Lux reading sheet

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The Lux reading sheets were a series of booklets for young people.

A few months after the end of World War II , the publisher Sebastian Lux received permission from the then military government to publish a series of booklets for young people. From 1946 to 1964, a total of 410 issues were published every fortnight for 18 years.

Sebastian Lux Publishing House

After the publishing house Sebastian Lux was bombed out in Munich in 1944 , he and his publishing house moved to Murnau , south of Munich. There he published a series of practical guides, a dictionary in 23 languages ​​and a five-language dictionary (German-English-French-Italian-Russian). Special publishing achievements were the forty-volume world history "Image of the Centuries" from the pen of the Munich historian Otto Zierer and the first technical and scientific journal in Germany " Orion ", which was distributed in 30 countries.

Concept of Lux Reading Sheet

Each of the 10.5 x 15 cm booklets, which are particularly handy for young people, dealt with a self-contained topic from different areas of the natural sciences and humanities. Each was 32 pages long, which corresponds to two print sheets. In the economically problematic post-war period, the decisive factor for success was the low price of 20, then 25 and finally 30 pfennigs. The print run was 30,000 to 60,000 copies per issue.

Authors

The authors of the individual issues were competent scientists, journalists, museum directors, artists and explorers. The knowledgeable editor Erich Lasswitz designed the technical features of the Frankfurter Zeitung before the Second World War .

Fritz Bolle , of the publisher Droemer Knaur had worked there and Johannes Mario Simmel , Peter Bamm and Jürgen Thorwald had cared for, was an author and lecturer important. The historian Otto Zierer wrote around 50 books . Another important personality, Karlheinz Dobsky, was responsible for the design of the booklet covers of almost all booklets. His modern, graphically fine designs certainly contributed to the success of the series.

Publication history

With a view to the intended readership, the first editions of the Lux reading sheets were called “Lux Youth Reading Sheets”. As it turned out that more and more adults were buying the booklets, they were renamed from booklet 45 to “Lux-Lesebogen”. Historical graphics were used for the first booklet covers, from booklet 63 onwards Karlheinz Dobsky created modern graphics that were perfectly coordinated with the topic of the booklet. What is striking about the first few issues is that even the text was printed in different colors. From issue 70 onwards, many issues were given a four-page white cover around the actual issue with the issue number as well as interesting news from nature and technology. After this series of booklets had quickly proven to be a collector's item and more and more reorders were received by the publisher, the out-of-print booklets began to be reprinted with a modern cover. For the more affluent clientele, they finally edited 15 volumes in normal book format of 600 pages, which were devoted to one topic. In addition, 24 single-topic Lux reading sheets were tied together with a colored plastic envelope.

Balance sheet

Within the first three years, the total circulation already reached four million issues. When the last issue of the Lux reading sheets appeared on March 15, 1964, the publisher had sold 25 million issues. The importance of this series of booklets for many young people in these years without a television or computer cannot be expressed in numbers. In any case, it was an invaluable contribution to re-teaching complex knowledge after the cultural vacuum of World War II.

literature

  • Michael Schekalla: 18 years “Lux-Lesebogen” 1946–1964. The visual appearance . August Dreesbach Verlag, Munich 2013. ISBN 978-3944334-02-8 .
  • Trödler , Das große Marktmagazin (GEMI Verlag, Reichertshausen), April 2008 edition, pp. 28–33.

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