Ernst Engel (graphic artist)

Ernst Hermann Karl Engel (born December 13, 1879 in Kassel , † July 17, 1967 in Bad König ) was a German graphic artist and operator of the Ernst Engel press.

Live and act

After an apprenticeship as typesetter, Engel worked at Klingspor, where he headed the in-house print shop from 1905. He then taught in Frankfurt and finally at the Offenbach am Main School of Applied Arts (today's University of Design ) and also ran the Ernst Engel press. In 1919 he acquired a solid press that he wanted to use for his teaching post. He published books with high design standards that were sold in very small editions. Engel employees were his colleagues Otto Fratzscher and Ignatz Wiemeler . Schoolchildren were also involved in the press, for example Karlgeorg Hoefer . Some were allowed to work under their own names, such as Georg Geith and Helmut Harmening, who wrote the book “Friedrich von Schiller: About the Sublime” in the Koch-Antiqua font in 1925, or Friedrich Schaad, who wrote the book “Rainer Maria Rilke: Das Marienleben ”in the font spring.

The Ernst Engel press was continued from 1952 to 1995 by his student Walter Stähle.

From the Engels estate, there are 59 hand press prints by his students in the Klingspor Museum, prints from the Ernst Engel press, steel stamps and type matrices for three uncial scripts , fifty single-sheet prints in various formats and an original Karlgeorg Hoefer manuscript for Ernst Engel.

Printing units (selection)

• Friedrich Hölderlin : The death of Empedocles. A tragedy. The fragment of the 1st version (= hand press printing 8, ZDB -ID 2478919-7 ). Ernst Engel, Offenbach a. Main 1925 (edition: 110 copies in total. With 3 printed woodcuts by Gustav Eichenauer, based on drawings by Heinrich Holz).
• Ernst Engel: Heinrich Holz in memory. Died May 2, 1927 in Offenbach a. M. sn (Reichner), sn (Vienna) sa (1933), (Supplement to Philobiblon. A magazine for book lovers. Vol. 6. H. 6, ZDB -ID 550874-5 , 1933. The types cut by Engel, printed in the book printing class, Offenbach School of Applied Arts).

literature

• Georg Kurt Schauer : German book art. 1890 to 1960. Maximilian Society, Hamburg 1963, pp. 177ff.
• Heinz Heinrich Schmiedt: The printer Ernst Engel and the Offenbach school (= print of the Klingspor Museum. No. 8). Association of Friends of the Klingspor Museum, Offenbach am Main 1967.
• Hans Adolf Halbey : Karl Klingspor. Life and work. A contribution to the history of German writing and the type foundry in the 20th century. Klingspor-Museum, Offenbach am Main 1991, p. 198.
• Walter Stähle: The Ernst Engel Press 1921–1995. History and bibliography of a German private press. Catalog for the anniversary exhibition in the Württemberg State Library in Stuttgart from September 13 to October 28, 1995. List and Francke, Meersburg am Bodensee 1995, ISBN 3-88846-008-5 .