Josef Klampfer

Josef Klampfer

Josef Klampfer (born November 7, 1892 in Schleedorf ; † May 19, 1962 in Salzburg ) was a well-known Salzburg crib artist who is buried at St. Peter's Cemetery in the old town of Salzburg.

Life

Josef Klampfer was born in Schleedorf in the state of Salzburg in 1892 as the son of the baker Josef Klampfer and his wife Franziska née Huemer. He worked as a farmhand for a farmer until he was drafted as a soldier in the First World War . In 1915 he was seriously wounded by a shrapnel on his spine and was taken to a hospital in Salzburg , where Maria Höller also worked as a military nurse. She nursed him self-sacrificingly and it eventually became a bond for life. Josef Klampfer and Maria Höller married on March 28, 1920. Maria Klampfer found an apartment on the ground floor in her aunt's house in Salzburg Paracelsusstraße 12, where the couple lived until their deaths. During his life, Josef Klampfer could only walk with an orthopedic scaffold and two sticks or crutches, and he appeared very rarely in public.

Klampfer worked tirelessly with crèche work from 1921 until the end of his life. He got his first suggestions from the Salzburg wax curator and crib builder Theodor Pfitzer. Klampfer was mentioned by name for the first time in the association announcement “The Christmas Crib” December 1925. In the 1930s he was already established as a carver of nativity scenes in Salzburg. After the end of the Second World War , US soldiers were billeted in the apartment. This led to contacts in the USA and Klampferkrippen also found their way across the Atlantic.

His work was also shaped by the close collaboration with Brother Pius Hochreiter from the Archabbey of St. Peter , with whom he created the Michaleli crib. Fate hit him hard again when his wife Maria suffered a stroke with paralysis in the 1950s. She died on April 19, 1961 at the age of 80. Josef Klampfer followed her on May 18, 1962. Both are buried in St. Peter's Cemetery.

Works

The folklore collection of the Carolino Augusteum Museum in Salzburg contains numerous works: a diorama nativity scene, a smaller nativity scene, two sets of figures of different sizes, a large group of three saints, a king with followers and others.

Michaelmas nativity scene in St. Michael's Church on Residenzplatz : It shows the biblical annual cycle with motifs from the city of Salzburg. It is a box crib behind glass. Brother Pius from the Archabbey of St. Peter created the panoramas, the figures, often only 4 cm tall, were carved by Josef Klampfer. The church was renovated in 2015.

Schleedorf: Around 1950 Josef Klampfer created a church crib for the Schleedorf parish church (his place of birth).

House cribs: Klampfer created a considerable number of smaller cribs for private crib friends. Especially in the Salzburg and Upper Austria area, but even in the USA.

swell

• "Der Krippenfreund" No. 178 Dec 1962. Association newspaper of the Association of Austrian Crib Friends.
• “The work of art of the month” December 2006 Volume 19, sheet 224 Periodical publication Salzburg Museum SMCA: “Nativity figures by J. Klampfer”. Written by dr. Ernestine Hutter.

Web links

• Website about Josef Klampfer