1887
Kurt Schwitters is born in Hanover as the son of the merchants Eduard and Henriette Schwitters.

1901
Mental illness, first psychogenic seizure.

1908/09
Studies at the School of Arts and Crafts in Hanover.

1909–1915
Studies at the Royal Saxon Academy of Fine Arts in Dresden. Learns academic painting. First expressionist poems.

1911–1913
First participations in exhibitions in Hanover.

1915
Engagement and marriage to Helma Fischer. Sets up a studio in his parents’ house in Hanover.

1916
Birth and early death of their first child, Gerd.

1917/18
Turn towards the expressionist style and development of abstraction. Creation of the Abstractions. Drafted into military service and declared unfit. Compulsory service as a workshop draughtsman at the Wülfel ironworks in Hanover. Exhibitions in Hanover.

1918
First participation in an exhibition at the “Der Sturm” gallery in Berlin. Further regular exhibitions there until 1928. Birth of his son Ernst Schwitters.

1918/19
November Revolution, end of the First World War and end of the German Empire. First collages and assemblages. Schwitters invents the term Merz, which he subsequently uses to unite all his activities under a single designation.

1919
Proclamation of the Weimar Republic. Creation of stamp drawings, watercolours and prints. First contacts with Dadaism. First public presentation of Merz works at the “Der Sturm” gallery.

1920
Contacts with the Berlin Dadaists, Max Ernst, Oskar Schlemmer and Willi Baumeister. First public lectures.

1921
Publication of manifestos and poems in international avant-garde journals in Germany, the Netherlands and Hungary. First solo exhibition at the “Der Sturm” gallery in Berlin. Lecture tour with Hannah Höch and Raoul Hausmann to Prague.

1922
Creation of the first sound poems. Numerous publications. Encounters with El Lissitzky, Hans Arp, Theo and Nelly van Doesburg and Tristan Tzara. First exhibition participation in the Netherlands. Shared studio with László Moholy-Nagy in Berlin. Beginning of his engagement with Constructivism.

1923
Probable beginning of work on the Merzbau in Hanover. Joint trip with Theo and Nelly van Doesburg to the Netherlands. Founding of the Merz magazine and collaboration with Hans Arp, Hannah Höch, Raoul Hausmann and El Lissitzky.

1924
Numerous publications. Founding of the Merz Advertising Office. In the following years increased activity as a designer and typographer.

1926
Travels to Potsdam, Dresden, Rügen, the Netherlands, Prague and Berlin. Participation in the opening of the Bauhaus in Dessau.

1927
Solo exhibition with many stations in Germany. Active lecture schedule and founding of the group die abstrakten hannover. Travels to France, Belgium and Prague. Founding of the ring neue werbegestalter with Robert Michel, Willi Baumeister, Jan Tschichold, Walter Dexel and others.

1929
Work as a typographer for the Hanover city administration (until 1934). Increasing lecture activity as a designer. Membership in the artists’ association Cercle et Carré. First trip to Norway with Helma Schwitters. Participation in the important exhibitions Film und Foto in Stuttgart and Fotografie der Gegenwart in Essen. From 1929 to 1932 annual trips to Paris.

1930
Trip to Basel and Zurich. Probably his last lecture appearance in Germany. From 1930 to 1936 annual summer trips to Norway. Stays primarily at the Hotel Djupvasshytta on Lake Djupvatnet, at the Molde Fjord and on the island of Hjertøya. Earns a living through sales of portraits and landscapes.

1931
Participation in exhibitions on advertising design in Essen and Amsterdam with the ring neue werbegestalter.

1932
Sea voyage with Helma Schwitters through the Mediterranean. Recording of parts of the Ursonate and the poem An Anna Blume for Süddeutscher Rundfunk. Joins the SPD. Lease and beginning of renovation of a hut on the island of Hjertøya in the Molde Fjord.

1933
Nazi seizure of power. Schwitters is defamed by National Socialist cultural policy. Withdrawal from public life. End of exhibition and publication activities in Germany.

1934
Encounter with the futurist Filippo Tommaso Marinetti in Berlin. Trip to Norway.

1935
Trips to Switzerland, Norway and the Netherlands. Visit of Alfred J. Barr Jr., director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, to Hanover to view the Merzbau, but no personal meeting.

1936
Trips to Paris, Switzerland and the Netherlands. Encounters with Piet Mondrian, Piet Zwart, Edith and Jan Tschichold and Hans and Suzanne Freudenthal. Arrest of the friendly Spengemann family by the Gestapo. Flight of Ernst Schwitters to Norway.

1937
Follows his son Ernst to Norway. Helma Schwitters remains in Hanover but visits Norway occasionally until 1939. Confiscation of works in German museums. Works by Schwitters are shown in the touring exhibition Degenerate Art. Moves to Lysaker near Oslo. Transport of works from his Hanover studio to Lysaker. Summer stays in the Møre og Romsdal region. Landscape paintings and portraits secure their livelihood.

1938
Participation in exhibitions in Oslo and London. Trip to Stockholm, Copenhagen and Gothenburg.

1939
Last meeting with Helma Schwitters.

1940
Invasion of Norway by German troops. Flight with Ernst Schwitters across the Lofoten to Tromsø. Brief detentions. Finally passage to Scotland. Internment in various camps in Scotland and England, then in the Hutchinson Camp in Douglas on the Isle of Man. Sets up a studio. Creates numerous portraits of fellow internees and gives lectures.

1941
Fire in the studio. Release and move to London. Meets Edith Thomas.

1942
Meets Ben Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth. Moves to the London suburb of Barnes together with Ernst Schwitters. Holiday trip to the Lake District.

1943
Creation of small abstract plaster sculptures. Destruction of the Hanover house by an incendiary bomb.

1944
Participation in exhibitions in London and Basel, later a solo exhibition in London. Stroke with temporary paralysis. Death of Helma Schwitters.

1945
Moves with Edith Thomas to Ambleside in the Lake District. Earns a living through portrait, landscape and still-life painting. Travels throughout Great Britain for portrait commissions and to purchase paints.

1946
Illness and illness-related move within Ambleside. Temporary confinement to bed and financial crisis. Final exhibition participations.

1947
Award of a grant by the Museum of Modern Art, New York, for the reconstruction or continuation of the Merz buildings in Hanover or Lysaker. Schwitters uses the funds to work on a new Merzbau in Elterwater.

1948
Granted British citizenship. One day later, death in Kendal in the presence of Edith Thomas and Ernst Schwitters.