Eugen Nerdinger

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Eugen Nerdinger (born January 26, 1910 in Augsburg ; † August 8, 1991 there ), was a type and book designer, commercial artist and head of the Augsburg art school. As a social democrat he belonged to the resistance group around Bebo Wager during the Nazi era .

Life

After finishing school, Eugen Nerdinger began an apprenticeship as a typesetter , which he completed in 1932 during his apprenticeship due to and despite an unfavorable health condition. Three years later he worked as a machine worker at Maschinenfabrik Augsburg-Nürnberg AG (MAN). In 1937 he began studying commercial graphics at the municipal art school in Augsburg, which he continued in 1939 at the Academy for Applied Arts in Munich. One year later, I started my own business as a commercial artist in the Fuggerstadt.

His sons Hagen, Winfried , Ulrich and Friedemann emerged from his marriage to his wife Gertrud in 1936 .

Political commitment

At the age of 13, Nerdinger joined the Socialist Workers' Youth (SAJ). In 1928 he became a member of the SPD . During the SAJ time he met Bebo Wager, with whom he developed a personal friendship. After the banning of the SPD and its organizations by the National Socialists, Nerdinger continued his political activities in secret in the local resistance movement "Revolutionary Socialists" founded by Wager and himself in 1933. The Social Democrats assumed that Hitler's overthrow was imminent at some point and prepared themselves for the tasks that would then arise through further training in political theory and training. Until 1937, Nerdinger took care of the organization, the conspiratorial methods of illegal cooperation and the collection and dissemination of information. Nerdinger wanted to prepare himself for a later career as a political propagandist by training as a graphic designer . His studio was also used to camouflage illegal political activities.

In 1941 the leaders of the resistance group, Bebo Wager and the Munich activist Hermann Frieb , came to the conclusion that the situation was revolutionary and began to take action. Among other things, Wager tried to recruit MAN workers. One of them informed the Gestapo . On April 16, 1942, Wager and Frieb were the victims of the first arrests. Eugen Nerdinger was arrested in May and was in custody until December 1942. Since Wager, who was executed in 1943, had not incriminated his friend, Nerdinger was sentenced to three and a half years in prison in May 1944 in a trial before the Munich Supreme Court. His imprisonment was postponed several times and delayed by Nerdinger's employment in the Messerschmitt works , which were important for the war effort. After a bomb attack, his department was relocated to Wettenhausen in the Günzburg district . There Nerdinger was drafted into the Volkssturm in September and fell ill during an exercise. His old TB disease broke up again and made him bedridden until March 1945.

After the armistice in May, he returned to Augsburg and made new contacts. In 1946, Nerdinger, together with Lina Wager and Anni Bittracher, reactivated the Augsburg Socialist Workers' Youth. The social democrat then decided not to go into active politics. Instead, he wanted to serve the local working class culture.

Professional activity

In 1940 Nerdinger started his own business. The term of imprisonment and the circumstances of the war temporarily prevented activities in the learned profession. In autumn 1945 Nerdinger opened the company “ Stern-Offizin ”, a workshop for book art and commercial graphics. Here he was able to combine the activities of a graphic designer, printer and publisher. From 1946 onwards, while running his company, Nerdinger made his knowledge available to young people at the Augsburg art school. In 1954 he was employed as a teacher for commercial graphics there. His professional endeavors were twofold. On the one hand in a professional writing activity for basic design research, on the other hand in the conception and realization of a university-like design school with a Western European recognized training certificate. At Nerdinger's initiative, the school received additional departments for exhibition design and advertising graphics.

From 1960 he took over the management of the educational institution, which in May 1961 was renamed the “ Werkkunstschule der Stadt Augsburg, Higher Technical School for Applied Graphics and Painting ”. With the help of Waldemar von Knoeringen , who was also known to him , it was possible to incorporate a “design” training course into the Bavarian University of Applied Sciences Act passed in 1970, which is also based on Nerdinger's considerations. In the same year, the teacher Nerdinger retired as director of the Werkkunstschule. In the following year, the previously municipal facilities “ Rudolf Diesel Polytechnic of the City of Augsburg ” and the Werkkunstschule were merged to form the “ Augsburg University of Applied Sciences ” and taken over by the Free State of Bavaria.

Works (selection)

  • Brothers up to the light. Augsburg 1984, ISBN 3-921706-05-X .
  • Flame under ashes. City of Augsburg, 1979.
  • Together with Lisa Beck: calligraphy. Munich 1988, ISBN 3-7667-0886-4 .
  • Together with Lisa Beck: writing, drawing. Munich 1987, ISBN 3-7667-0854-6 .
  • Alphabets. Munich 1974, ISBN 3-7667-0150-9 .
  • Sign, writing and ornament. Callwey, Munich 1960.
  • Letter book. Callwey, Munich 1954.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Nerdinger, Eugene
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German type and book designer, commercial artist, resistance fighter
DATE OF BIRTH January 26, 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH augsburg
DATE OF DEATH August 8, 1991
Place of death augsburg