Graphic Design in Germany 1890 – 1945 Print, Power, Persuasion
Jeremy Aynsley
Forms Applied Art to Graphic Design “Commercial Graphics, this is a collective term, which fifteen years ago did not exist, although what it describes is ancient. That a particular gr German printing as a National Culture ‘Germany”, it should be remembered, was a termused to define a cultural and linguistic area long before it signified a nation-state. In its former meaning, Germany or the German-speaking realm (deutschsprachigen Raum), was applied at different times from the 15th centuryonwards to parts of Bohemia, France, Poland, the Netherlands, Austo-Hungary, Luxembourg, Schleswig, and Switzerland, as well as that land actually recognized as Germany. 2 In
1871, at the end of the Franco-Prussian War, a group of independent states was unified in the Second German Empire under the King of Prussia which, with some boundary redefinitions caused by war and reparations, lasted until 1945. oup of of this kind of graphic achievements has been pushed to the foreground of interest has to do with the expansion of the whole of economic and commercial life, with the enormous growth in power of industry and factors which determine the face of politics and culture even more than ever today.” 1 F. H. Ehmcke When graphic design emerged as a profession in the early 20th century, Germany was at the • F. H. Ehmcke, from the article ‘Deutsche Gebrauchsgraphik’, originally in Klimschs Jahrbuch, Frankfurt am Main, 1927 and reprinted in the anthology edited by Ehmcke Persönliches und Sachliches (1928)
vanguard. The country’s rapid industrialization accompanied an explosion in the printing arts with the rise of masscirculation advertising, magazines and packaging design. During this period which witnessed extreme political developments, graphic arts became a powerful component of everyday life, transforming the war business and government communicated with more than fifty posters and a selection of books and other printed materials, curated by Jeremy Aynsley of the Royal College of Art and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. This exhibition is organized by the Wolfsonian-Florida International University, Miami Beach, Florida; in conjunction with the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Museum of the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence.
Caption: Em et harum ipsam qui simus doluptam inctem. Ut lam nonsequam harumquia simil ma
Division of Labor and New Names The derivation of the term ‘graphic design’ is usually attributed to the American designer William Addison Dwiggins, who first used it in 1922. Dwiggins was distinguishing three categories when he adopted the terms fine art printing, utilitarian printing, and printing for purpose. It was the latter that he called ‘graphic design’. 2 3 In the USA, this was to become a generic term covering letter design, typography, book design, design for packaging, printed ephemera, posters, and press advertisements. A large and unwieldy category, the activities of graphic design were importantly distinguished from the longer-standing tradition of book typography which had an established
• Ellen Mazur Thompson, The Origins of Graphic Design in America, 1870–1920, Yale University Press, 1997
history by this time. By contrast, graphic design was regarded as emerging with the formation of mass-circulation magazines, advertising, and modern retail distribution, and was largely overlooked as a topic for serious study. Significantly, the traditional terms for design for print in the German language were those of the fine arts, as it was deemed to arise from academic rather than from business spheres. This was most obviously signalled by the predominant use of the word artist, as in Schriftkünstler, letter artist, Buchkünstler, book artist, Plakatkünstler, poster artist, and Reklamekünstler, advertising artist. While all under the umbrella
of ‘artist’, these various kinds of activity had different roots. Whereas the letter artist had worked for type foundries, originating or revising letterforms for typefaces, since the 15th century, book artists were a more recent devlopment. the term was used to describe someone with responsibility to a printer or publisher for making harmonious arrangements of type, page layout, choice of papers and bindings, as well as illustrations or decorations. Generally book artists were trained at the art academies. If the emphasis of these first two kinds of designer was towards publication, the next figures in the gradual specialization were poster and adverisingartists, who took on work for commercial publicity and exhibitions as well. They, too, would largely come from the art schools. By the
1920s all the assembled activities could be subsumed under the more general heading of commercial graphic design, Gebrauchsgraphik.
Caption: Em et harum ipsam qui simus doluptam inctem. Ut lam nonsequam harumquia simil ma
German printing as a National Culture “Germany”, it should be remembered, was a termused to define a cultural and linguistic area long before it signified a nation-state. In its former meaning, Germany or the German-speaking realm (deutschsprachigen Raum), was applied at different times from the 15th centuryonwards to parts of Bohemia, France, Poland, the Netherlands, AustoHungary, Luxembourg, Schleswig, and Switzerland, as well as that land actually recognized as Germany. 3 In 1871, at the end of the Franco-Prussian War, a group of independent states was unified in the Second German Empire under the King of Prussia which, with
• Gordon Craig, Germany 1866–1945, Oxford University Press, 1997
some boundary redefinitions caused by war and reparations, lasted until 1945. In the world of printing, German foundries, printers, and publishers could claim a prominent place. Indeed, the invention of printing with moveable types cast from matrices was attributed to a Mainz goldsmith, Johann Genzfleisch zum Gutenberg. Although Gutenberg actually began the experiment while in exile in Strasbourg, the printing press was intimately associated with the German-language tradition in common lore as well as in professionals’ eyes. Moreover, its cultural form was distinctive, and the Fraktur or broken-letter
script, as used for Gutenberg’s 42-line Bible, became the tradition within these parts of Central Europe. In the 20th century, a period of political extremes and wilful desire to claim ‘national’ styles, the association of typeface with a national style was no simple matter. In the broad scheme of historical development there has been a tendency to reagard print cultureas a consistently internationalizing process, fulfilled in the late 20th century by techniques and styles of graphic design becoming homogeneous. Commentaries following Marshall McLuhan’s influential ideas about the globalization of communications, for example, often stress how a shared and consistent communication is made available through technology. 5 At the turn of the 19th century, however, print and publishing traditions
were still strongly regional or national. Cities had particular identities that determined their graphic and typographic cultures. Distinctions could depend on the use of indigenous materials or skills — for instance, local manufacturers’ customs—as well as educational and cultural traditions. The original states of Germany retained many of their regional identities with frequent mutual hostility, as was most articulately expressed in the historical antagonism between Bavaria and Prussia, and their respective capital cities Munich and Berlin, for much of the late 19th and 20th centuries. ERic Hobsbawm has shown how a nation is formed as much by cultural and linguistic tradition as by state political, administrative, and economic foundations, an intricate balance between super stucture and infrastructure. 6 The emerg-
Related Events
Thursday 17 February, 2011 5:00–9:00 pm Exibition Opening Gund Gallery Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 6:30 PM Slide Lecture Remis Auditorium Jeremy Aynsley, Royal College of Art, and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, co-curator of this exhibition, discusses the development of early 20th-century German graphic design. A brief tour of the show follows.
Tuesday 15 March 2011 7:00 pm Design in Motion: German Film of the the 1920s and 1930s Pandora’s Box The second film in the Design in Motion series— G.W. Pabst’s best-known movie (1929)—stars Louise Brooks as a notorious femme fatal personifying all the fears about the New Woman. Clare Rogan of the Rhode Island School of Design Museum’s Department of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs introduces the film. This program has been supported by the Goethe-Institut Boston. RemisAuditorium Tuseday March 8, 2011 7:30 pm Design in Motion: German Film of the 1920s and 1930s Berlin: Symphony of a City. In conjunction with the exhibition, the Museum presents four films exemplifying the visual advances, graphic qualities and historical aspects of German movies between the wars.The first is a breakthrough documentary of 1927, directed by Walter Ruttman. Ruttman uses montage techniques to depict the abstract rhythms of the big city. Karl Schoonover, Department of Contemporary Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and Martin Marks, Department of Music and Theater Arts, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, introduce the silent film, which is accompanied live on piano by Marks. This program has been supported by the Goethe-Institut Boston. Remis Auditorium
Thursday 24 March 2011 6:30 pm Remis Auditorium German Graphic Design in Context Douglass Scott, Graphic Design Historian from Northeastern University, Rhode Island School of Design, and Yale University, will give a slide talk on the exhibition “Print, Power, Persuasion: Graphic Design in Germany 1890–1945.” He will discuss how the works in the exhibition reflect the economic, social, and political issues of the period. Following the lecture, there will be a brief tour of the exhibition. Wednesday 13 April 2011 7:00 PM Design in Motion: German Film of the 1920s and 1930s Olympia Part I: Festival of the People. Part II: Festival of Beauty. Take advantage of this rare opportunity to see the entire Olympia (1938), Leni Riefenstahl’s monumental documentary of the 1936 Olympic Games – a great technical achievement and celebration of the human body that was used in the service of National Socialist propaganda. Duncan Smith, German Studies, Brown University, introduces the film. This program has been supported by the Goethe-Insitut Boston.
Il impos qui ipsaepudicid qui doluptaspit ellitis et experes enimus eum et omnimil lisquo et quassimod quam, num sit autem quae volesenimus cum reperuptati utem harciur re ipsunti iscide nus aceatiam que net intio. Itatur aut aut ex estrum id qui simo qui quod quod ut exceped moluptat odit dolo evelic tenimpost faccus dolliciae ยง
Malak Garoot