There would, for example, have been enough evidence of this "cultural bol
shevism" within the pages of Die neue Typographie, if the new authorities
had chosen to look through its pages. And in his case. as already indicated.
perhaps unremarkable socially progressive modernist views had been
coloured by a specific affiliation to Slavic culture. Tschichold was held for
about six weeks. during which time he was dismissed from his post at the
Meisterschule. The conditions of detention were lenient enough for him to
design a book-birrding for the lnsei-Verlag, before being released under a
general amnesty of such prisoners. Jan and Edith Tschichold, with their
young son. then immed iately made plans to emigrate to Switzerland.
Tschichold secured a part-time job with the printer and publisher Benno
Schwabe at Basel, and some teaching work at the Gewerbeschule there.
and moved with his wife and child in July 1933.
Since the late 1920s, Tschichold's typography had begun to show a greater
subtlety and sophistication: a development that was continued and accen
tuated in his first years in Switzerland. The prime document from this
period was his book Typographische Gestaltung, published in Basel by
Schwabe (1935). and in foreign-language editions: Danish. Swedish (both
1937). and Dutch (1938). 57 The book follows the structure of Die neue
Typographie: a historical review. a statement of the aims of New
Typography, and then detailed consideration of the elements of typography,
ending with a section on "the new book." But the language is more consid
ered, with much less invocation of the "spirit of the time" and with more
emphasis on the details of typographic design. This commitment to details
- always present in his work - would have been helped in its development
through his experience with the printer-publisher Schwabe, where the
work would have encompassed editorial, printing-technical, and design
considerations.58 The shift away from ideological argument can be seen as
a response to "the times," which were indeed very bad. The political storms
and ruptures had. as one small side effect, destroyed the confidence with
which Tschichold could publish lists of like-minded designers in Europe:
their addresses had now changed or were uncertain and contact with them
had ceased. The New Typography as a "movement" had come to an end.
Tschichold was unusual among emigres from Germany in the way in which
he was (after some years of insecurity) able to settle and integrate into
Swiss society: in 1942, he was granted citizen's rights in Basel; and it was
remarked that he learned to speak flawless Swiss-German dialect.59 The
trauma of 1933, the slide of world politics towards war. the new context of
a politically neutral and culturally more stable society, his growing and
eventually almost exclusive concentration on book design: these are among
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