Schmidt-Rottluf started painting coastal landscapes of his birth town. In 1905 he co-founded the group Die Brücke with Kirchner, Bleyl and Heckel. When he moved to Berlin in 1911, he got exposed to the International avant-garde movements. He developed his own style and experimented with other media, styles and techniques, including woodcuts. At the beginning of 1930s he joined the Prussian Academy of Art. Only few years later, under the Nazis regime, his work was declared degenerate and he left Germany. His studio was bombed in 1943. After WWII he became Professor of the University of Arts in Berlin-Charlottenburg.