Rommel & Jonas

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Typically numbered cabinet photo with the surrounding red border, here series " Hannover ", serial number "3., Die Georgstraße ";
Römler & Jonas, royal Saxon court photographer , around 1880

Founded in 1871 "Art Print Institute Römmler & Jonas " was a publishing house in Dresden , connected with its light - and book - printing in particular by its architectural photographs became known. The company specialized in the production of cityscapes , which it had systematically photographed by its own operators in every major city and then sold mostly in cabinet format via paper, book and art print shops. In addition, numbered postcards with photos of European cities such as Ljubljana were issued, as well as so-called artist postcards such as those of the painter Carl Wuttke with motifs from Egypt .

history

prehistory

Emil Römmler (1842–1941), son of a photographer in Chemnitz , had registered his own photo studio in Dresden in 1861 . After hearing about the albertotype , the application of a new method of reproduction for photographs, he developed a new business idea. Even before the founding of the German Empire , Römmler obtained intensive information about the new technology and then received practical training in Munich , directly from the "inventor" of the albertotype, Joseph Albert .

Back in Dresden, Emil Römmler first looked for financial support and soon found it in the accountant Leopold Erasmus Jonas (1839–?). In addition to Römmler's already existing studio, the two of them rented new premises together, initially at Pillnitzer Strasse 54 in the Pirnaische Vorstadt district , and in 1871 they founded the "Römmler & Jonas" art print establishment.

The German Imperium

Ernst Gieses "Villa Barteldes" in Blasewitz ,
published by the Dresden Architects' Association ,
collotype Römmler & Jonas, around 1875
Peterskirche Leipzig - cabinet photo, 1896
By light pressure reproduced: Portrait of Rudolf Baumbach in the book his tale summer fairy tale , in 1888

100,000 prints were made in the first year. After initial successes with the sale of photographs, new company and business premises in Neue Gasse 28 could be rented after a short time in 1873 . In 1877, the collotype company reproduced the drawings by Baron Otto Magnus von Stackelberg on the Greek Revolution under the title Pictures from the Lives of Modern Greece / From the Liberation of Greece from the Turkish Yoke ...

The rapid rise of Römmler & Jonas allowed only a few years later in 1879 to build their own business premises with adjoining apartment at Striesener space  10. In the same year Emil Römmler, photographer and managing the driving force of the company, the title as " Saxon royal court photographer " awarded.

During this time, numerous architectural photographs were taken: In addition to magnificently presented editions of Dresden, such as the Dresden Castle , the Green Vault and the Catholic Court Church , as well as numerous manors and castles in the Kingdom of Saxony, cities and landscapes in other countries were also taken. In addition, Römmler & Jonas distributed photo documentation from the excavations in Olympia as well as on many other topics.

The company also employed other photographers. James Aurig, for example, worked for the company before 1887, initially as a "wet plate operator". However, after Aurig had set up his own studio, he took photos, for example in Dresden and Berlin, at Emil Römmler's request and on behalf of the Römmler & Jonas collotype, and traveled to Holland , Belgium and Switzerland for further photos .

Around the 1880s, for example, around 50 photos were taken on printed passe-partouts from the Dresden publishing house in Hildesheim alone . As in many other cities, “ cultural monuments , town halls , churches , museums , theaters , schools and traffic systems , town houses , aristocratic palaces and romantic corners” were photographed. "Upon request, art dealers also put together series of images that they had bound in leporello form for their customers ."

In 1889, Römmler & Jonas established a large, modern company at Blasewitzer Strasse  27 in Johannstadt, with around 80 employees and 20 high-speed presses . The entrepreneur Emil Römmler still took photographs himself, but he has long acted as the “ protagonist of industrial mass production ”. When he wanted to open a branch in Trinitatisstrasse shortly before the turn of the century in 1899 , he had to register the trade of "a photographic art establishment and the manufacture of letterpress clichés " - still "only" registered with the city's trade office as a "photographer" .

The good relations Emil Römmlers and "his" light printing house to the city of Dresden to document the costs incurred from 1901 to 1903 folders with duplicated designs from the architectural competition for the new city hall under the title In the competition for the new town hall in Dresden award-winning and purchased designs in addition to the official Designing of the municipal building department / property of the city of Dresden / intended for the brothers of the municipal colleges ...

In 1909, Emil Römmler handed over management to his son Hans Römmler . The cranked in the following year 1910 the turnover of a company's product catalog under the title The color photography in the service of the postcard .

First World War to 1945

But the beautiful colorful world of the Empire should not persist for long: With the outbreak of World War Römmler & Jonas printed from 1914 Received reports from our in the field standing brave employees that have been published in 33 episodes until 1916 - and then ended.

According to the Johannstadtarchiv , the company also printed emergency notes during the First World War .

The productions in the Weimar Republic are characterized on the one hand by frequently heroic war memories such as the memory book of the Saxon Reserve-Ulanen-Schützen-Regiment No. 18 of Otto Max Deckwitz published in 1921 , on the other hand by social and very practical prints such as illustrations for the accident prevention regulations published in 1923 of the Saxon agricultural trade association .

Even before the seizure of power of the Nazis Römmler & Jonas printed a campaign poster for the general election in March 1933 , content: "We want a peace of honor! We don't want guns, we want equality. ... Adolf Hitler wants peace! Vote YES! Vote for the Fiihrer and his men for the Reichstag! ”Follow-up orders were not long in coming: After Die Großstadt Dresden / Statistisches Taschenbuch und Kalender , published by the Statistical Office of the state capital Dresden, had been produced in 1929 by the Dresden printing company von Zahn, received under the National Socialists Römmler & Jonas the bid to print the calendar.

During the air raids on Dresden on February 13, 1945, all of the company's factory buildings were destroyed.

post war period

In the young GDR , company property was expropriated , preserved machines and systems were dismantled and taken to the Soviet Union as reparations . The company ceased to exist. A packaging machine factory moved into the existing company building. In 1999 the building complex was demolished.

Employee

Postcards and Leporellos

The company was known to the general public through printed postcards. These were offered as city views in the form of a fan- fold. They had i. d. R. a red linen lid, the lid title in gold embossing with ample decoration and a size of 17 × 11.5 cm. The number of photographs used was 8, 12 or 20 pieces. It is not known / noted who the photographers of the individual photographs are.

Awards

  • Emil Römmler was awarded the title of court photographer by decree of the King of Saxony on June 24, 1875.
  • Merit medal for collotype at the world exhibition 1873 in Vienna (photography department)
  • Silver medal for collotype with special recognition of the excellence of the interior and architecture photographs made by Mr. Emil Römmler, as well as the perfect reproduction of them by collotype at the photographic exhibition of the Photographic Society in Vienna in 1875
  • Bronze medal at the 1st photographic exhibition in Brussels in 1875
  • Medal for quick-press collotype at the 1876 ​​World's Fair in Philadelphia
  • Second prize for Schnellpressen collotype at the exhibition of the reproducing arts in Nuremberg in 1877
  • Prize diploma at the arts and crafts exhibition in Munich in 1878

Secondary literature

literature

  • Siegfried Thiele: Emil Römmler: Court photographer and collotype printer . In: Lingner, Pfund & other Renner: well-known founders of Dresden companies . 1st edition. Publishing & Journalism Office, Dresden 2002, ISBN 978-3-9806990-2-0 , p. 118-121 .
  • Günter Voigt: Memoirs of a Royal Saxon Court Photographer , (Emil Römmler), Günter Voigt Edition, Dresden, 1996. ISBN 3-00-000844-6 .
  • NN: Reminder sheet for the 25th business anniversary of the Römmler & Jonas Dresden company . Art Institute for Collotype 1871–1896. 1896 ( slub-dresden.de ).
  • Tempered glass for collotype purposes . In: Eduard Hornig (Ed.): Photographische Correspondenz , 15th year, Verlag photographische Correspondenz, Vienna, 1878, pp. 90–91.

Web links

Commons : Römmler & Jonas  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Römmler & Jonas  - Sources and full texts
Wikisource: Photographic Correspondence  - Sources and Full Texts
  • Rommel and Jonas. In: Search / Query. DNB , accessed April 6, 2017 .
  • Jürgen Frohse, Dieter Fischer: Die Graphische Kunstanstalt Römmler & Jonas (excerpt). In: Calendar. Elbhang-Photo-Galerie, 2004, accessed on April 6, 2017 (full text in the calendar "Photography in Dresden - Römmler & Jonas").
  • Lars Herrmann: Römmler & Jonas. Lars Herrmann, accessed on April 6, 2017 (private website).
  • NN: Art Print Institute Römmler & Jonas. In: Johannstadt / Economy and Business. JohannStadtArchiv, accessed on April 10, 2017 .
  • Jürgen Frohse: Photography in Blasewitz - James Aurig. In: Monthly Calendar 2008. Elbhang Photo Gallery, accessed on April 10, 2017 (This text is a short version of the detailed biography of James Aurig by Jürgen Frohse and Dieter Fischer in the monthly calendar 2008 "Photograph in Loschwitz - James Aurig (1857-1935) “Of the Elbhang-Photo-Galerie Dresden.).
  • Illustrations
    • "Römmler & Jonas". In: Search / Query (Online Collection). Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, 2017, accessed on April 10, 2017 .
    • Rommel & Jonas. In: Postcards. tuepedia.de, accessed on April 10, 2017 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Die Graphische Kunstanstalt Römmler & Jonas (excerpt)
  2. ↑ a b Ludwig Hoerner : Photography is establishing itself . In: (Ed.) Photographers Guilds Hanover and Hildesheim: Photography and Photographers in Hanover and Hildesheim. Festschrift for the 150th birthday of photography, Berufsförderungswerk, Bad Pyrmont 1989, p. 79f.
  3. ↑ see for example this postcard postcard
  4. ↑ Example of an artist postcard from Carl Wuttke in the New York Public Library (see also the web links)
  5. ↑ An entry on Jonas, Leopold Erasmus - BIOGRAFIE. Franckesche Stiftungen zu Halle (Saale), July 23, 2015, accessed on April 6, 2017 . According to the entries in the address books of the city of Dresden, Jonas later acquired a stake in A. Leistner & Co., which temporarily ran a wallpaper manufacture and shop. 1904 was the last time there was an entry in the register of residents.
  6. ^ Vienna World Exhibition , Official Catalog of the Exhibition of the German Empire , Berlin, 1873, p. 440.
  7. ↑ a b c d e f List of the prints by Römmler & Jonas in the German National Library
  8. ↑ see, for example, the inscription on the right edge of this cabinet photo
  9. ↑ a b Jürgen Frohse: Photography in Blasewitz - James Aurig on photo.dresden.de
  10. ↑ a b Gertrud Bäcker: Römmler and Jonas on the JohannStadtArchiv c / o Verein Aktives Leben e. V.
  11. ^ Stadtgeschichtliches Museum Leipzig : Digitized version of the poster
  12. ^ Emil Hornig (Ed.): Photographische Correspondenz , 12th year, Vienna, 1875, p. 171 (Association and Personal News).
  13. ^ Emil Hornig (Ed.): Photographische Correspondenz , 10th year, Vienna, 1873, pp. 85ff. ( online ).
  14. ^ Emil Hornig (Ed.): Photographische Correspondenz , 12th year 1875, p. 159.
  15. ^ Emil Hornig (Ed.), Photographische Correspondenz , 12th year 1875, p. 204. Special reference to membership in the Photographischer Verein in Vienna.
  16. ↑ There is no specification in the article.
  17. ^ Emil Hornig (Ed.): Photographische Correspondenz , 13th year, Vienna, 1876, p. 231.
  18. ^ Emil Hornig (Ed.): Photographische Correspondenz , 14th year, Vienna, 1877, p. 265.
  19. ↑ Emil Hornig (Ed.): Photographische Correspondenz , 13th year, Vienna, 1876, p. 234.


Coordinates: 51 ° 3 ′ 10.9 ″  N , 13 ° 46 ′ 36.4 ″  E