The year 1905 was a crucial moment in Kirchner's artistic development. In July he received a degree in architecture from the Technisches Hochschule in Dresden; he discovered and was greatly influenced by the African sculpture in the Dresden ethnology museum; and, with fellow students Fritz Bleyl, Erich Heckel, and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, he fotmded the group Die Brücke (the Bridge), which was active in Dresden and Berlin from 1905 to 1912. The artists of the Bridge, inspired by Edvard Munch, Vincent van Gogh, and Henri Matisse, were instrumental in promoting the growth of modern Expressionism.