Walter Koessler
The personal photo journal of a German officer in World War I

the personal side of history

see World War I from a new perspective

From 1914 to 1918 my great-grandfather Walter Koessler meticulously documented his service in the German army. Trained as an architect, Walter used his eye for beauty and his technical excellence as a photographer to make almost a thousand incredible photographs. After emigrating to California in 1925, he made a hundred-page photo album to preserve his experience for future generations.

Walter took photos at nearly every opportunity, showing cannons, weapons, life in the trenches, and day-to-day life with his comrades. He often stepped outside of his duties to capture the task at hand. Walter also took aerial photographs from biplanes and recorded investigations of destroyed cathedrals and other structures on official business. These are his photos, unedited and unmodified, precisely as he laid them out in his personal photo journal.

I've researched these images and included captions detailing where Walter was and what was happening around him where I could. I've also included insets of some of the best photos, and spreads printed straight from the original negatives.

Thanks to overwhelming support from Kickstarter and the excellent cooperation of my printer, I've been able to make a gorgeous reproduction of Walter's album. The book shows each page from the album at a nearly full size reproduction, 11 by 17 inches in size. Printed on archival-quality heavy matte paper with a fold out of Walter's aerial photography in the back, it's meant to be shared for generations in your family as it has mine.

funded by 2000 history lovers

Top Book Kickstarter

In 2013 Walter Koessler 1914-1918 became one of the most-funded publishing projects on Kickstarter. This book would never have been made without the support of thousands of history lovers around the world.

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WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

Linda Benedict-Jones
Curator of Photography, Carnegie Museum of Art

Dedicating oneself to making photographs while serving in an active war was highly atypical in World War I. That fact alone makes the personal photo album of Walter Koessler unique because this is precisely what he did.

Mark Frauenfelder
Boing Boing

To think that an individual working out of their home can produce a beautiful hardbound book of photography, outsourcing a few things but setting up the printer and everything and doing a Kickstarter... do publishers need to be afraid now? This is your first book and it's a home run!

Kevin Kelly
WIRED

Your WWI book is so much larger, polished, and deep than I expected! Really great. I'm enjoying late evenings with it.

Histocrats
History Education Blog

Perhaps one of the great appeals of Walter’s photo album is not just that it documents the experiences of a man on the opposing side, but that it simply exists.

an heirloom in print

Last Copies On Sale Now

Seventeen inches wide, thick archival paper and beautiful four-color printing.

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