Neue Jugend
John HeartfieldThe Malik Verlag was established in
March 1917 in the critical period before
the fall of Imperial Germany and the
birth of the Weimar Republic. This
politically active German socialist
publisher of periodicals, portfolios,
broadsheets, and books of fiction and
nonfiction—whose first periodical was
entitled Neue Jugend, or New Youth—is
the trunk of the historical tree of which
American alternative publishing of the
1960 s was only a branch and from which
elements of contemporary graphic design
have surely grown. Its leading graphistes,
George Grosz and John Heartfield
( 1891 – 196 8) are known, studied, and
appreciated today; but the Malik Verlag
as an entity is virtually unknown, though
it played a major role in German left-wing politics, literature, and the
graphic style of the Weimar period.
In 1915 before Malik Verlag was conceived, John Heartfield’s
brother, the poet Weiland Herzfeld, was introduced to George Grosz and
“fell in love” with his drawings. “Grosz felt that was an inappropriate
response,” wrote Herzfeld in The Malik Verlag 1916–1947(Goethe House,
New York). “He told me: ‘... Herzfeld, my works are worthless. Whatever
you and I and any other incompetent people think of them is completely
inconsequential.... If my drawings were of some value they would be paid
for accordingly....’His comments were the final impetus for the founding
of the periodical Neue Jugendwith Herzfeld as editor.” The journal became
an outlet for Grosz’s political satires and “for all those who encountered
opposition to their political ideas and lack of understanding by the public,”
continued Herzfeld. “We beg all European artists and intellectuals who are
neither senile nor submissive to join us as contributors... ,” states the call
for contributors, which appealed to the cream of the German left. Many
rose to the occasion with scabrous attacks against the ailing government.
Neue Jugend, then a quarto-sized monthly, was almost immediately6