Walter L. Strauss

Walter Leopold Strauss (born April 23, 1922 in Nuremberg , † January 14, 1988 in New York ) was an American art historian , entrepreneur and publisher of German origin.

Walter L. Strauss grew up as the son of the businessman Justin Strauss (1881–1935) in Nuremberg, where his father ran a toy factory under the company name Saalheimer & Strauss . After the introduction of the Nuremberg Race Laws , the young Walter L. Strauss was forced to leave Germany due to his Jewish origins and emigrated to the USA in 1936 . Strauss graduated from school near New York in 1938. In 1942 he finished his training as a chemical engineer. During the Second World War Strauss worked in the intelligence service of the US Army . After the end of the war, Strauss began an academic education at the New School for Social Research in New York. However, his further professional career initially developed in line with family tradition, because since the 1950s he had been running a company for international toy wholesaling based in New York with extensive business relationships. In the 1970s, the now renowned toy entrepreneur broke new entrepreneurial territory and founded the Abaris Books publishing house specializing in art history publications. This publisher published the catalogs of works by Strauss of Albrecht Dürer's drawings ( The Complete Drawings of Albrecht Dürer , 1974) and other art historical reference works. The largest company of his publishing house consists of the publication of the multi-volume printed graphic corpus work The Illustrated Bartsch , which has been published since 1978 and is projected to be 174 volumes.

Fonts (selection)

• The human figure. The Complete "Dresden Sketchbook" , edited by Walter L. Strauss, Dover, New York 1972
• The Complete Drawings of Albrecht Dürer , Abaris Books, New York 1974
• The German Single-Leaf Woodcut 1500–1550 , revised and edited by Walter L. Strauss, Abaris Books, New York 1974 ff.

credentials

• Biographical summary of Thomas Eser (PDF)