Johannes Baader – Revelation / Enthüllung

Johannes Baader (1875-1955) grew up in Stuttgart and studied architecture in that town from 1898 to 1899. After having met Raoul Hausmann, Baader moved to Berlin in 1905, where Hausmann introduced him to a circle of artists that would germinate into Berlin Dada some ten years later. Johannes Baader was a Dadaist by nature. The one and only Oberdada. Idealist, messianic, and mad as a hatter, Baader claimed to be to Christ resurrected and acted accordingly. In 1914 he published his treatise Vierzehn Briefe Christi. Three years later he presided Christus GmbH (Christ Ltd), a society all members of which, Baader explained, automatically became Christ too and as such unfit for military service. Once officially diagnosed with manic depression, Baader used his insanity as a license for even more outrageous behaviour and provocative performances. A scandal, leading to Baader’s arrest, ensued in 1918 when he disrupted a sermon at Berlin Cathedral and insulted the believers and clergymen. Reborn as the Oberdada, president of the universe, Baader took part in the first International Dada Fair of 1920, then worked as a journalist for a while to return to architecture in the early 1940s. The Oberdada died in 1955 at the age of 79 in a home for the elderly in Bavaria.

Johannes Baader’s text Enthüllung was published in 1919 in his Handbuch des Oberdada aka as Buch des Weltfriedens, a reaction to the Treaty of Versailles of that same year. In the text Baader assesses the position of psychiatrists in the grave political situation of the period by eloquently comparing them to the guardians of enchanted castles in fairy tales. The text was translated into English as Revelation and published in a bilingual edition of 7 hand made copies in March 2023. Artwork and translation: Ben Schot. A second edition of 7 copies was put together in July 2023.