Anna Simons

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Anna Simons (born June 8, 1871 in Munich-Gladbach ( Rhine Province ); † April 2, 1951 in Prien am Chiemsee ) was a German calligrapher and typographer .

Simons went to England in 1896 to study various arts and crafts at the Royal College of Art in South Kensington . After a few semesters she became a student of Edward Johnston , whose ideas of calligraphy and typography she adopted. Special skills she developed during the gilding of book and document jewelry . In 1905, on behalf of the Prussian Ministry of Trade and Industry, under the direction of Peter Behrens, together with Fritz Helmuth Ehmcke at the Düsseldorf School of Applied Arts, she carried out the newly established “Writing courses for applied arts teachers”. She represented her teacher Johnston, who was originally intended for the task. Under her direction, these courses were later also held at other German art universities. In 1912 Anna Simons presented the trends in typography and calligraphy emanating from England at the Congress for Art Education in Dresden and thus achieved a signal effect for the development of calligraphy in Germany (→ book art movement ). In 1914 Simons moved to Munich and taught at the arts and crafts school . There she met Willy Wiegand , for whose Bremen press she worked. From 1928 to 1933 she taught at the Düsseldorf Art Academy .

She inspired Emil Rudolf Weiß and Peter Behrens, whom she assisted with the Reichstag inscription Dem Deutschen Volke . Her apprenticeship was continued by her long-time assistant Franziska Kobell . Simons was a professor in Prussia and Bavaria , member of the Deutscher Werkbund and the Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society (United Kingdom), also an honorary member of the Society of Skribes and Illuminators (United Kingdom) and an honorary associate of the Woman's Guild of Art (United Kingdom).

Her works include in particular numerous certificates, including for the world exhibitions in Brussels in 1910 and Turin in 1911 , the honorary citizenship certificates of the city of Munich for Adolf Hitler , Franz Xaver Schwarz and Franz von Epp , as well as initials and headlines for the Bremen press in Munich and wall slogans for the Kunstgewerbemuseum of the city of Zurich.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Anna Simons: The writing course in Neubabelsberg . In: Kunstgewerblatt, twenty-first year, Verlag von LA Selmann, Leipzig 1910, p. 104 ( digitized version )

literature

  • Fritz Helmuth Ehmcke : Anna Simons , Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich & Berlin 1934 (Corona VIII publications).
  • Eberhard Hölscher, Rudolf Blanckertz: Anna Simons , Heintze & Blanckertz, Berlin 1938 (Monographs of artistic writing II).
  • Gunter Quarg, Christian Klinger: Anna Simons - Master of the Art of Writing (1871–1951) , Cologne 1996 (Small Writings of the University and City Library Cologne 2), 64 pages, ISBN 3-931596-09-5 .
  • Prof. Anna Simons, Dr. Eberhard Hölscher, Edward Johnston and the English art of writing , Verlag für die Schriftkunde Heinze & Blanckertz, Berlin-Leipzig, Monographs of artistic writing, vol. 1.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Simons, Anna
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German calligrapher and typographer
DATE OF BIRTH June 8, 1871
PLACE OF BIRTH Munich-Gladbach
DATE OF DEATH April 2, 1951
Place of death Prien am Chiemsee