Book art movement

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The book art movement describes a reform movement that originated in Germany between the 1890s and the 1930s, the aim of which was to sustainably improve the formal, technical and artistic quality of books, magazines and printed matter. The centers were Munich, Berlin, Leipzig and Darmstadt. Important supporters of the book art movement were magazines , manual or private presses , press printers , publishers and printing houses , typographers , artists, writers, architects, antiquarians , librarians , bibliophiles and bibliophile societies.

The focus of the movement was on the overall artistic design of the book, striving for perfect harmony of text , font , illustration , paper , print and book cover . Book art had a formative effect on modern typeface and book design . From the mid-1920s, Bauhaus artists took on the role of the avant-garde in book design. Individual presses, publishers and artists were still active until the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists in 1933 or at the beginning of the Second World War . A large part of the private press that continued to print or reprinted after 1945 referred to the tradition of the book art movement.

The book art movement was also picked up in other countries, particularly in the east and south-east of Europe, while the English press movement found great resonance in Scandinavia and the Netherlands.

Book art movement in Germany

Since the end of the 19th century, due to technical advances and machine developments, there have been more and more inferior mass productions in a wide variety of areas. The industrial revolution made the book mass-produced and lost its personal character. Two types of books were produced: on the one hand, the richly and finely furnished magnificent works that served the upper class and the nobility in their need for representation, and on the other hand, books of inferior quality that were mass-produced.

This unsatisfactory situation gave rise to the book art movement as a renewal movement in book design. This renewal movement affecting the book industry is not to be understood as an independent and isolated reform, but is part of a reform affecting the entire arts and crafts. There are several and different currents that paved a new path for book art in Germany.

Forerunner of the movement

The English private press exerted a great influence on the renewal of book art in Germany . The traditional craft was deliberately cultivated here and commercial interest was in the background. An example is the Kelmscott Press, founded by William Morris in 1891 . The most important advisor to the press, Sir Emery Walker , was also sought out and asked for advice by German representatives who were trying to renew the book system. English book art became well known through the distribution of the art magazine The Studio , published since 1893 , which also showed the younger generation of German book artists new ways of art.

A group of artists came together in Munich around 1870 and shaped the entertaining Munich style, the “ Munich Renaissance ”. The founders felt called upon to restore the book to its original quality and beauty. This was not done out of greed, but out of love for books. The content as well as the equipment and typography were subject to the individual preferences of the founders. It was characteristic that they resorted to stylistic devices from various artists from earlier epochs and copied them in their works.

While Morris' technical and stylistic recourse to bygone eras brought about a real renewal of book art in England, in Germany one could not get beyond the imitation of old prints at first. It was not until the following generation that they tried to develop their own style, also taking into account the new technical possibilities and with the conscious rejection of historicism .

Supporter of the German book art movement

The renewal of book art and its movement was promoted by a large circle of different personalities. Writers and poets who pointed out the abuses in the book industry promoted the movement. Likewise gifted artists, open-minded publishers, newly founded presses and magazines.

What they all had in common was the goal of giving the book access to modern art at the time and of integrating the typography, the book decorations, the illustrations and the machine book production into a uniform overall program.

The Art Nouveau , which developed at the time of the Belle Époque , shaped the beginning of the book art movement in Germany as an art style. Even if the art style of the “Munich Renaissance” did not last long, some book reformers nevertheless became aware of the quality and beauty of the early prints and tried in their further endeavors to recreate this newly found beauty.

The beginnings

The publisher Georg Hirth published reprints of old works and made artistic demands on his publications. He found his design preferences in the prints of the Renaissance and his reform efforts had a positive effect on the artists and supporters of the movement.

The publisher Max Huttler , with a preference for the Gothic era , also campaigned for the quality of his editions to be improved . He turned against the imitation of old early prints. They should be role models and be studied in their essence, but the goal should be a new type of book design.

Under the influence of the English, French and Japanese arts as well as the versatile Art Nouveau artist Henry van de Velde, attempts were made in Germany to overcome the crisis in the book industry and to implement the newly gained sense of style. New artistic interest groups were formed, which published their reform ideas and artistic achievements in a large number of newly founded magazines .

The magazines

The magazine Pan was published in 1895 by Otto Julius Bierbaum and Julius Meier-Graefe and appeared for five years. Here, artists and friends of art, as well as scientists, came together to live out and implement their general artistic interests, which, however, did not only concern book art. The Pan featured the first Kelmscott Press prints and works by English artist Aubrey Beardsley . In addition to the well-known German artists, young talents also got a chance here and pointed new directions to the artistic design of the magazine. A major innovation in the course of book art development was the page design of the newspaper. For example, each article in the first edition was printed in a different font and the magazine was furnished with rich decorative book decorations, which were determined and influenced by the new art style.

In Munich, Georg Hirth published another magazine from 1896, of great artistic importance: The youth gave its name to the new art style in Germany, Art Nouveau . In contrast to the Pan , the youth reached a broader audience through a wide range of interests and a wide variety of topics. In the spirit of Hirth, the youth succeeded in turning away from historicism towards a new exemplary decorative design method. But not only the artistic design was re-implemented here, but also an attempt was made to put all parts of the magazine, such as typography and illustrations, into a harmonious overall relationship.

The magazine Die Insel appeared from 1899 to 1902. Its founders were Otto Julius Bierbaum, Alfred Walter Heymel and Rudolf Alexander Schröder . In it, the focus was already placed on the typographical design and a uniform appearance of the magazine. In the last year of the magazine, the decorative features were almost completely dispensed with.

Other newly founded journals of artistic and literary importance included the Simplicissimus, founded and published by Albert Langen in 1896 , as well as the publications Hyperion (1908 to 1910) and Der Zwiebelfisch (1909 to 1934) initiated by the Munich publisher and art patron Hans von Weber .

Major publishers and publishers

In the last years of the 19th century the new type of individual literary publisher emerged . For him, it was not just the financial success of his publishing house that was of interest, but the targeted promotion of authors and the literary business as a whole. Eugen Diederichs was one of the most important publishers who tried to reform the book industry . He was influenced by the art theories of John Ruskin and was also based on the aesthetic program of William Morris. Diederichs was driven by the idea of ​​renewing the book from the cover to the book decoration. He commissioned artists with the entire design of books and thus gave his publishing works an individual appearance. He passed this responsibility of taking on the design of an entire book to younger talents. He supported and promoted them and helped them develop their artistic work through various fields of activity. In addition to promoting young artists, Diederichs was able to win the collaboration of some of the most important book designers of the time - book artists such as Emil Rudolf Weiß , Fritz Helmuth Ehmcke , Johann Vincenz Cissarz , Peter Behrens , Heinrich Vogeler and Rudolf Koch worked for his publishing house. With the publication of his works, Diederichs was not aiming for financial success, but rather proved out of an educational interest that a renewal of book art could take place without influencing materialism and the prevailing sense of style. In terms of content, the editions concentrated on recognized world literature, fairy tales, the Thule Collection , a collection of Norse-Icelandic legends, and religious works.

Heinrich Vogeler: Illustrations for Hugo von Hofmannsthal's The Emperor and the Witch , published in 1900 by Insel Verlag

In addition to Diederichs, Insel Verlag also made a contribution to the book art movement. The publishing house emerged in 1901 from the magazine of the same name founded in 1899. After the departure of the island's founders Alfred Walter Heymel and Rudolf Alexander Schröder , it was initially headed by Rudolf von Poellnitz. In 1904, Carl Ernst Poeschel took over the management of the publishing house on a temporary basis, in 1905 Anton Kippenberg joined the company and from 1906 was the sole director and owner. Under his leadership, Insel Verlag achieved a leading position in the book industry. Here, too, the focus was on a uniform book design and a harmonious appearance. Every book from Insel-Verlag should be artistically designed according to its purpose and content. In addition to luxury prints, Insel-Verlag also published the Insel-Bücherei , a series of excellently printed, individually designed and high-quality cardboard volumes at extremely affordable prices. The island volumes are largely unchanged in appearance to this day; Volume 1401 was published in autumn 2014. The Insel-Verlag also participated in a number of other bibliophile ventures such as the Janus Press and the Ernst Ludwig Press .

In 1906 the Hyperion Verlag Hans von Weber was founded in Munich. One of the most important publishing projects was the art magazine Hyperion , which only had three volumes, but was extremely fruitful in these - it brought among other things first works by Kafka and Musil . The books published by the publisher from 1907 were aimed at an intellectually and tastefully educated audience; the authors included a. Gilbert Keith Chesterton and André Gide . From 1909 the Hyperion-Verlag brought out luxury books in strictly limited editions such as B. the prints for the hundred as well as the magazine Zwiebelfisch , a magazine for taste in books and other things , which mainly dealt with topics from the field of book art, book trade and typography. Ernst Rowohlt and Dr. Julius Schröder took over the literary publishing house in 1913, in 1917 it came to Kurt Wolff , and Hans von Weber concentrated on the luxury series and onion fish . In addition, he was also positive about modern book production and supported the goal of using new technical possibilities to produce inexpensive yet high-quality books.

Other publishers of great importance were u. a. Tempel Verlag , Hesperos Verlag and S. Fischer Verlag and later the Avalun-Verlag , also the publishers of Georg Müller , Albert Langen , Ernst Rowohlt , Bruno Cassirer and Paul Cassirer .

The evolution of the presses

Start of private presses

After the illustrative period of Art Nouveau and the influence of Henry van de Velde on art, the Vienna Secession and other trends, a focus on font development, a typographical phase, began around 1900.

This beginning of style and its appearance shaped the works of the private press . Based on the English model, book designers and artists formed smaller working groups. The foundation of the press enabled the artists to design their works according to their individual taste and personal preferences. The book artists could work independently of the publisher's programs and were no longer dependent on the constraints of a commercial business.

Steglitzer workshop

The Steglitz workshop initiated this development. It was founded in October 1900 by Fritz Helmuth Ehmcke , Friedrich Wilhelm Kleukens and Georg Belwe . Belwe made his house in Steglitz available to accommodate the workshop. It is noteworthy that none of the three artists had learned the printing trade. Their works were characterized by a sure artistic aesthetic sense, they represented a calm and simple antithesis to the decorative phase of Art Nouveau. With relatively simple means, the artists produced high-quality and high-quality editions and commercials , the appearance of which had a great influence on the subsequent press founders. The ability to freely design books far from the modern sense of style at the time and the successful implementation of reducing a work to its essential elements met with great admiration.

Janus press

The founding of the Janus-Presse in Leipzig in 1907 provided the direction for this further recent development in book culture . Its founders were the printer Carl Ernst Poeschel and the book artist Walter Tiemann . During a stay in England Poeschel made the acquaintance of the English printer and typographer Emery Walker , the advisor to William Morris , the founder of the Kelmscott Press . The set program of the Janus press was based on the demands of William Morris and his supporters, which were implemented independently. Poeschel concentrated on a dignified, self-contained sentence design and paid great attention to the printing work. The focus of the Janus press was on the artistic design of a book, since the appearance of the font and its harmonious structure alone made up the work of art “book”.

The various movements of Art Nouveau and their development towards overloaded editions overflowing with decorative book decorations were now contrasted with a simple but noble elaboration of the typographical forms. For the works of the press, Poeschel used the Behrens -type as a letter, among others, as well as several types designed by Tiemann and Weiß. The first work in the press, the Roman Elegies by Goethe, was the first artistic book in a purely typographic style . In 1918 the press was incorporated into Insel-Verlag and closed in 1923. In the 16 years of its existence, only five works in the Janus press have gone to press .

Ernst Ludwig Press

Also in 1907, the Grand Duke of Hesse, Ernst Ludwig , founded his own printing company in Darmstadt : the Ernst Ludwig Press . The brothers Friedrich Wilhelm and Christian Heinrich Kleukens were in charge of the press . While Friedrich Wilhelm designed the typefaces for the press and the book decorations, his brother designed the prints. In contrast to the Janus press , the design of a purely typographical work could not establish itself within the Ernst Ludwig press. The complete abandonment of illustrations and decorative book decorations did not take place. After the First World War , the two brothers separated and Friedrich Wilhelm founded the Ratio-Presse . Christian Heinrich returned to the Ernst Ludwig Press , but in 1919 he founded the Kleukens Press in Darmstadt together with Rudolf G. Binding . In 1927 he followed the appointment from Mainz and took over the management of the Mainz press of the Gutenberg Museum .

Bremen press

The Bremer Presse was founded in 1910 by Ludwig Wolde and Willy Wiegand . The Doves Press and Thomas Cobden-Sanderson's book aesthetic program were her role models. The press was influenced literarily by Rudolf Borchardt , Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Rudolf Alexander Schröder , among others . Characteristic of the works of the press was the complete abandonment of decorative book decorations, with the exception of the design of titles and the creation of initials by Anna Simons , a student of Edward Johnston . As with the works of the Doves Press , the aim of the press was to produce books whose writings took a back seat to their content. The writing should only take on the mediating role between the words and the thoughts developed in the reader. The works of the Bremer Presse received great public recognition. In addition to bibliophile prints, it also produced cheaper books that were convincing in their simplicity and quality. The press managed to get the beautiful utility book to a wide audience.

Officina Serpentis

In 1911 the Officina Serpentis was founded by Eduard Wilhelm Tieffenbach . Tieffenbach was also inexperienced as a scientist in the printing trade and had to learn new printing and typesetting technology. Tieffenbach's selection of works was shaped by his preference for the early printing period. He reissued several printed works from the 15th and 16th centuries. In doing so, however, he did not create copies or facsimiles, but prints with an independent aesthetic. He hired artists who had studied medieval design and were able to trace and implement its essence especially for the decorative furnishing of his works. Tieffenbach succeeded in rediscovering and formulating the laws of beauty of the incunabula for his works. The works of Officina Serpentis include u. a. numerous annual editions for the Bibliophile Association Maximilian Society .

Rupprecht press

Even Fritz Helmuth Ehmcke 1913 founded his own press in Munich, named after the Bavarian Crown Prince Rupprecht Press . He received literary advice from the poet and bibliophile Karl Wolfskehl . As an important type artist and type creator, Ehmcke printed his works with the types he had designed. For him, the script represented the basis of a good book and he did without decorative accessories. His works should serve as qualitative models for industrial book production.

While book art in the period before the First World War was determined by a typographical phase, in the post-war period there was a return to illustrative works.

Cranach press

This transition can be traced in the works of the Cranach press . It was founded in Weimar in 1913 by Count Harry Kessler and named after the famous artist Lucas Cranach . Kessler was a writer and politician and followed the idea of ​​a united Europe. With the help of his prints he tried to emphasize the artistic unity of Europe by hiring some of the most famous European book artists or by winning their collaboration. The works of the Cranach press were characterized by an unusual, new appearance, determined by typographical attempts and the return to an illustrative sense of style.

Officina Bodoni

In 1922, Giovanni Mardersteig, who grew up in the house of the Cranach-Presse , founded Officina Bodoni in Montagnola, Switzerland . The press was named after the Italian printer and typographer Giambattista Bodoni and was licensed to print with his original typefaces. Her focus was on outstanding typography in the tradition of the Italian type artists. Mardersteig designed a series of fonts based on historical models especially for the prints of his press, which he had cut by the Parisian die cutter Charles Malin . Officina Bodoni developed into the longest lasting and most successful of the mainland private presses and was active until 1977.   

Post-war presses

After the Second World War , numerous private presses made attempts to keep the book-making achievements and traditions from the pre-war period alive and to develop them further. Examples are the presses founded in the 1950s to 1970s by Otto Rohse and Herbert Post or the Trajanus press and the Raamin press by Roswitha Quadflieg . However, following the changed circumstances and technical possibilities, bibliophile publications nowadays often use the offset printing process. Few smaller publishers continue to print press prints using traditional printing technology, for example the Corvinus press .

Book artist

During the development of a new book culture and the concentration on the renewal of book art, a group of artists that changed in their areas of activity emerged: the book artists. They focused on the various arts related to the design and production of books. After prolonged occupation with the subject of books and numerous experiments, a wide variety of artists, including painters , printers , architects , or designers , developed into outstanding type artists or creators, illustrators, etc. Book artists, who designed the individual, were of great artistic importance Accepted works or entire series and thus gave them the opportunity to freely create a new book according to their individual preferences.

Of course, the general reform of the arts and crafts also changed the structures of academic art schools. New subject-specific classes and departments were established that were solely responsible for teaching book art. Renowned book artists who had made a name for themselves during the renewal of book art were appointed as lecturers at art schools or founded new training centers themselves. Among the multitude of outstanding artists, only a few can be highlighted here.

The painter and writer Emil Rudolf Weiß began his first book art work at Verlag Diederichs . Through his artistic work, he developed into one of the most important book designers and type artists of the new book culture. In addition to the artistic collaboration on the works of Diederichs Verlag, he also designed books for S. Fischer Verlag , Insel-Verlag and was jointly responsible for the artistic decoration of the temple classics . In contrast to other artists, he was never the founder or co-founder of his own press, but he occasionally took on commissions, for example from the Officina Serpentis .

Fritz Helmuth Ehmcke was artistically active in many areas. He created illustrations and turned to font drawing. Like Weiß, Ehmcke worked for Diederichs and other publishers. He designed numerous typefaces , including the Ehmcke Fraktur or the Ehmcke Antiqua, and wrote theoretical works on the development of the typeface. In 1900 Ehmcke was one of the co-founders of the Steglitz workshop , in 1913 he founded the Rupprecht press and was appointed professor by the Bavarian Academy.

The book and type artist Walter Tiemann worked mainly for the Insel-Verlag and one of the co-founders of the Janus-Presse , the first German private press . He was close friends with the publisher Anton Kippenberg and the printer Carl Ernst Poeschel . Tiemann later taught at the State Academy for Graphic Arts and Book Industry in Leipzig. Just as Ehmcke devoted himself to teaching writing, Tiemann was also active as a teacher and book artist. In his role as a typeface creator, his goal was to develop legible, simple but elegant typefaces that should not appear artificial and intrusive. He succeeded in doing this, for example, with the Tiemann italic or the Tiemann Fraktur .

Like most book artists, Marcus Behmer was also active in several artistic fields and made a living as an illustrator and graphic artist. He initially oriented himself on the art of Aubrey Beardsley and, due to Beardsley's influence, turned to the works of Charles Ricketts , in which Behmer found his model. Like the other book artists, he made his skills available to several presses and publishers.

The book artist Paul Renner and the publisher Georg Müller had a close and fruitful collaboration . Renner worked as the only responsible book designer for Müller's publishing house and produced a large number of artistic achievements. After Müller's untimely death in 1917, Renner turned against his earlier working style, as he had all too often had to subordinate himself to the guidelines of the publishing program in his rich work and style. From then on he became an avid representative of the typographic period and dealt with the possibilities of machine production of books. The Futura he designed set a high point and represented a significant further development of the art of writing at the time. Renner later taught at the master school for Germany's book printers in Munich.

In addition to the aforementioned book designers, Otto Hupp and his early typographical achievements, Otto Eckmann , who developed the Eckmann font , the artistically own style of Melchior Lechter , who founded the Einhorn-Presse in 1907 , Thomas Theodor Heine , the dust jacket for Albert Langen designed and of course to name Rudolf Koch.

All book artists, whether they were supporters of the decorative, floral and painterly period of Art Nouveau, or whether they preferred the style of the typographical phase, had one thing in common: the redesign of books, with the aim of breathing new life into them and giving them a return a beautiful commodity.

literature

  • Jürgen Eyssen : Book Art in Germany. From Art Nouveau to the painter's book. Book designers, hand presses, publishers, illustrators. Schlütersche Verlagsanstalt, Hanover 1980, ISBN 3-87706-173-7 , pp. 23-26, pp. 40-68, pp. 74-95, pp. 108-130.
  • Fritz Funke: Book customer. An overview of the history of the book. 5th revised edition. Saur, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-598-11051-0 , pp. 189-212, pp. 219-242.
  • Anne Heinig: Book Art at the Time of Expressionism. Kurt Wolff Verlag and its contribution to the German book art movement since Art Nouveau. Master's thesis, Kiel 1991.
  • Ralph Jentsch: Espressionismo. Libri illustrati degli espressionisti. Edition Cantz, Stuttgart 1990, ISBN 3-89322-188-3 (exhibition catalog), texts in Italian.
  • Joseph Lammers, Gerd Unverfetern (Ed.): From Art Nouveau to Bauhaus. German book art 1895–1930. Westphalian State Museum for Art and Cultural History u. a., Münster u. a. 1981 (exhibition catalog).
  • Alfred Langer: Art Nouveau and Book Art. Edition Leipzig, Leipzig 1994, ISBN 3-361-00427-6 .
  • Beate Nagel: Art Nouveau book art. Cover and illustration. University Library, Braunschweig 1994, ISBN 3-927115-23-1 (exhibition catalog). (= Publications of the University Library Braunschweig 10)
  • Julius Rodenberg: German presses. A bibliography. 2 volumes. Amalthea-Verlag u. a., Zurich u. a. 1925–1931 (reprinted in one volume. Amalthea-Verlag, Vienna et al. 1972).
  • Georg Kurt Schauer (Ed.): German book art. 1890 to 1960. 2 volumes (volume 1: text volume; volume 2: bibliography & illustrated volume). Maximilian Society, Hamburg 1963.
  • Georg Kurt Schauer (Ed.): International book art in the 19th and 20th centuries. O. Maier, Ravensburg 1969.
  • Ernst Schlemmer (Red.): Art Nouveau and Secession. Drawings, graphics, posters, book art. Culture and Leisure Office, Esslingen 1976 (exhibition catalog).
  • Claudia Schmidt: The contribution of the Darmstadt artists' colony to Art Nouveau book art. Master's thesis, Mainz 2002.
  • Martina Voelkel: The book as a total work of art. Diploma thesis, Stuttgart 1994.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Friedrich Adolf Schmidt Künsemüller: William Morris and the newer book art. Carl Wehmer (Ed.), Contributions to the book and library system, Vol. 4, Wiesbaden 1955, pp. 92–167.
  2. ↑ Hans-Christian Kirsch: William Morris - a man against time. Cologne 1983, ISBN 3-424-00772-2 , pp. 274-303.
  3. ↑ Josef Lehnacker (Ed.): The Bremen Press. Queen of the German private press. Typographic Society, Munich 1964.