Herbert Bayer was the only Nmaster� at the Bauhaus with a long-term commitment to typog
ra phy: but- by compar1son w1th Renner. Ts chichold, or Tr ump. at Mun1ch - his work showed lit
tle of the calligraphically tratned and h1stortcally informed typographer's sensitivity to letterforms
or to the handltng of text.
Thts was one of the tssues ra tsed impliCitly by Max Bdl. whose "Uber typografie" (see note 62
below) was set unJuStified and w1thout word-breaks: m his reply. Tschtchold pomted to Eric G111's
earl1er use of 1t and to the fact that machme-compos1t10n could handle either mode with the same
fa cility_ Another notable explorer. of unJUStified settmg was the Dutch designer Willem Sandberg.
from the 1940s onwards.
Some account of the German standards bodies is available m an ann1versary history: Bruno
Holm. ed .. F<JnfZig Jahre Deutscher Normenausschu/S (Berlin: Beuth-Vertneb. 1 967).
On the h1story of Taylorism and "Sc1entif1c Management." see: Judith A. Merkle. Management
and Ideology (Berkeley. Los Angeles. London: Un1vers1ty of Cal1fornia Press. 1980) Of part1cular
relevance here 1S Merkle's chapter on "Scientific Management and German rational1zat1on," which
outlines the "c entral role� of the Verem Deutscher lngemeure m introducmg Ta ylorism into
Germany
Walter Porstmann (1 886-1 959 ) is at present an obscure figure. but he 1s referred to 1n Holm,
FUnfz1g Jahre Deutscher NormenausschufS. and someth-m g can be inferred also from the entries
under h1s name in the Nat10nal Un1on Catalog publtshed by the Library of Congress. Washington,
D.C. Ute Bruning has chased h1m 1n notes to two art1cles: "Zur Ty pograf1e Herbert Bayer." m
Herbert Bayer: Das k<Jnstlensche Werk 1918-1938 (Berlin: Bauhaus-Archiv, 1 982). pp. 1 18- 137:
"Die neue plast1sche Systemschr1ft." in MTypograph1e kann unter Umst8nden Kunst sein .. _. Kurt
Schwf((ers. Typograph1e und Werbegestaltung (W1esbaden: Landesmuseum W1esbaden, 1 990). pp
98-107. Ostwald published h1s views - and his resentment- concernmg the development of the
German paper-s1ze standard in an autob1ography. Lebenslinien (Berlin: Klasmg. 192 6-1927).
3:300-308
See espec1ally h1s E1ne Stunde Druckgestaltung. pp 14-25.
While durmg the 1930s the Nat1onal Socialists predommantly preferred black letter as the
most -German� letterform. the argument was finally settled by Hitler's decree of 1941. wh1ch out
lawed black letter as '"Jew1sh." Just as the Nat1onal Soc1alists eventually opted for neoclassical
qrchitecture. so too tn typography. roman became the form that f1tted the dreams of a world
empire. Fo! some detailed diSCUSSIOn. see: Hans Peter Wlllberg. "Schrlft und Ty pografie im Drttten
Re1ch." in Hundert Jahre Typograph1e: Hundert Jahre Typograph1sche Gesellschaft M<Jnchen
(Mun1ch: Ty pograph1sche Gesellschaft Munchen, 1990). pp. 87-103.
They shared the same postal d1str1ct of Berlin. SW61. and the Buchdruckwerkstatte was also
the pr1nter of books published by the Buchergllde Gutenberg (the Bildungsverband's book club).
and seems to have moved with the Blldungsverband from Le1pzig to Berlin
See the Handbuch der Schrdtarten, comp1led and published by Albrecht Seeman (Le1pz,g,
1 926) Among the samples shown on p 1 93. the "Grotesk P. Breite magere" from Berthold closely
resembles the typeface of the book- but so do nme others.
W1eynck. "D1e Wandlungen des Johannes." p. 77.
Typ ographische M1ttellungen publ1shed regular reports of the number of typesetttng
mach1nes 1nstalied in Germany, taken from the ''J ahresbertcht der Zentralkommiss1on der
Masch1nensetzer Deutschlands": these show a steady growth 1n these years. but the relatton to
hand-sett1ng remams to be determined
For one mstance of modernist consc1ousness of machine composition, see note 55 below.
Seven years later. 1n h1s second maJOr book. Ts ch1chold did devote some paragraphs to machine
compos1t1on (Typograph1sche Gestaltung [Basel: Schwabe, 1 935]. pp. 32-33)
Letter of 22 October 1925. 1n Uss,tzky. Proun und Wolkenb<Jgel. p. 137
M�ch the best source here 1s: Gerd Fle1schmann. ed .. Bauhaus Typografie (Dusseldorf:
Edtt1pn Mar zona. 1 984)_ All the Bauhaus mater"1 al referred to in this paragraph can be found in
th1s compendium.
First publ1shed in hts art1cle "A nregung zur Erlangung e1ner Systemschrift." 110 1, no. 8/9
(August-September 192 7) · 312-316. See also the art1cle by Ute Bruning (note 34 above).
