Franz Greno

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Franz Greno (born September 4, 1948 in Munich ) is a German book designer and publisher . Greno published artistically designed books in his publishing house. With the book series Die Andere Bibliothek and Die Krater-Bibliothek he combined material and literature at the highest level.

Life

Franz Greno completed an apprenticeship as a typesetter at Georg Thieme Verlag in Stuttgart and at Wagenbach Verlag in West Berlin . He then worked in the production department of S. Fischer Verlag in Frankfurt am Main. From 1975 Greno worked for the left-wing alternative Frankfurter Verlag Zweiausendeins and was responsible for the production of the books and the “Merkheft” catalog for almost ten years. One of his most important works during this period was the furnishing of the Haidnian Antiquities series published by Hans-Michael Bock . Literature of the 18th and 19th centuries .

In autumn 1984 he went into business for himself and founded his own publishing house in Nördlingen . Greno acquired the Wagner printing company in Nördlingen with a printer's workshop consisting of seven old monotype typesetting machines with lead type and two casting machines for the production of lead letters.

Greno realized a manufactory production for the purpose of the highest possible quality in book design and thus deliberately opposed the structural change in the printing industry during the 1980s, when mechanical machine typesetting was replaced by electronic typesetting ( computer typesetting ). Of closed print shops he bought little by an extensive collection of old and rare printers' type, so that its printing plant at that time the largest Offizin Europe was. Like- minded bibliophiles like the bookseller Uwe Gruhle supported him in his ambitious projects.

Greno was also able to rely on the collaboration of well-known writers and publicists as an editor. Petra and Uwe Nettelbeck edited the first edition of all of Karl Philipp Moritz's works, Hans Wollschläger did this for Karl May , Karl Heinz Roth selected political books, Henryk Broder and Hilde Recher were responsible for the Jewish library and Jan Philipp Reemtsma edited the works of Christoph Martin Wieland . The writer Hans Magnus Enzensberger , who went to school in Nördlingen , acted as literary advisor for the exclusive book series Die Andere Bibliothek . Since the production of a book of this edition took about a month, the publisher published a volume selected by Enzensberger every month. He was able to sell between 20,000 and 50,000 copies of each title in the Other Library . However, the lead printing blocks only lasted an average of around 35,000 books.

After the first economic difficulties, on July 1, 1987 the company was legally separated into the "Franz Greno's workshop" (23 typesetters and book printers) and the "Greno Verlag" (20 employees). Greno reduced the range of paperbacks and illustrated books and deleted the lavishly produced magazine as a free accompanying volume for the editions of the Other Library . Nevertheless, there was a new company crisis as early as the next year. At the beginning of 1989 Greno separated its business areas again, this time into a main and a paperback publisher. But instead of saving, he continued to focus on expansion; for example, he wanted to open up Soviet books for the Western European market. Then the rising costs of the many projects forced an extensive dissolution of his publishing house. He also bought two inexpensive sheet-fed offset printing machines (made by Koenig & Bauer ), which could be used to print far more cheaply.

At the beginning of 1997 Greno switched the set from lead matrices to light typesetting , as this now “exceeded the standard of the best lead typesetting”. He sold metal typesetting and typesetting machines to his employees and also gave some of his resources to the Deutsches Museum in Munich.

In October 1989 Vito von Eichborn , at that time still co-owner of Eichborn Verlag , took over Greno's edition Die Andere Bibliothek and continued to print it with him. Enzensberger remained editor of this series until 2004. After he and Greno celebrated the publication of the joint Alexander von Humboldt edition in Berlin in September 2004 , shortly before Christmas 2004 he announced his departure from the project by email to authors, employees and the publishing house. A continuation of the other library with the participation of the publisher of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung could be forbidden by the Eichborn Verlag, this edition is now being designed without Enzensberger's cooperation.

After closing his publishing house, Greno worked as a freelance book designer who developed book ideas for publishers “from the book concept to the entire layout”.

In 1989 Franz Greno left Nördlingen. He is second married and lives in Fraterosa near Urbino in an old farmhouse. His first marriage was his daughter Tina, who runs the Greno bookshop in Nördlingen, and his son Nicolas, who runs the Greno bookstore in Donauwörth .

Awards

  • Greno's books have often received awards from the Book Art Foundation in the “The Most Beautiful German Books” competition.
  • 1985: “Publisher of the Year” from the trade magazine BuchMarkt

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Peter Unfried : I sit on the bank of a river and wait. In: taz , December 23, 2006, interview with two thousand and one founder Lutz Kroth .
  2. ↑ Bernhard Hampp: From "Prayer Against the Turk" to the beer label. An exhibition shows the products of Nördlingen printing works from six centuries. ( Memento from April 29, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ). In: Schwäbische Zeitung , March 22, 2013.
  3. ↑ Time mosaic. The completely different luxury. In: Die Zeit , No. 50, December 7, 1984.
  4. ↑ a b c d Rolf Michaelis : Icarus - landed. ( Memento of March 11, 2016 in the Internet Archive ). In: Die Zeit , No. 30, July 17, 1987.
  5. ↑ Died: Uwe Gruhle . In: Der Spiegel . No. 6 , 1999, p. , 226 ( online - Feb. 8, 1999 ).
  6. ↑ a b Eichborn Verlag : The Other Library - a review of 20 years. ( Memento from January 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  7. ↑ Rolf Michaelis : The beautiful dream stays true. ( Memento from March 1, 2015 in the Internet Archive ). In: Die Zeit , No. 41, October 6, 1989; Conversation with Vito von Eichborn, Hans Magnus Enzensberger and Franz Greno.
  8. ↑ Kick-off events for the Humboldt Project. ( Memento from October 19, 2007 in the web archive archive.today ). In: Humboldt Portal , September 14, 2004.
  9. ↑ Marius Meller: With spirit and enjoyment. Enzensberger wants to discontinue the "other library". Too early for an obituary . In: Tagesspiegel , December 22, 2004.
  10. ↑ Completely different library. The double Enzensberger. In: Spiegel Online , May 14, 2005.
  11. ↑ hoc / dpa : “Other library” will be continued. In: Spiegel Online , September 19, 2006.
  12. ↑ a b RN: Franz Greno: Traditionalist who loves progress. In: Augsburger Allgemeine , October 2, 2010, interview with Greno.
personal data
SURNAME Greno, Franz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German book designer and publisher
DATE OF BIRTH September 4, 1948
PLACE OF BIRTH Munich