Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions on personal use. Permission to publish material from the Gustav Klemp World War I German graphic materials collection must be obtained from Special Collections and Archives, George Mason University Libraries.

Access Restrictions

There are no access restrictions.

Preferred Citation

Gustav Klemp World War I German graphic materials collection, #C0250, Special Collections and Archives, George Mason University Libraries.

Acquisition Information

Donated by Richard Passig in September 2014. Additonal material in series 2-5 donated by Richard Passig in February and March 2015.

Processing Information

Processing completed by Elizabeth Beckman in November 2014. EAD markup completed by Elizabeth Beckman in November 2014.

Biographical note

Gustav Klemp (1882-1941) was an artist from West Prussia in what was Germany until 1919 and is now western Poland. He was a member of the Deutschen Maler-Bundes (German Painters' Association). Klemp was in his mid-thirties at the outbreak of World War I in 1914, and he served as a medic with the German Army. He sent a number of postcards from the Eastern front to his wife, Martha Klemp, and he also painted watercolors that portrayed camp life, landscapes of the war and troops. After the war and the creation of an independent Poland, he and his family were given the decision to become Polish citizens or emigrate. They emigrated to the United States and settled in the upper midwest, first in Iowa and then in Wisconsin. Klemp made his living in the United States primarily by painting murals for churches. He died in May, 1941, six months before the United States entered World War II.

Scope and Content

The collection consists of 2 certificates, 96 postcards, 27 artworks, 4 medallions, and one journal that primarliy document people and places during World War I, particularly German soldiers on the Eastern Front. Many of the postcards are group portraits of soldiers in military uniforms. Several have messages from Gustav Klemp (the primary recipient was his wife, Martha Klemp) and postmarks from areas along the Eastern Front, such as Russia, Poland, and Romania. One postcard from page 15 is postmarked Lautenburg on August 15, 1914, suggesting that Klemp may have been present at the nearby Battle of Tannenberg later that month. The artworks consist of both drawings and watercolors that document similar subject matter found in the postcards. The drawings and watercolors were created by the donor's grandfather, Gustav Klemp. Series one contains two certificates, one from the Deutchen Maler-Bundes (German Painters' Association) in 1901 and one from the Handwerkskammer fur Westprussen zu Danzig in 1910. Series two contains 94 postcards that feature soldiers and landscapes of the Eastern Front during World War I (1914-1918), as well as an artists' group from before the war (1906) and a group of soldiers after the war (1922). Series 3 contains sketches and watercolors illustrating camp life, soldiers, and landscapes on the Eastern Front from 1915-1918. Series four contains four medallions dating from 1914, one of Kaiser Willhelm II of Germany, one of Kaiser Willhelm with Emperor Franz-Jozef of Austria, one of Vice Admiral Von Spee, and one of General von Mackensen. Series five consists of a journal in which Gustav Klemp seems to have written a narrative of the World War I years. The entire collection is in German.

Arrangement

Materials are arranged into three series by format.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• Postcards
• World War, 1914-1918