Dada: The birth of an art movement

Summary

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Podcast Summary: Witness History

Episode: Dada: The Birth of an Art Movement

Host: Josephine McDermott
Featured Voice: Richard Hülsenbeck (Dada co-founder, archive interview 1959)
Date: July 10, 2026
Length: ~9 minutes

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Episode Overview

This episode transports listeners to Zurich in 1916, exploring the birth of Dadaism—an influential art movement forged amid the chaos of World War I. Through first-hand archival accounts from Dada co-founder Richard Hülsenbeck, the episode unpacks the motivations, anarchic spirit, and lasting impact of Dada, revealing its roots in political protest, artistic experimentation, and communal uncertainty.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Zurich as a Haven for Revolutionary Art (00:30 - 02:26)

• Backdrop: Europe is in turmoil due to World War I. Switzerland’s neutrality draws dissidents, including artists fleeing repression and war.
• Personal Motivation:
  • Richard Hülsenbeck recalls his opposition to Imperial Germany and personal reasons for relocating to Zurich, both political and social:
    • Quote (01:56): “I didn't like it in Berlin. I was very much opposed to the imperial setup there… Our resentment was so strong that I decided to go to Zurich.”

2. The Founding of Cabaret Voltaire (02:26 - 04:01)

• Founding Figures: Hugo Ball and Emmy Hennings, with Hülsenbeck and others joining soon after.
• Purpose: Initially established out of necessity (“to make a living”) and to provide a gathering place for liberal thinkers.
• Origin of the Name: Named after the Enlightenment writer Voltaire, reflecting radical thinking.

3. The Invention of 'Dada' (04:01 - 05:06)

• Happy Accident:
  • Hülsenbeck describes searching for a stage name, stumbling across “dada” in an encyclopedia, leading to its adoption due to its playful and “magical” appeal.
    • Quote (04:12): "I went with [Hugo Ball] through the Larus Encyclopedia and there I found the word da da… the word Dada had a kind of a magical attraction."
• Meaning: Cited as the French word for “wooden horse or toy.”
• Immediate Embrace: The word becomes a unifying tag for their activities.

4. Creative Practices and Performances (05:06 - 07:11)

• Artistic Approach:
  • Emphasis on group work, spontaneity, and rejecting artistic tradition.
  • Early performances prioritized shock, absurdity, and anarchic energy.
• Performance Example:
  • Hugo Ball’s famous ‘sound poetry’ act—delivered in a dramatic, surreal costume—exemplifies Dada’s anti-rational, anti-meaning stance.
  • Excerpt of Sound Poetry (06:00): "Jolifanto Bambla O Valley Bambla Globiga M Fa Habla Horem Egigag Garomen Higo Bligo Rusula Uju..."
• Defining Dada’s Ethos:
  • Hülsenbeck acknowledges the deliberate uncertainty in Dada's identity:
    • Quote (06:32): "I always was in this state of slight uncertainty about the definition of Dada… just this kind of uncertainty was the characteristic of Dada."

5. Hostility, Protest, and Political Impulses (07:11 - 08:40)

• Targeting Established Norms:
  • Initial resentment was unfocused but rooted in deep opposition to the war and imperial regimes.
    • Quote (07:23): "We had a great deal of hostility, which is always, in my opinion, a part of irrationality.”
• From War to Art:
  • Hostility eventually directed at traditional, representational art and prevailing artistic conventions, fueling the shift to abstract, non-representational expression.

6. Dada’s Spread and Influence (08:40 - 09:32)

• International Expansion:
  • Dada surfaces in Berlin, Cologne, Hanover (Germany), Paris, and New York, each time challenging local art and political establishments.
• Legacy:
  • Dada inspires future avant-garde and countercultural movements, including punk.
• Cabaret Voltaire: Still exists and remains a touchstone for experimental art.

7. Life After Dada (09:32 – 09:40)

• Richard Hülsenbeck: Later worked as a psychiatrist in New York; died in 1974, aged 81.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Dada's spirit:
  “We were anarchists, not communists. We didn’t want to belong to any party… this kind of uncertainty was the characteristic of Dada.”
  — Richard Hülsenbeck (06:14-06:49)

• On creative hostility:
  "All creative people have a great resentment… we had turned first against the war and against the imperial regime.”
  — Richard Hülsenbeck (07:39)

• On the birth of the movement’s name:
  "The word Dada had a kind of a magical attraction. And from now on we called many of our activities Dada."
  — Richard Hülsenbeck (04:42)

• Host’s tongue-in-cheek summary:
  “So that’s all clear then.”
  — Josephine McDermott, playfully acknowledging the movement’s intentional ambiguity (07:11)

• Performance Highlight:

  • Hugo Ball’s sound poetry, as recreated in 2016, embodying the movement’s rejection of logic and linguistic sense (06:00).

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Important Timestamps

• [00:04] - Introduction by Josephine McDermott
• [01:56] - Richard Hülsenbeck on his motivations for leaving Berlin
• [02:52] - Founding of Cabaret Voltaire
• [04:01] - The origin of the word “Dada”
• [05:06] - Dada’s emphasis on collaboration and chaos
• [06:00] - Sound poetry performance excerpt
• [06:13] - Hülsenbeck explains Dada’s anarchic essence
• [07:23] - Defining Dada’s hostility and lack of focus
• [08:05] - Attack on representational art and shift towards abstraction
• [08:40] - Dada's spread and enduring influence

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Tone and Style

The episode is brisk and engaging, leaning on the energetic, irreverent spirit of Dada as told by both the host and Hülsenbeck’s own matter-of-fact archival voice. The host gently pokes fun at Dada’s intentional obscurity, while the guest candidly acknowledges both the movement’s profound ideals and its playful uncertainties.

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For listeners and learners, this episode is a concise, vivid window into the origins and explosive character of Dada—an art movement that turned chaos into cultural history.

Transcript

[A]

Hello, this is Witness history from the BBC World Service. With me, Josephine McDermott. You're here for the start of Dada, but there are thousands of historic moments we can take you to hearing from the people who were there. Episodes are just nine minutes long, so if that sounds good, why not subscribe and turn your push notifications on and then you won't miss a thing. Now, it's not often you get to hear the words of someone who started an art movement 110 years ago. But today we're going back to the start of Dada with one of its co founders, Richard Hulsenbeck. But first, some Dada. Jolly Fanto bambla O Folly Globe M? FA hablahorim. Don't worry, you're forgiven for not understanding that language. That's a Dada poem. We're going to find out what on earth that's all about and how it helped to shape the future of music, art and political protest. We're in Zurich, Switzerland in 1916. World War I has been fought for two years between the so called central powers of Germany, Austria, Austria, Hungary and Italy and an alliance of Russia, France and Great Britain. There's ongoing trench warfare in France, Luxembourg and Belgium in the west and Russia in the East. It is the most deadly and destructive war the world has yet seen. Switzerland, a neutral country, is where many refugees have headed. Among them are artists and free thinkers from all over Europe. In a BBC interview in 1959, Richard Hulsenbach described how he came to be one leaving Germany.

[B]

I didn't like it in Berlin. I was very much opposed to the imperial setup there. And together with many friends we believed that the Kaiser and his army had a great hand in causing the First World War. Our resentment was so strong that I decided to go to Zurich. There were two motives. One is a personal one, namely to follow my friend Hugo Bahl. And the other one was a political and social one, to get out of Berlin and Germany.

[A]

Hugo Bal was a writer, actor and dramatist. On a sloping cobbled back street, Spiegelglasse number one, near the river Limmat, amongst the tall elegant townhouses with shuttered windows, he and his wife Emmy Hennings for found a small bar. They lent it the name of the French Enlightenment writer who had outspoken beliefs in religious, political and social liberty.

[B]

The Cabaret Voltaire was originally founded by Ball in order to give him some support. He wanted to make a living there. He had gone through hard times. Both founders, original founders of the Cavalry Voltaire, Ball and Hennings had worked in A factory. And as they had no support, the Swiss were about to throw them out. So they founded the Cabaret Voltaire, which was originally supposed to be only one of the many cabarets. But then later the artistic and literary elements came in. Ballet called it the Cabaret Voltaire because at this time he was at the extreme end of his liberalism, I may say.

[A]

Young artists and pacifists, Romanian French born poet Tristan Zara, the French sculptor Jean Arp and Romanian Israeli artist Marcel Janco were all drawn to the bar.

[B]

Bar as well as myself were writers. And one evening I came in. There was Sara and AB and Janko and his brothers, all people who had come together to collaborate with the Cabaret Voltaire.

[A]

A recipe for success.

[B]

Anyhow, our cabaret was bankrupt after two weeks. The owner came and said, dear friends, I'm sorry, but you will have to quit the place unless you bring in some money. So we had to hire a real performer who could sing. BAAL played the piano, but the public wanted to hear some songs. And we had a Swiss girl, her name was rather complicated and we wanted to give her a stage name. So a few days before she was supposed to come to the gallery, I went with him through the Larus Encyclopedia and there I found the word da da. So I said to baal, why not da da? And he said da da da da is wooden horse or toy in French. This girl that I was talking about never showed up in the cabaret. And therefore we told the whole story to our friends. The word Dada had a kind of a magical attraction. And from now on we called many of our activities Dada.

[A]

And how did they make Dada? It was about group collaboration, spontaneity and chance, wanting to reject all traditional types of art. Many Dadaists worked in collage and photo montage. They wanted to shock, be absurd, create chaos for one early performance. It's said that Hugo Bal was carried onto the stage stage in a cardboard cylinder he described as a sorcerer's costume. He had wings, giant paper claws and a blue and white striped hat which was 2ft tall. And he performed sound poetry which focused on sounds over meaning. Actor Brian Blessed by Hugo Ball was recorded at the L' Ondada Festival in London in 2016. Jolifanto Bambla O Valley Bambla Globiga M Fa Habla Horem Egigag Garomen Higo Bligo

[B]

Rusula Uju I would say we were anarchists, not communists. We didn't want to belong to any party. What we wanted to act upon or what we wanted to act against. We didn't know exactly. So I have been since I founded Dada, together with AB and Sara and BAAL and the others. I always was in this state of slight uncertainty about the definition of Dada, until finally I decided that just this kind of uncertainty was the characteristic of Dada. So here was Dadaism. We decided then. I don't want to say that I did it alone, because this was the whole atmosphere in these attempts to intellectualize it. We finally came to the decision that the irrationality of this movement was its essential factor.

[A]

So that's all clear then. The first Dada manifesto was written in 1916. It was a collection of their feelings about the war and society and previous philosophies, but where to target their anger.

[B]

We had a great deal of hostility, which is always, in my opinion, a part of irrationality. We didn't know exactly against whom we should turn. But it was very important for us to find a target for our resentment. Now I believe that all creative people have a great resentment, either against the country that they live in, or against the civilization, the period of history that they live in. And we had this great hostility which we had turned first against the war and against the imperial regime.

[A]

Then art, as it was known, then recognizable subjects, people, landscapes, objects aimed at mirroring reality, became the target.

[B]

AB had participated in the activities of the Cabaret from the very beginning. He's not only a great sculptor, but a great human being, and in his own a little bit naive way, a great philosopher. He had been from the very beginning against representational art. I then devoted a great deal of time to study the problem of representation and abstract art. Then, to my amazement, I. I found that the hostility that I couldn't find a target for was something that could be used in the fight against conventional art.

[A]

Dada spread to the German cities of Berlin, Cologne and Hanover, where it challenged the political establishment, and to Paris, France and New York City in the United States, where it went on to mock the art world. It inspired many artists and counterculture movements, including punk. Cabaret Voltaire can still be visited today. Richard Hulsenbeck was a psychiatrist in New York in later life and died in 1974, aged 81. Witness History was produced and presented by me, Josephine McDermott. That was Richard Hulsenbeck. He was recorded back in 1959, a great find by BBC Archives. If you'd like to hear more avant garde artists, you can search BBC Witness History, Salvador Dali, the surrealist Spanish artist, or check out the Museum of Banned Russian Art in our back catalogue. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it and make sure you hit subscribe wherever you get your BBC podcasts. Thank you for listening. Goodbye. Sporting Witness takes you to the events that have shaped the sports world through the eyes of the people who were there.

[B]

We weren't going to ask permission, we

[A]

were just going to do it.

[B]

It was such an amazing feeling. It was incredible. He started to write a story about how he came up with the idea for the red and yellow cards.

[A]

I got to go. We cried a bit, we laughed a bit. It was wonderful.

[B]

There's a magic during those moments that carries your soul. We were truly blessed to be a part of history.

[A]

Sporting Witness subscribe wherever you get your BBC podcasts.