Fritz Blankenhorn (graphic artist)

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Fritz Blankenhorn (born August 22, 1921 in Neuwied ; † April 22, 2011 ) was German chief graphic artist at the German Book Association and author .

Life

Fritz Blankenhorn was born in Neuwied as the first son of the judicial inspector Fritz Blankenhorn and his mother Sophie, née Haase. He passed the Abitur at the Humanistic Gymnasium and did six months of his military service. He then began to study architecture at the Technical University of Braunschweig in October 1939 . In the spring of the following year he volunteered for military service and was used as a soldier in France and the Soviet Union from June 1940 until the end of World War II . On April 9, 1945, as a lieutenant, he was captured by the Soviets during the capitulation of the Königsberg Fortress. He was released in November 1949 and returned home. In 1952 he married the teacher Elisabeth Ursula Crome. His first daughter Annegret was born in 1955, the youngest daughter Bettina in 1959. In 1967 he moved to Echterdingen with his family .

plant

Fritz Blankenhorn began his professional training at the age of 29. In Düsseldorf and Krefeld , he completed the class for commercial graphics (graphic design) at the respective art schools . The design of book covers was his main focus early on and continued into the following decades. Blankenhorn designed the first book covers for the publishers Eugen Diederichs and Karl Rauch. From 1955, Blankenhorn ran his first graphic studio in the Düsseldorf press house. Three years later, the publisher Georg von Holtzbrinck brought him to Stuttgart . For Holtzbrinck he and his team designed brochures, magazine layouts, record sleeves and book covers for the book club Deutscher Bücherbund for almost 30 years. In addition, he worked as a freelancer for German and Swiss publishers. In 1986 Blankenhorn ended his professional career and from then on devoted himself to watercolor painting, which took him on painting trips to Greece , Provence , Umbria and Tuscany . His paintings have been exhibited at several exhibitions. In addition to painting, he dedicated himself to chamber music as a cellist. From 2001 he began to record his memories of the years of war and captivity. In spring 2004 his book "... and we drive without return. From East Prussia to Siberia 1944-1949" was published by Rowohlt Verlag. The book was published in six editions within a year.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ He designed the covers of numerous records, see Fritz Blankenhorn at Discogs (English)
  2. ↑ a b c Died: Fritz Blankenhorn , obituary on buchmarkt.de, May 26, 2011, viewed June 5, 2012
  3. ↑ see entry at the German National Library
  4. ^ Entry in the author overview of the Rowohlt publishing house
personal data
SURNAME Blankenhorn, Fritz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German soldier, graphic artist and author
DATE OF BIRTH August 22, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Neuwied
DATE OF DEATH April 22, 2011