Helmut Matheis

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Hans Helmut Matheis (born November 21, 1917 in Speyer ; † March 1, 2021 in Aschau im Chiemgau ) was a German typographer , calligrapher and graphic artist .

Life

Matheis initially lived with his mother in Ludwigshafen . In 1932 he moved to Ulm , where Matheis met Hans Scholl , the co-founder of the White Rose resistance group, at grammar school .

After graduating from high school in 1937, Matheis did six months of labor service and two years of military service . In 1941 he began studying at the Academy for Applied Arts in Munich . In 1942 he was drafted into the war and sent to the Eastern Front . After being wounded in the hand, he was able to return home and continue studying in 1943. After completing his studies, Matheis worked for various advertising agencies .

After the war he started his own business as a graphic artist. As part of one of his first major commissions, he designed the German sports badge . Matheis has designed countless greeting and greeting cards as well as event posters over the years. As a typographer he worked for the type foundry Ludwig und Mayer in Frankfurt , for which he designed the fonts Charme , Slogan and Primadonna . They were later digitized and are still widely used today. From 1970 onwards, Matheis largely turned away from typography due to the advancing digitization and devoted himself primarily to painting and free graphics. After many years near Munich , Matheis lived in Bad Bergzabern . In 2019 he suffered a broken leg and then moved to a retirement home in Aschau im Chiemgau, where he died on March 1, 2021.

At 103 years old (2020), Matheis was one of the oldest living type artists in Germany and Europe. In the spring of 2019, the Foundation for Writing Culture in Homburg dedicated an exhibition to Matheis and the artist Gudrun Zapf-von Hesse (1918–2019), who was also over 100 years old at the time, under the motto “One Century - Two Type Artists ”.

Exhibitions (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hans Helmut Matheis. (pdf; 741 kB) In: klingspor-museum.de . July 18, 2016, accessed March 29, 2021 .
  2. ↑ a b Vera Allmann-Stübinger :? Hans Scholl as a school friend. In: The Rhine Palatinate. November 21, 2018, accessed March 30, 2021 .
  3. ↑ a b Heiner Müller: "Anyone who does not know how to write believes that it would not be work." A homage to the oldest still living type artist in Germany. (pdf; 4.3 MB) In: Rundbrief 3. Stiftung Schriftkultur eV, July 19, 2018, pp. 14–15 , accessed on March 30, 2021 .
  4. ↑ a b c The art of beautiful writing. In: Pfalz-Echo . December 3, 2017, accessed April 13, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Helmut Matheis: 70 years of font design with charm and esprit. In: A Century - Two Type Artists. Catalog of the Writing Culture Foundation at Gut Königsbruch in Homburg 2019, pp. 33–35.
  6. ↑ Florian Hardwig: Happy 100th birthday, Helmut Matheis! In: fustandfriends.com. Accessed March 29, 2021 .
  7. ^ Foundation of Writing Culture. In: Schriftkultur.eu. March 27, 2021, accessed March 30, 2021 (with photos by Helmut Matheis).
  8. ↑ a b Seven decades of font design with charm. In: Saarbrücker Zeitung . April 12, 2019, p. C4 , accessed April 13, 2019 .
  9. ↑ Font design with charm. In: wochenspiegelonline.de . April 12, 2019, archived from the original on April 13, 2019 ; accessed on March 29, 2021 . Seven decades of typeface design with charm and esprit. In: homburg1.de. April 12, 2019, accessed April 13, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Matheis, Helmut
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Matheis, Hans Helmut (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German typographer, calligrapher and graphic artist
DATE OF BIRTH November 21, 1917
PLACE OF BIRTH Speyer
DATE OF DEATH March 1, 2021
PLACE OF DEATH Aschau im Chiemgau