Paul Klee was the second child of German music teacher Hans Wilhelm Klee (1849–1940) and Swiss singer Ida Marie Klee, née Frick (1855 –1921). He was born in Münchenbuchsee, Switzerland.
In his early years, following his parents’ wishes, Klee focused on becoming a musician, but later followed visual arts and became an artist.
Klee married Bavarian pianist Lily Stumpf in 1906 in Berne, two weeks later they moved to Munich and they had one son named Felix Paul in the following year.
During World War One Klee was conscripted as a Landsturmsoldat (soldier of the reserve forces in Prussia or Imperial Germany).
In Munich he joined various artists' associations and was also a founding member of them. He began to exhibit his works. He moved with his family several times within Germany and continued to exhibit his works.
When the National Socialists came to power in 1933 he was described as a "disathematized artist" and "politically unreliable" and was dismissed without notice from his position as professor at the Academy of Arts in Düsseldorf. In December 1933 he moved with his family to his parents in Bern.
At the beginning of April 1940 his health deteriorated, so on 10 May he began a stay at a sanatorium in Locarno-Muralto. He died on 29 June 1940 at the Clinica Sant'Agnese in Muralto. He was buried in Schosshalden cemetery in Berne.
Sources
Bavaria WWI Personnel Rosters - Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; München; Abteilung IV Kriegsarchiv. Kriegstammrollen, 1914-1918; Volume: 18159. Kriegsstammrolle: Bd. 7. Source Information: Ancestry.com. Bavaria, Germany, WWI Personnel Rosters, 1914-1918 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Name: Paul Klee; Birth Date: 18 Dez 1879 (18 Dec 1879); Birth Place: Münchenbuchsee Kanton Bern Schweiz (Switzerland); Combat Arm: Luftstreitkräfte; Type of Unit: Flieger-Ersatz-Abteilungen; Unit: bayer. Flieger-Ersatz-Abteilung 1 (Schleißheim); Volume: 18159
Biography and Genealogy Master Index - Ancestry.com. Biography & Genealogy Master Index (BGMI) [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009.Original data: Gale Research Company. Biography and Genealogy Master Index. Detroit, MI, USA: Gale Research Company, 2008. Name: Paul Klee; Birth Year: 1879; Death Year: 1940. Volume 33: September, 2007-August, 2008. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 2008. (BioIn 33)
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