Langewiesche publishing house

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Langewiesche Successor publishing house (completely Karl Robert Langewiesche successor Hans Köster Verlagsbuchhandlung KG ) is one of the oldest independent publishers in Germany , based in Königstein im Taunus in the Hochtaunus district in Hesse .

This publisher should not be confused with the one that Wilhelm Langewiesche , the brother of the publisher's founder, Karl Robert Langewiesche , founded in 1906 under the name Langewiesche-Brandt.

history

Karl Robert Langewiesche (1874–1931) founded his publishing house on May 5, 1902 in Düsseldorf with the aim of producing “elegant mass-produced items at the lowest prices” in order to “target the broad masses, those who are called the uneducated, through mine To serve work ”. This concept quickly became successful, not least thanks to Langewiesche's progressive marketing methods (he is considered to be the inventor of the shop window poster for books and the "advertising dust jacket" with advertising text on the cover).

Initially, his books were devoted to the topics of lifestyle and worldview. In 1907 he created the group of art books and photo books, for which in 1907 he developed the new type of cheap, high-quality illustrated book. From 1909 he used the brand name Die Blauen Bücher after his books had been equipped with blue dust jackets since 1902, on which - in 1902, a novelty in the industry - advertising texts were printed. Karl Köster shaped the appearance of this popular series through a classically dignified design that conveyed a high standard and corresponded to the goals of the Deutscher Werkbund ; Köster worked as a book designer for the publishing house from 1911 to 1958.

In 1913 Langewiesche moved to Königstein im Taunus . On the 25th anniversary of the publishing house in 1927, he founded the even cheaper book series Der Eiserne Hammer (renamed Langewiesche Bücherei in 1949 ) with red dust jackets under the motto "Das Gute für Alle" .

After the founder's death in 1931, the publishing house was continued by his widow, Stefanie Langewiesche (1878–1956), assisted by Hans Köster (1902–1996), who had been with the publishing house since 1927. In 1954 he became a co-owner and designated successor. In 1973, Hans Köster handed the publishing house over to his eldest son, Hans-Curt Köster (* 1939), but was responsible for the series of building monographs he had built up until 1986.

Since 1971, Langewiesche-Königstein has also published art books outside of the two series Die Blauen Bücher and Langewiesche Bücherei , mostly in international co-editions, as well as from 1976 mural calendars with pictures by the Swedish painter Carl Larsson (1853-1919).

Thanks to its fully preserved archive, the publisher has repeatedly been the subject of scientific studies. On the occasion of its 100th anniversary in 2002, the publishing house published its complete publishing history (including the inglorious period of National Socialism ).

program

The thematic focus since 1960 has been exclusively art and related areas such as architecture, design, photography, history and cultural history.

literature

  • Cecilia Lengefeld: The painter of the happy home. To Carl Larsson's reception in Wilhelmine Germany . Heidelberg 1993.
  • Rosemarie Wesp: The Author and His Producer - The Story of Four Blue Books. in: Gerd Kuhn (Ed.): KonTEXTe. Walter Müller-Wulckow and German architecture from 1900–1930 . Langewiesche, Königstein im Taunus 1999, pp. 13–46, ISBN 3-7845-8042-4 .
  • Gabriele Klempert: The World of the Beautiful - A Hundred Years of Publishing History in Germany: The Blue Books 1902–2002 (with a bibliography 1902–2002). Langewiesche, Königstein im Taunus 2002, 252 p., 268 b / w illustrations, 21 × 14.8 cm, paperback, ISBN 3-7845-3570-4 .
  • Michael Ponstingl: Heimatschutz and art education: the illustrated book series of the publishing house Karl Robert Langewiesche (1904-1960) . in: Monika Faber, Klaus Albrecht Schröder (eds.): The eye and the apparatus. A history of photography from the Albertina collections . Éditions du Seuil, Paris / Albertina, Vienna 2003, pp. 202–223, ISBN 2-02-060452-3 .
  • Michael Ponstingl: The Langewiesche-Verlag - scenes from an archive . in: Newsletter photography. Collect - preserve - develop - mediate . 10, No. 2 (NF 38), June 15, 2003, pp. 28-35.
  • Michael Ponstingl: Re / Touché, Mr. Langewiesche! in: Photo history. Contributions to the history and aesthetics of photography . Vol. 25, Issue 98, 2005, pp. 93-96.
  • Katrin Völkner: Culture-Consumption and Consumer-Culture. Karl Robert Langewiesche's non-fiction book series “The Blue Books” at the beginning of the 20th century . in: Andy Hahnemann, David Oels (eds.): Non-fiction and popular knowledge in the 20th century. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main et al. 2008, pp. 137–147, ISBN 978-3-631-56132-4 .
  • Britta Fritze: The Blue Books. A national architecture biography? , Berlin (Lukas Verlag) 2014 (including Diss. Techn. Univ. Darmstadt 2012, university code number D17), ISBN 978-3-86732-181-5 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sandra Conradt: The "Blue Books" and the "Iron Hammer" . Göttingen 1999; Gabriele Klempert: The world of the beautiful , Königstein i. Ts. 2002

Web links