Friedrich Wilhelm Kleukens

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Friedrich Wilhelm Kleukens (born May 7, 1878 in Achim near Bremen ; † August 22, 1956 in Nürtingen ) was a German book and type designer, painter and graphic artist , book artist , architect , typographer and product designer . He is one of the outstanding creative personalities of the book art era . Friedrich Wilhelm Kleukens is the brother of Christian Heinrich Kleukens .

Life

family

The kiss , mosaic by Friedrich Wilhelm Kleukens, designed in 1914 for the wedding tower on Mathildenhöhe in Darmstadt, based on plans by the architect Joseph Maria Olbrich
Sundial , mosaic designed by Friedrich Wilhelm Kleukens, with a poem by Rudolf G. Binding , on the south side of the wedding tower on Mathildenhöhe in Darmstadt

Friedrich Wilhelm Kleukens married Pauline Raitz von Frenz (* 1884), daughter of the kuk chamberlain and winery owner Karl Freiherr Raitz v. Frenz, and his wife Hermine v. Charcoal burner. Two daughters were born in the marriage, Ingeborg Kleukens and Helga Kleukens. Their daughter, Helga Kleukens, married Friedrich Haus, an architect, a son of Rudolf Haus, who had a doctorate in ENT, and his wife Elfriede Bülow, daughter of the legal scholar Oskar von Bülow . Friedrich Wilhelm Kleukens named two of his artistic and graphic designs from the series of Antiqua fonts he designed after his daughters Ingeborg and Helga:

  • “ Ingeborg Antiqua . Type foundry D. Stempel, Frankfurt a. M. 1909 "
  • " Helga-Antiqua . Type foundry D. Stempel, Frankfurt a. M. 1911 "

education

Friedrich Wilhelm Kleukens completed an apprenticeship as a draftsman in the studio of the Bremen silver goods factory Wilkens & Sons . He then attended the teaching institution at the Royal Museum of Decorative Arts in Berlin , where he met Fritz Helmuth Ehmcke and Georg Belwe . Together with them, he founded the Steglitz workshop for arts and crafts designs in 1900 , which can be considered the first German advertising agency in the modern sense. All three designers were representatives of the New Book Art in the decade before the First World War; Kleukens was also active in other design fields (e.g. cutlery).

Steglitzer workshop

The main client of the Steglitz workshop was Otto Ring, the manufacturer of the Syndetikon adhesive , for whom Kleukens designed original and successful advertising measures up until the 1920s. Within a short period of time, the company was active in a wide variety of arts and crafts disciplines, running its own commercial printer, a furniture store and a arts and crafts school. At the same time, profitability decreased because the small team was not up to the requirements in terms of personnel and did not have sufficient liquidity.

Academy for graphic arts and book trade

When the Steglitzer Werkstatt started operating as a GmbH in early 1903 and accepted financially strong shareholders, Friedrich Wilhelm Kleukens and Fritz Helmuth Ehmcke left the company. Kleukens took on a teaching position at the Leipzig Academy of Graphic Arts and Book Trade , where Georg Belwe followed him after a few years, and initially concentrated fully on this task.

Ernst Ludwig Press

In October 1906 Kleukens became a member of the Darmstadt artists' colony . His designs for two mosaics for the entrance hall of the wedding tower on Darmstadt's Mathildenhöhe ( The Kiss and The Loyalty ) were carried out. In the spring of 1907 he received a call to the Hamburg School of Applied Arts for the class for flat art and graphics, but did not accept this call (whereupon Carl Otto Czeschka could be won for Hamburg instead ). In 1907 he was appointed artistic director of the Ernst-Ludwig-Presse founded by Grand Duke Ernst-Ludwig of Hessen-Darmstadt .

Kleukens ran the press together with his brother, the printer and typographer Christian Heinrich Kleukens , who had already managed the print shop in the Steglitz workshop. As one of the first German private presses , the Ernst Ludwig Press followed English models of the Arts and Crafts movement such as the Kelmscott Press and the Doves Press . It was quickly considered one of the top German addresses and served as a model for other companies. After only three years, she won the Grand Prix at the Brussels World's Fair in 1910 .

Areas of responsibility

While CH Kleukens took care of the technically perfect execution of all printed products, FW Kleukens was responsible for the entire design: In the years up to 1914, 26 official prints and 36 other printed works were produced, mostly in very small editions of 100 to 150 copies, for which he wrote all the titles , Initials, fonts and illustrations. Unlike his brother, however, he took a negative stance on any superfluous ornamentation in book art and advocated a rationally ordered typography. Shortly before the outbreak of World War I , he handed over the management of the press to his brother.

First World War

Drafted at the beginning of the war, F. W. Kleukens first took part in the war as a geometer and later as a non-commissioned officer of the infantry . During this time he created numerous drawings for the Grabenbüchlein , the Grabenzeitung and the Infanterie Zeitung of the 50th Infantry Division, in which he served.

Post-war period and ratio press

After the end of the war, both Kleukens brothers returned to Darmstadt and founded their own presses almost at the same time. While Christian Heinrich Kleukens started the Kleukens press in Nieder-Ramstadt , Friedrich Wilhelm Kleukens founded his own book- making company together with the publishers and printer owners Rudolf and Wilhelm Witsch ( L. C. Witsch Verlag , Wittich'sche Hofbuchdruckerei , Darmstädter Tagblatt ). Initially under the name of Kleukens-Drucke , then as Ratio-Presse , Kleukens consistently implemented his design principles. The goals are characterized in a publisher's brochure from 1923 as follows: “The only guiding principle of Ratio-Presse is valuable solidity; valuable content, good fonts, beautiful typesetting, perfect paper, bookbinding work appropriate to the craftsmanship. ”In 1924, the collaboration with Wittich Verlag ended. When the Society for the Promotion of the Ratio Presse was founded in 1927 , the press resumed its work. The new partner was the Frankfurt type foundry D. Stempel AG , for which the commitment represented an opportunity to promote the flow of the Kleukens fonts it cast. In addition to working for the press, Kleukens continued to work as a commercial artist and type designer. In 1930 he moved with his family to Cala Rajada on Mallorca , in 1932 the lack of customers for his lavish and expensive productions forced him to finally close the Ratio press and sell some of his originals.  

World War II and age

The Spanish Civil War forced Friedrich Wilhelm Kleukens to leave Mallorca immediately in 1936 and return to Darmstadt. During the Second World War he mainly worked as an industrial draftsman and fitter, which is where he continued his Steglitz years. Kleukens lost all his belongings in an air raid in September 1944, and a short time later his office at D. Stempel was also destroyed by flames. F. W. Kleukens moved to Nürtingen, where he tried a new start as a freelance graphic artist after the war, but could no longer build on his earlier successes.

German Association of Artists

Friedrich Wilhelm Kleukens was a member of the German Association of Artists . He died in 1956 after a long illness at the age of 78.

plant

The main work of Friedrich Wilhelm Kleuken consists of the numerous press prints of the Ernst Ludwig Press and the Ratio Press, which are in great demand and highly regarded among art collectors and bibliophiles. In addition, other creative works by F. W. Kleukens are among the icons of the Darmstadt secession style. So he designed z. B. the posters for the Darmstadt art exhibitions in 1908, 1914 and 1918 and contributed illustrations to the exhibition catalogs; for the wedding tower on Mathildenhöhe he designed several mosaics and the sundial; and on the occasion of the artist colony exhibition in 1914, a women's salon designed by him with furniture, carpets, wall and ceiling decorations attracted attention.

Illustrations of books (excerpt)
  • Martin Luther (Üs.): The Book of Esther. Cover pictures and initials from FW Kleukens and CH Kleukens. 1. Book of the Ernst Ludwig Press, Darmstadt. Leipzig, Insel-Verlag 1908.
  • Johann Fischart: The flea hunt. With 15 hand-colored original lithographs by FW Kleukens. Darmstadt, Ratio Presse 1922.
  • Marquis de Sade: The Fifteen Joys of Marriage . With hand-colored original lithographs by FW Kleukens. Darmstadt, Ratio-Presse, 1924.
  • Friedrich W. Kleukens: Bird ABC . With 52 illustrations by FW Kleukens. (Nuremberg picture books 39). Oldenburg, Stalling 1925.
  • Friedrich W. Kleukens: The race between the hare and hedgehog . (Nuremberg picture books 45). Oldenburg, Stalling 1926.
  • Will Vesper: The History of Reineke the Fox. Cover drawing and full color images by FW Kleukens. Oldenburg, Stalling 1928.
Fonts
  • Ingeborg-Antiqua . Type foundry D. Stempel, Frankfurt a. M. 1909
  • Kleukens-Antiqua , Bauersche Foundry, Frankfurt a. M. 1910 - with Esszett uppercase!
  • Kleukens-Antiqua Halbfett , Bauersche Foundry, Frankfurt a. M. 1910
  • Kleukens italics , Bauersche Foundry, Frankfurt a. M. 1910
  • Kleukens fracture . Type foundry D. Stempel, Frankfurt a. M. 1910
  • Free Kleukens initials , Skinny Kleukens initials . Bauersche Foundry, Frankfurt a. M. 1910
  • Helga Antiqua . Type foundry D. Stempel, Frankfurt a. M. 1911
  • Kleukens-Antiqua Mager , Bauersche Foundry, Frankfurt a. M. 1912
  • Kleukens-Antiqua Slim , Bauersche Foundry, Frankfurt a. M. 1913
  • Gothic Antiqua . Type foundry D. Stempel, Frankfurt a. M. 1914
  • Ratio Latin in various sets. Type foundry D. Stempel Frankfurt a. M., 1923-1924 / Linotype (Mergenthaler Setzmaschinen-Fabrik GmbH), 1928
  • Omega . Type foundry D. Stempel, Frankfurt a. M. 1926
  • Kleukens scriptura . Type foundry D. Stempel, Frankfurt a. M. 1926. Under the name Bienville Script at Ragnarök Press, Austin, Tx.
Others
  • 27 gouaches and drawings from the collection of the electricity supplier HEAG from 1953 and 1954:

including: 1954: fitter at the foot of two converters

Exhibitions (excerpt)
  • 2014: Towards the light , Darmstadt, Mathildenhöhe.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Family association Feuerlein: Tribe Conradi. In: Familienverband-feuerlein.de. Retrieved December 7, 2015 .
  2. ↑ Reinhard W. Singer: The German silver cutlery 1805-1918 , Stuttgart 1991, p. 150 f.
  3. ↑ Susanne Harth - In: "NORDLICHT - 222 years of the University of Fine Arts at Lerchenfeld and its prehistory", Hamburg 1989 - page 90
  4. ^ Wittich: The exemplary German book. Darmstadt, Verlag L. C. Wittich 1923.
  5. ↑ kuenstlerbund.de: Ordinary members of the German Association of Artists since it was founded in 1903 / Kleukens, Friedrich Wilhelm ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (accessed on September 13, 2015)
  6. ↑ Ernsterer, Harald: Kleukens Archive. The Ratio Press. http://www.kleukens-archiv.de/rp
  7. ↑ Man and machine are one , FAZ from January 28, 2013, page B4

literature

  • Heinz Sarkowski:  Kleukens, Friedrich Wilhelm. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 12, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1980, ISBN 3-428-00193-1 , p. 55 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • H. Sarkowski: Kleukens, Friedrich Wilhelm In: Neue Deutsche Biographie 12 (1979), p. 55 f.
  • KF Bauer: FW Kleukens and the work of the Ratio-Presse. In: ' Zeitschrift für Bücherfreunde 22, vol. 1930
  • KF Bauer In: 1st yearbook of the type foundry of Stempel AG . Frankfurt am Main, 1st year 1929, pp. 72 - 85
  • H. Jost In: Nutzgraphik 19, 1942, pp. 11-22
  • A. Windisch, In: Gutenberg-Jahrbuch 25. Jg. 1950, pp. 327-35
  • GK Schauer, In: Der Druckspiegel. 1956, pp. 611-16; ders., Dt. Book Art 1890–1960, 1963;
  • J. Rodenberg: Deutsche Pressen, 1925, addendum 1931
  • Darmstadt, A Document of German Art 1901–76. Exhibition catalog 1976, IV, pp. 129 ff., V, Ss. 192-224

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Kleukens, Friedrich Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German graphic artist and typographer
DATE OF BIRTH May 7, 1878
PLACE OF BIRTH Achim near Bremen
DATE OF DEATH August 22, 1956
Place of death Nürtingen