Raven press

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Rabenpresse was the name of the publisher, founded in 1926 by Victor Otto Stomps and Hans Gebser (who later became known as a philosopher in Switzerland under the name of Jean Gebser ) in Berlin together with the Stomps & Gebser printing company . Book and Art Print - Publishing House was founded. At the beginning of the Nazi era, it offered a certain amount of freedom for some authors who were disliked by those in power.

In contrast to the established large publishers, the Rabenpresse concentrated on the small form and produced small editions with high quality craftsmanship. She turned particularly to the poetry and first works of young authors.

Prehistory and beginnings

The publishing history began in 1926 with the publication of the magazine Der Fischzug . Stomps also published his own works in the Rabenpresse, for example the volume of poems Von Sternen in 1926, and Four Poems in 1928 and Die neue Dinge in 1929 .

Literary magazines

In 1926 the literary magazine Der Fischzug appeared in the Rabenpresse , which was edited by Stomps and Eberhard Heinatsch under the editorship of Walther G. Oschilewski and was discontinued after five issues. In the same year Heinatsch published the tragedy Sword Over Golgotha in the Rabenpresse .

In 1931 Signal magazine (1929–1932) appeared in the Rabenpresse for three months.

In 1932 Stomps founded a new literary magazine, The White Raven , which was published in the Rabenpresse until it was discontinued in early 1934. Poems by Gertrud Kolmar , Peter Huchel , Günter Eich , Hermann Kasack , Paul Zech , and Georg Zemke were published there .

Upswing in publishing production

The actual publishing of the Rabenpresse did not begin until 1932, by then the publisher had only published nine books.

Many of the works that appeared in the Rabenpresse were by expressionist authors. As a publisher, Stomps saw his role model in Alfred Richard Meyer , known as "Munkepunke", who had promoted expressionist poetry in particular in his own publishing houses and magazines since 1907. Meyer's work Munkepunkes fifty foolish virgins appeared in the Rabenpresse, another example is Terzinen for Thino by Paul Zech , whereby with Thino Else Lasker-Schüler is meant. Overall, however, the publisher was not committed to any particular literary tendency.

The particularly neat external appearance of the editions of the Rabenpresse also included the fact that most of the volumes were provided with illustrations or at least a title drawing by some well-known artists who made them available free of charge. For Oschilewskis song of the star turned Frans Masereel a woodcut ago, Hannah Hoch provided illustrations to bill Minced 1935 by Til Brugmann, her partner for many years. In 1933 Horst Lange's narrative Die tormented appeared with original woodcuts by his friend, the Silesian sculptor Joachim Karsch , and in 1936 Alfred Kubin contributed the title drawing to Stomps' fable of Paul and Maria .

Stomps also liked to experiment with fonts and other typographic elements, for example with unusual types of paper. For example, he printed a special edition of Zechs Terzinen for Thino on handmade paper, and the two numbers in the series Das Mundtuch even on napkin paper, true to the title.

The first books by the writer Werner Helwig were also published by him ( The Etna Ballade 1934 and Nordsüdliche Hymnen 1935).

Growing problems from the mid-30s

In Germany during the time of National Socialism , the publishing house was of particular importance in the Berlin literary scene, as it was initially able to offer limited freedom. Stomps did not conform to the tastes of those in power and did not care whether the works of his authors had already fallen victim to the book burns .

Since 1931 the Rabenpresse organized regular reading evenings with authors like Horst Lange, whose novel Ulanenpatrouille was later to be banned by the National Socialists , Hermann Kasack , Oskar Loerke , Paul Zech , Werner Bergengruen , Herbert Fritsche , George A. Goldschlag, AN Stenzel, Max Herrmann- Neisse and many others. These events were a thorn in the side of the National Socialists and a reason for the increasing pressure they exerted on the raven press.

In 1933, the story Die Gepeinigte was published, followed by another text by Horst Lange in 1935, and in 1934 the volume of poems Preussische Wappen by the Jew Gertrud Kolmar , who was murdered by the National Socialists in 1943.

The financial situation of the Rabenpresse was always precarious, even after the very successful publication in 1934 of Lisa Heise's letters to RM Rilke , whose first edition of one thousand copies was well above the three to five hundred normal for the Rabenpresse. In May 1937, Stomps had to sell the publisher under pressure from the National Socialists and for financial reasons. By this time, 112 books had appeared in the Rabenpresse. The publishing house was continued by Ernst Winkler until the end of the Second World War . These books no longer have the angular Rabenpressensignet, but an italic R in a circle. Victor Otto Stomps still produced private prints until 1943, such as two small publications by Oskar Loerke in 1938 and 1939.

exhibition

2008 Rabenpresse books from the collection of Hendrik Liersch in the Johannes a Lasco library in Emden. Exhibition on the occasion of the 111th birthday of Victor Otto Stomps.

literature

Web links

Commons : Rabenpresse  - Collection of images, videos and audio files