Olga Jančić (1929-2012), born in Bitola in what is now North Macedonia, studied sculpture at the Belgrade Academy of Fine Arts. Jančić’s works, often sensually rounded and emphatically physical, voluminous stone or bronze sculptures, were often made for public spaces. The artist exhibited both in Yugoslavia and in Western Europe: in 1958, Jančić's work was shown at the World Exhibition 1958 in Brussels and in 1962 she represented Yugoslavia at the Biennale di Venezia. 

The bronze Die Vorbeigehenden was created in 1960 and was already purchased in 1961 for the newly established collection of what was then the Museum of the Twentieth Century, by Werner Hoffmann, its founding director. Six sculptures stand on a round base. In comparison to many of the artist’s other, more solitary pieces, this work develops an almost narrative quality due to the peculiar tension between the individual figures: four of the consistently chunky, fleshy yet headless figures seem to be walking past and casually ignoring two further figures, which are reclining or kneeling on the ground.