Akzidenz-Grotesk is a sans-serif typeface family originally released by the Berthold Type Foundry of Berlin. "Akzidenz" indicates its intended use as a typeface for commercial print runs such as publicity, tickets and forms, as opposed to fine printing, and "grotesque" was a standard name for sans-serif typefaces at the time.
Janson is the name given to a set of old-style serif typefaces from the Dutch Baroque period, and modern revivals from the twentieth century. Janson is a crisp, relatively high-contrast serif design, most popular for body text.
H. Berthold AG was one of the largest and most successful type foundries in the world for most of the modern typographic era, making the transition from foundry type to cold type successfully and only coming to dissolution in the digital type era.
The Bauer Type Foundry was a German type foundry founded in 1837 by Johann Christian Bauer in Frankfurt am Main. Noted typeface designers, among them Lucian Bernhard, Konrad Friedrich Bauer, Walter Baum, Heinrich Jost, Imre Reiner, Friedrich Hermann Ernst Schneidler, Emil Rudolf Weiß, and Heinrich Wienyck, designed typefaces for the company.
Ludwig & Mayer was a German type foundry in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Many important designers worked for the Ludwig and Mayer type foundry, including Heinrich Jost, Karlgeorg Hoefer, Helmut Matheis, and most notably Jakob Erbar, whose Erbar Book was one of the first geometric sans-serif typefaces, predating both Paul Renner's Futura and Rudolf Koch's Kabel by some five years. Starting in 1925, Ludwig & Mayer types were distributed in the United States by Continental Type Founders Association. When the foundry ceased operations in 1984, rights to the typefaces was transmitted to the Neufville Typefoundry.
D. Stempel AG was a German typographic foundry founded by David Stempel (1869–1927), in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Many important font designers worked for the Stempel foundry, including Hans Bohn, Warren Chappell, F. H. Ehmcke, Friedrich Heinrichsen, Hanns Th. Hoyer, F. W. Kleukens, Erich Meyer, Hans Möhring, Hiero Rhode, Wilhelm Schwerdtner, Herbert Thannhaeuser, Martin Wilke, Rudolf Wolf, Victor Hammer, Hermann Zapf, and Gudrun Zapf von Hesse. With the introduction of Memphis in 1929, the foundry was the first to cast modern slab serif typefaces.
In typography, Erbar or Erbar-Grotesk is a sans-serif typeface in the geometric style, one of the first designs of this kind released as type. Designer Jakob Erbar's aim was to design a printing type which would be free of all individual characteristics, possess thoroughly legible letter forms, and be a purely typographic creation. His conclusion was that this could only work if the type form was developed from a fundamental element, the circle. Erbar-Grotesk was developed in stages; Erbar wrote that he had originally sketched out the design in 1914 but had been prevented from working on it due to the war. The original version of Erbar was released in 1926, following Erbar's "Phosphor" titling capitals of 1922 which are very similar in design.
The Ludwig Wagner Type Foundry was established in 1902 in Leipzig after the veteran punch cutter Ludwig Wagner took over the small foundry Gundelach & Ebersbach in 1901. The beginning of his modern type production and the extension of his business happened before 1914. The large manufacturing facilities in East Leipzig suffered extensive bomb damage during World War II. In 1949, the company was given new facilities in the Southwestern part of Leipzig. Ludwig Wagner AG was incorporated into Typoart by the East German government in 1960 and Wagner himself moved to the German Federal Republic.
J.G. Schelter & Giesecke was a German type foundry and manufacturer of printing presses started 1819 in Leipzig by punchcutter Johann Schelter and typefounder Christian Friedrich Giesecke (1793-1850). The foundry was nationalized in 1946 by the new German Democratic Republic, forming VEB Typoart, Dresden.
C.E. Weber was a German type foundry established in 1827 in Stuttgart. Noted designers working for the foundry included Georg Trump, and Ernst Schneidler. The foundry closed in 1970; some designs passed to the Johannes Wagner Type Foundry, others to Stempel.
Johannes Wagner, Inh. was a type foundry created in 1921 by Johannes Wagner with his brother and brother-in-law in Berlin, moving to Ingolstadt in 1956. In the early 1980s the firm acquired many of the matrices of the Weber Typefoundry and most of those from Berthold. The company, by then named Letternservice Ingolstadt, closed in 2002, and its printing assets were moved to the printing museum in Leipzig.
The Klingspor Type Foundry was a German hot metal type foundry established in 1892 when Carl Klingspor bought out the Rudhard’sche Foundry of Offenbach. His sons, Karl and younger brother Wilhelm, took on the business in 1904, renaming the foundry Gebrüder Klingspor in 1906, and turned it into a major concern. Famous type designers like Rudolf Koch, Walter Tiemann and Otto Eckmann worked for this foundry and created well known typefaces like Koch Antiqua, Wilhelm Klingspor, Tiemann Antiqua and Eckmann.
Haas Type Foundry was a Swiss manufacturer of foundry type. First the factory was located in Basel, in the 1920s they relocated to Münchenstein.
Schriftguss AG was a type foundry in Germany founded in 1892 under the name Brüder Butter by purchasing the type casting firm of Otto Ludwig Bechert that had been founded in 1889. It was later incorporated in 1922 as Schriftguss A.-G. vorm. [prev.] Brüder Butter. Their types were known for “vigour, liveliness and freshness.” Though some faces were done in house, the foundry mainly worked with outside “Schriftkünstler”, more than was typical at the time. A unique product of the foundry were modular systems of “Plakattype” to compose shapes and letterforms for display and jobbing applications, for instance Dekora, or Albert Auspurg’s 1931 Ne-Po (negative–positive), and finally Super-Plakattype in 1949. After the Nazi seizure of power in 1933 the last of the Butter brothers resigned from the corporation and it was changed to a limited partnership. In 1948 the company was expropriated by the post-war communist government and became public property, under the name VEB Schriftguss Dresden, eventually becoming merged into VEB Typoart – Drucktypen, Matrizen, Messinglinien in 1951. As a state run enterprise, the foundry lost its verve and panache and settled into producing serviceable type without distinction.
Genzsch & Heyse was a German type foundry established in Hamburg. In the 1920s and 1930s, G+H types were sold in the United States by Continental Type Founders Association.
Günter Gerhard Lange was a German typographer, teacher and type designer.
Normal-Grotesk is a sans-serif typeface that was sold by the Haas Type Foundry of Basel and Münchenstein, Switzerland, and popular in Swiss graphic design towards the end of the metal type period in the mid-twentieth century.
VEB Kombinat Mikroelektronik Erfurt was an important manufacturer of active electronic components in East Germany. It should not be confused with the more well-known VEB Kombinat Robotron Dresden which used integrated circuits from Kombinat Mikroelektronik in its computers. The trademark RFT was used for components from Kombinat Mikroelektronik, as well as for most electronic products from East Germany.
Peter A. Demeter was a German designer at the Weber Typefoundry.
Arnold Drescher was trained as a teacher in Auerbach in 1896 and later studied at Dresden Academy of Fine Arts from 1905 to 1907 where he became a specialised instructor for art teachers, becoming a professor in 1920. As well as working freelance as a designer, he was also employed by the Staatliche Akademie für graphische Künste und Buchgewerbe. Between 1940 and 1945, he was the Academy's director. As well as being a typographer, he was a prolific painter and illustrator, designing posters for the East German government. In 1960 he retired to Braunschwieg where he later died.
