Oskar Hermann Werner Hadank

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Oskar Hermann Werner Hadank, usually just OHW Hadank (born August 17, 1889 in Berlin , † May 17, 1965 in Hamburg ) was a German graphic artist and university professor.

life and work

  • Cigarette case for Haus Neuerburg with signature HADANK

  • Airmail stamp for Deutsche Reichspost

  • Body design for Horch Type 350

  • The book of tobacco with signature HDK 

Oskar Hermann Werner Hadank was the son of the Berlin goldsmith Oskar Oswald Hermann Hadank and his wife Elise Antonie Henriette Gubitz, a granddaughter of the art professor Friedrich Wilhelm Gubitz .

From 1905 to 1910 OHW Hadank studied commercial and commercial graphics with Emil Doepler at the teaching institute of the Berlin Museum of Applied Arts . After that he settled as a commercial artist settled in Berlin and designed primarily packaging , posters , logos and signets . In doing so, he developed his own, unmistakable language of form and imagery, which is primarily based on the heraldic vocabulary learned from Doepler. Hadank's works are often recognizable by the abbreviation HDK, which is integrated into the design .

Already during his training in 1908 Hadank had the highly successful word and figurative brands for the newly founded cigarette factory Haus Neuerburg and its trademarks , including B. Overstolz developed. Haus Neuerburg developed into Germany's top-selling tobacco company and remained Hadank's most important customer until it merged with Reemtsma in 1935. In addition to numerous work for Neuerburg brands such as Eckstein , Waldorf-Astoria , Ravenklau and Manengold , Hadank also worked for other leading German companies such as the Stollwerck food company and J. Langenbach Sektkellerei. He designed a series of airmail postage stamps, and for the Horchwerke in Zwickau he even made an appearance as an automobile designer in 1928 , taking on the development and design of the body for the upper-class model Horch 8 (16/80 hp type 350).

In 1919 OHW Hadank was one of the founding members of the Bund Deutscher Graphiker (BDG) , the first organization of this professional group in Germany, and was its president until 1924 and then from 1930 to 1933. In the same year he was appointed professor by Bruno Paul at the United State Schools for Free and Applied Arts , where he headed the department for commercial and commercial graphics until 1945. Hadank was able to work unhindered during the Nazi era . On the occasion of his fiftieth birthday in 1939, the magazine Nutzgraphik dedicated a special edition to him. After the war, Hadank lived and worked in Hamburg from 1950, where he died in 1965.

Because of his heraldic, traditionally handcrafted style, OHW Hadank was not a significant innovator, so that he is hardly mentioned in works of design history. Even though some of his trademarks ( Julius Langenbach , Eckstein , Overstolz and many more) have been used largely unchanged to this day, their creator has been forgotten.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cudell, Robert: The book of tobacco with illustrations by John Kissner. Cover design by OHW Hadank. Cologne, Neuerburg House 1927
  2. ^ Werner Oswald : All Horch automobiles 1900–1945. 1st edition, Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1979, ISBN 3-87943-622-3 , p. 24
  3. ^ Buchta, Wolfgang M .: Horch Automobile. In: Austro Classic - The Austrian magazine for the history of technology , issue 5/2013

literature

  • Art! Commerce! Visions! - German posters 1888-1933 . Exhibition catalog. Berlin, German Historical Museum 1992
  • Schubert, Walter F .: The German advertising graphics. Berlin, Francken & Lang 1927

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Hadank, Oskar Hermann Werner
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hadank, OHW (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German graphic artist and teacher
DATE OF BIRTH 17th August 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH May 17, 1965
Place of death Hamburg