Kleinwelt

1898

Painting instead of music: leaving for Munich

Having barely passed his final examinations at the Bern gymnasium, Klee took his school-leaving certificate and in September 1898 left for Munich to study the visual arts. He had also lost faith in contemporary music: he was convinced that the great age of composition had long passed, and the classics remained closest to his heart.

from 3 April 1914

Tunisia with Macke and Moilliet: Klee the painter

On 3 April 1914 Klee set out from Bern with August Macke and Louis Moilliet, via Lyon and Marseille to Tunisia — Saint-Germain, Sidi Bou Said, Carthage, Hammamet, Kairouan — and he alone of the three kept a diary. Struck by the light, Klee wrote that colour had taken possession of him for ever and that he was a painter; back home he painted his first purely abstract work, “In the Style of Kairouan”, built of coloured rectangles and a few circles.

1920

Gropius invites Klee to teach at the Bauhaus

In October 1920, on behalf of the Bauhaus staff, its director Walter Gropius invited Klee to teach; from January 1921 to April 1931 he was a “form master” — first in the bookbinding workshop, then, together with Kandinsky, in the stained-glass and mural-painting workshops, and later he ran a painting class.

1933

Nazi harassment, a house search and dismissal

When the Nazis came to power a campaign of persecution was launched against Klee: the press called him a “typical Galician Jew”, his flat in Dessau was searched, and in Düsseldorf he was barred from work until he produced documents proving Aryan descent. He was forced to give up his professorship.

late 1933

Emigration to Switzerland

At the end of 1933, at his wife’s insistence, Klee left Germany and returned to Bern. He applied for Swiss citizenship, but a positive answer came only after his death.

29. června 1940

Died