Walter Tiemann, born in Delitzsch in 1876, began studying painting in 1894 at the Academy of Arts in Leipzig and the Applied Arts School in Dresden, and also undertook a study trip to Paris. In 1903 he became a teacher of book printing, illustration and pure and applied graphic arts at the Royal Academy for Graphic Arts and Book Printing in Leipzig. Inspired by English private presses, Tiemann and publisher and book printer Carl Ernst Poeschel established the first such operation in Germany, the Janus Press, in Leipzig in 1907.

Tiemann worked as a book designer for Leipzig publishing houses including Insel, Julius Zeitler and Kurt Wolff, as well as Eugen Diederichs in Jena, Rütten & Loening in Frankfurt and Albert Langen in Munich. He made new designs for all major Antiqua and Fraktur typefaces and created over ten printing types which were all produced by the Offenbach type foundry, Gebr. Klingspor. Tiemann was the director of the State (previously Royal) Academy of Graphic Arts and Book Printing from 1920 to 1941. Under his direction, the academy developed into one of Germany’s most important and influential educational institutions for book design in the first half of the 20th century.