I was finally contacted yesterday by my Goetz family contact who clarified, to some extent, the subject matter of different images he had sent me of handwritten documents. Evidently the “Mein Wag” autobiography written by Goetz was NOT the subject matter of the photograph. He claims that this smaller document (about 20 pages) was more of a personal diary Goetz had written during his Paris Period and not the full-fledged autobiography. This is still important information since this collection now contains Goetz’s Jugendstil design book. He assured me that he would look for “Mein Wag” and get back to me.

Although we are no closer to securing the document(s), there is a good chance that both the documents can be obtained and housed in this collection. At a minimum, I will ask if it is possible to borrow the documents long enough to digitize them before sending them back.

Do to the health of my Goetz family confidant, communication can be quite spotty but I will update this Post as soon as I hear something more.

PS. When you click on the images to resize to larger pictures be patient as these are 2550px wide.

Here is an apparent Association membership booklet of Goetz’s with his picture from 1934.  He would have been 59 years old at the time.

I found a pressed four-leaf clover between pages 3-4 of the ‘AUSZUG’.  This library of documents exhibits surprising examples of  ‘life moments’ with the turn of every page.

I know enough German to recognize the artists and firms he worked under in the job description boxes but I’d like to know what all of the book text actually says too.

If we could start out with a literal translation of the printed booklet text first it would form an outline for the handwritten text to be translated next.

I also have the scans available as a .PDF for anyone wanting a copy to look at on your local computer.  With the exception of the front cover, all images are in black and white in hopes that the text would be easier to read.

Here we go….

The documents you will be assisting with have only recently been brought to light after 100+ years.  They have been acquired directly from Karl Goetz’s decendents.  This may become a lengthy project with new documents coming on line as they are acquired.

The first document for this project is presented below.  Translation of the text is the priority.  If anyone knows anything about the practice  of including a wood encased wax seal such as exhibited with this example, I would appreciate any information you may have.

This site has been set up to facilitate the translation of original documents relating to the early career of Karl Goetz. Images will be posted as they are processed and your help in transcribing and translating them would be greatly appreciated.

In order to preserve the quality of work here comments are restricted to registered users and registration is by invitation only. We are seeking people skilled in translating from German to English with some degree of technical proficiency. If you think you can help,  please do drop us a line!

Please refer to the About and How to pages for more info.