File Kurt Tucholsky

During the last years of World War 1 young Wilhelm Klemper is trained to become a letterpress printer. He takes up printing in a Berlin printing office in the 1920ies with the German capital having gone through a war and the young republic facing a revolution-like situation. When starting a printing process it is Klemper’s duty to control the first prints in order to get the printing press adjusted properly. Sometimes he longs for more time to read what his job makes him to print and puts misprints and spoils aside to take them home and read them in the evenings after work. Over the years his collection grows. Most of the essays have been written by a journalist called Tucholsky ...

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Kurt Tucholsky (1890-1935)
75th anniversary of  his death

Kurt Tucholsky had studied laws and was one of the most famous journalists in Berlin during the years of Weimar Republic. He was among the first persons beeing expatriated by the Nazis in 1933. His writings were aiming against war and censorship, against the manipulation of a people by means of cutting them off information - he was urging people to be aware of the dangers of faschism and another war coming up. His aim always was to make his readers to develop into a responsible citizen. When he realized the German people following Hitler, he stopped writing and in December 1935 commited suicide in his exile home in Sweden.

The second book in the series “dog’s footprints”:

“Mir fehlt ein Wort”
I am in lack of a word - more than 60 essays and sayings of Tucholsky and authors influenced by him (in German throughout)

The artist’s book is made up of three parts (volumes):
2/1: “Die er kennt, sagt er du.” - Whom he knows he makes friends - on the use of the German language and on the use of the book
2/2: “Das wäre dann aber keine Reklame für den nächsten Krieg.” - However, this would not be promoting the next war - on treating war & peace and the rest of the world
the extra volume ist part of the special edition only:
“Laß ihn in Ruhe.” - Leave him in peace - on treating artists and arts.

The volumes are sewn each to make up a record (resembling a court record or a secret service’s file)

Special edition: record ccopies 1-6 , containing all three volumes in a brown corrugated cardbord box

Standard edition: record copies 7-12 of both volumes, each in a brown corrugated cardbord box

Size of the box: approx. 40 x 65 cm

Project description. Click here.

Essay on Annette’s Blog