Jugend and Simplicissimus^53In 1896 not one but two revolutionary periodicals were
introduced in Kaiser Wilhelm’s Germany.Jugendcodified
a distinctly modern graphic style, and Simplicissimus
translated it into graphic social commentary. Both
signaled a rebellion of youth against court-sanctioned
romanticism and dehumanizing industrialization.Jugend,
published by Dr. Georg Hirth, gave a voice and a name
to Jugendstil, or “youth style,” and Simplicissimus, edited
by Albert Langen and Thomas Theodore Heine
( 1867 – 1948 ), harnessed the graphic power of this new
movement as a polemical tool.
Jugend, a Munich weekly published from 1896 to
1926 , was the principal outlet for the dissemination of
Jugendstil art and literature. Its fanciful cover illustrations
and changing logotypes defined a style that was built on
the rejection of the familiar and antiquated. Jugendstil
dismantled entrenched artistic conventions, including
classical approaches to rendering. It replaced realism with
abstraction and rococo embellishment with curvilinear
decoration.Jugendrevealed a French influence (some of
its artists emulated Henri Toulouse-Lautrec), but was
nevertheless quite German in its adoption of gothic
lettering and imagery. Page layout was often dictated by
the complexity of the illustration, causing untold
headaches for the printer whose job it was to rag the type
to conform to the curvilinear designs.
Satire was the fuel that fired the profoundly influential
Simplicissimus, also a Munich weekly published from 1896 to 1944. Co-
edited by Th. Th. Heine, a poster artist and cartoonist,Simplicissimus, also
known as der Simpl, was at once the progenitor of a new graphic style and a
thorn in the side of the Kaiser (who saw to it that the artists were harassed
and imprisoned more than once). Although der Simpl’s covers were not as
adventuresome as those of Jugend, it nonetheless pioneered a graphic style
that influenced other pictorial journals throughout Europe. Most images
were given full-page display, accompanied only by a caption and headline.
Der Simpl’s stable of contributors included modern cartoonist Bruno Paul