Pieper and Yperman

Hans Pieper was working as an engineer and architect for the city of Cologne when the war broke out. He ended up on the Belgian coast as an officer in the Festungsbaukompagnie/Köln. From 1915, he was assigned as a lieutenant to the Marine Pioneer Battalion of the Marine-Korps Flandern. His responsibilities included the construction of coastal batteries and bunkers. His role took him to many locations, which he captured on paper. Pieper painted and sketched landscapes and ruined buildings, always with an eye for detail.

Jules Yperman, a stained-glass artist from Bruges, was conscripted into the 11th Line Regiment of the Belgian Army at the age of 20 and found himself on the Yser front. He recorded his experiences in a diary, which he illustrated with small sketches, pen drawings, and watercolours. What began as an illustrated diary was later supplemented by separate stories, songbooks, and a scrapbook filled with watercolours.

Both men spent almost the entire war in the coastal region of West Flanders. Their work provides a unique insight into how they experienced the war and their surroundings.