiction to Veronal.

[3] In a letter to Dr. Karl Hagemann, a friend and patron, Kirchner wrote: "After lengthy struggles I now find myself here for a time to put my mind into some kind of order.

[3] Throughout 1916, Kirchner periodically returned to Berlin for a few weeks at a time to continue his work at his studio; he also produced a series of oil paintings, and many drawings, during his stays in Königstein.

His visit to Davos coincided with a spell of exceptionally cold weather and he returned to Berlin after only ten days.

Each picture had its own particular colourful character, a great sadness was present in all of them; what I had previously found to be incomprehensible and unfinished now created the same delicate and sensitive impression as his personality.

[3] Kirchner deeply resented this and did everything in his power to deceive the doctor: "Spengler didn't know what to do with me, for my deception was totally alien to this excellent man's way of thinking".

admitted to The Bellevue Sanatorium, run by Ludwig Binswanger, in Kreuzlingen where he continued to produce paintings and woodcuts.

[12] Erna Schilling, his life partner, visited him periodically in Frauenkirch, while also maintaining a residence in Berlin to take care of Kirchner's business there.

[3] Kirchner visited Zurich at the beginning of May and met the dancer, Nina Hard, whom he invited back to Frauenkirch despite Erna's objections.

[3] Rot-Blau, a new art group based in Basel, was formed by Hermann Scherer, Albert Müller, Paul Camenisch and Hans Schiess, who all visited Kirchner and worked under his guidance.

[3] He then returned to Frauenkirch and wrote to Dr. Hageman on 26 March 1926: "Now I'm sitting quietly at home again and I'm happy to be able to work undisturbed.

Kirchner became increasingly disturbed by the situation in Germany, writing: "Here we have been hearing terrible rumours about torture of the Jews, but it's all surely untrue.

In the museums, the hard-won cultural achievements of the last 20 years are being destroyed, and yet the reason why we founded the Brücke was to encourage truly German art, made in Germany.

It was a celebration with songs, dancing and speeches, followed by drinking such as I have not seen or experienced in decades...They made a point of including me and so there I was, sitting once again amongst these people who had received me with such kindness and friendliness on the alp twenty years ago.

[3] On 15 June 1938, Kirchner took his own life by gunshot in front of his home in Frauenkirch;[1][3] however, there are doubts about his death being a suicide.

[15] In 1992, the National Gallery of Art, Washington, held a monographic show, using its existing collection; a major international loan exhibition took place in 2003.

[16] From 3 August to 10 November 2008, the Museum of Modern Art in New York held a major exhibition that "probably comprises the very best of his oeuvre.

The Kirchner paintings "Berlin Street Scene" and "Judgement of Paris" were owned by the Jewish art collector Alfred Hess whose widow was forced to relinquish them before fleeing.