Werner Klemke II

Above: 'Der Elefant im Waschtrog' 1968

On this blog sometimes you just get an image . . . a name, sometimes not even that if an illustrator is anonymous, but for a handle. I truly try to always find a link to the illustrator and their other works, and if there are biographical details I will also include these. I like a quote something that gives a feeling of the illustrator/ artist more than just one or multiple images. 

As you will know I have my favourites that I return to again and again as they produce more wonders or I find more historic works of illustrators who have died. 

"Beauty in books inspires reading—beauty in books makes reading easier." Werner Klemke 

Werner Klemke is an illustrator that I have hovered around, an early contributor to my Little Red Riding Hood blog, however today I have researched and found so many works that I feel that I need to do an in-depth post to honour this artists incredible work. His son Christian Klemke has put a web page together of information, however with very few images of Werner's works. 

Above: Werner Klemke: The Three Hunchbacks,

Above: Das Magazin November 1981. Below: 'Ein Teufel namens Fidibus' 1970.

Werner Klemke was born 12th March 1917 at Weißensee the son of a cabinet maker. He trained to be an art teacher in Frankfurt, but was expelled from his training when he refused to join Hitler youth. Due to help from his future wife he managed to secure employment working as an animator for Kruse film. 

Unfortunately he was conscripted in 1937 into Wehrmacht's Anti-Aircraft Replacement Unit General Göring.  To some extent as self preservation he had to toe the nazi line,  however  in 2011 that it became known that in 1942, after witnessing a raid on Jews, Werner Klemke, through Johannes Gerhardt in Amsterdam, came into contact and acted for the Dutch-Jewish resistance group working activity in the resistance against the Nazi occupation of Holland.  He had used his exceptional drawing and design skills to forge identity cards and ration cards thus enabling over 300 Dutch Jews, political refugees and deserters to escape and survive. 

"I was prepared for the war," Klemke said in a 1962 interview, "But I wasn't prepared to witness the horrific fate of innocent people who could be blamed for nothing more than being born."

In 1941 he and the painter Gertrud Stremlau married and in 1943 they had a daughter Gabriele who died aged only 4.

For a year at the end of the war Werner was in British internment in East Frisia, here he illustrated his first children's book printed in Germany after the war; "The Bremen Town Musicians" a subversive, anti-authoritarian fairy tale. In Tidofeld, Werner Klemke met the lithographer Martin Kirchner, who was also interned, and from whom Klemke learned the art of lithography. With the restored "Graphic Art Institute and Printing Shop" of the printer and typesetter Peter Siebolts here he printed the book below.

The circulation of this book must have been very small, it was only possible to print fifteen copies a day. And these copies couldn't be sold, as money was worthless in the postwar years. But there was a demand for such products, as children's books were extremely scarce and the daughter of printer Siebolts recounts that the entire first edition was exchanged for food on the black market in Hanover in the run-up to Christmas in 1945. 

1946 – 1951 Werner Klemke, works as a sign painter and press illustrator for the “ Ulenspiegel ” and the magazine “Frischer Wind” in Berlin. 

1948, when he was able to take on book design work for the Berlin publishing house Volk und Welt. 

In 1949, he receives his first book publishing commission: wood engravings for Georg Weerth “Humorous Sketches from German Commercial Life” published by Volk und Welt.

Between 1947–1953 Werner and Gertrud had four children: Sabine, Christian, Christine and Ulrike

In 1951 Werner was appointed initially as a wood engraving lecturer at the University of Applied Arts (now the Weißensee Art Academy), four years later he became the youngest professor for graphics. 

In 1954 the family moved to the more spacious apartment at Tassostraße 21 in Berlin-Weißensee, where Werner lived and worked until his death. 

1954 Study trip to China

Above: "Herzliche Glückwünsche" rückseitig 1967

1955 – 1990 Werner Klemke draws the cover of the magazine " Das Magazin " every month, for over 400 issues. This became a national and probably world record in press history.

1956 Co-founder of the GDR bibliophile society “ Pirckheimer ”.

1961- 1990 Appointed to the Academy of Arts of the GDR, later Secretary of the Fine Arts Section

Werner Klemke created a remarkably extensive body of work as a commercial artist, including posters, brochures, stage sets, television graphics, postage stamps, postcards, matchboxes, logos, invitations, record covers, menus, glass vases… as well as book designer and typographer for over 800 books. He has received numerous honours for his work.

 “For me, art is craftsmanship, but of the finest quality.” Werner Klemke 

In 1994 Werner Klemke died in Berlin-Weißensee after suffering a several strokes.