Carl Ernst Poeschel

Biography

Typographer, poster designer. Born 2 September 1874 in Leipzig. Poeschel wanted to be a scholar but was destined to join the firm Poeschel & Trepte which had been founded in 1870 by his father Heinrich, the publisher Justus Naumann and the printer Emil Trepte. May 1898-May 1900: studied American printing in New York, Chicago and Pittsburgh; admired the work of Daniel Berkeley Updike and, in London, that of Oliver Simon. Poeschel’s later book designs were influenced by the productions of Updike’s Merrymount Press. 1902: takes over the family firm of Poeschel & Trepte. 1 September 1902: established Verlag Carl Ernst Poeschel. Before 1904: wrote a course for printers while working in the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg. 1904-6: directorship of the Insel-Verlag (18 months). 1907: with Walter Tiemann founded the first private press in Germany, the Janus-Presse (1907-26) in Leipzig (first publication: Goethe’s Romische Elegien). The design of these limited editions was inspired by that of the English Doves Press (founded 1900 in London by T. J. Cobden-Sanderson and Emery Walker). 1909: co-founder of Tempel-Verlag with several publishers in Leipzig to produce classic editions. By 1922: diector (Gesamtleitung) of the typographic journal Archiv für Buchgewerbe. 1932: printed Four Gospels for the Limited Editions Club, New York. By 1935: Honorary Member of the Double Crown Club, London, to which he gave a talk (in English) in 1935. 1940: Received the Gutenberg Ring from the City of Leipzig. 1941: received honorary doctorate from University of Leipzig. Poeschel also designed advertisements, jobbing printing, posters for the Gewandhaus, the Leipzig concert hall.

‘…[I]n the terrible night of 3-4 December 1943, his business, with its magnificent collection of typefaces and invaluable archives [at 16-18 Sofienstrasse, Stuttgart], the result of decades of prodigious work, was completely destroyed…’. (Rodenberg, p. 11) (In 50 Jahre C.E. Poeschel Verlag the date of destruction in the air raid is given as 7/8 October.) ‘Clarity and restraint, freedom from eccentricity, thorough technical knowledge, and a subtle regard for typographic niceties – these are the qualities [that] single him out from a number of excellent rivals and ascribe to him the first place among the German printers of this century.’ (Schmoller, p. 22. HPS ascribes the date of the destruction of the factory as Nov. 1943.)

Designed the typeface Winckelmann-Antiqua (1921). Died 19 May 1944 at Scheidegg im Allgäu.

Writings by

  • Zeitgemässe Buchdruckkunst, Leipzig: Poeschel & Trepte, 1904
  • ‘Zeitgemässe Satzgestaltung’, in Ludwig Volkmann, Das moderne Buch, Stuttgart: Krais, 1910, pp. 69-82.
  • The following are reprinted in Richard von Sichowsky and Hermann Tiemann (eds.), Typographie und Bibliophilie, Hamburg: Maximilian-Gesellschaft, 1971: pp. 124-52: Zeitgemässe Buchdruckkunst, Leipzig: Poeschel & Trepte, 1904 (written for a course for printers when CEP was working in the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Berlin)
  • pp. 69-82: ‘Zeitgemässe Satzgestaltung’, from L. Volkmann, Das moderne Buch, Stuttgart: Krais, 1910
  • pp. 49-51: ‘Rhythmische Typographie’, Gutenberg Festschrift, Mainz, 1925
  • Deutscher Buchdruck/Gestern – Heute – Morgen, Mainz: Gutenberg-Gesellschaft, 1927 (talk to Gutenberg-Gesellschaft, 24 June 1925)
  • ‘Romantische Typographie’, in Die Leipziger Neunundneunzig, Leipzig, 1929, pp. 39-41
  • Gegen Mechanisierung – für die Persönlichkeit (a booklet – dated April 1933 – inserted into AfB, March 1933.
  • ‘Buchdruck in Deutschland’ (two articles of 1925 and 1940, reprinted in Leins, 1952; see below);
  • ‘Karl Klingspor und die Buchdrucker’, Philobiblon, v. 6, 1938, pp. 236-9
  • ‘Gutenbergs Erbe, Gedanken zur Fünfhundertjahrfeier’, Klimschs Jahrbuch, 1940, p. 19
  • Introduction to his exh. cat., AfB, 1941, pp. 426-32
  • Antiqua als deutsche Normalschrift (with Franz Ludwig Habbel), Berlin: Wiking, 1942
  • ‘E.R. Weiss zum Gedächtnis’ (obituary), Börsenblatt für den Deutschen Buchhandel, 2 Jan. 1943, pp. 3-4.

Writings about

  • 1923-39: Fritz Adolf Hünich, ‘Die Janus- und Insel-Presse’, Die Bücherstube, 1923, pp. 131-3
  • Horst Stobbe, Janus Press bibliography, Die Bücherstube, 1923, pp. 175
  • Dr Hanna Kiel, ‘Tendencies in German Book-printing since 1914’, The Fleuron IV, 1925, pp. 71-97
  • Julius Rodenberg, Deutsche Pressen, Leipzig, 1925 (pp. 93-5, Janus Presse
  • pp. 270-76, Poeschel & Trepte)
  • Alfred Druckenmüller and others, 25 Jahre C.E. Poeschel Verlag, Stuttgart, 1927 (with bibliography 1902-27)
  • Julius Rodenberg, ‘Carl Ernst Poeschel’, Klimschs Jahrbuch, 1932, pp. 4-13 (drawing of CEP by Tiemann)
  • J. Rodenberg, ‘Lebendige Vergangenheit’, pp. 148-51, and Georg Naumann, ‘Poeschel ruft!’, pp. 151-3, AfB, May 1933 (comments about CEP’s Gegen Mechanisierung booklet of April 1933)
  • Georg Hartmann and others, Carl Ernst Poeschel zum sechzigsten Geburtstage, Leipzig: Offizin Poeschel & Trepte, 1934 (Festschrift
  • woodcut of CEP, p. 3
  • other contributors include Konrad F. Bauer, Emil Preetorius, Stanley Morison)
  • Konrad F. Bauer, ‘Über Carl Ernst Poeschels Werke’, Buchkunst, 2, 1935, pp. 105-8 (and inset)
  • Julius Zeitler, ‘Vom Pressendruck in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart’, AfB, 1939, pp. 187-202 (esp. p. 191)
  • E. Göpel, ‘Die Bibliothek eines grossen Druckers. C.E. Poeschel und seine Bücher’, Philobiblon 11, 1939, pp. 342-4
  • 1940-49: Drei Gutenberg-Ringträger: O. Dorfner, Karl Klingspor, Carl Ernst Poeschel, Leipzig, 1941, esp. pp. 33-42
  • J. Rodenberg, ‘Ein deutscher Meisterdrucker’, Das Deutscher Druckgewerbe 2, 1944, p. 144
  • Carl Wagner, ‘Typographisches Vermächtnis. Carl Ernst Poeschel zum Gedenken’, Das Deutsche Buchgewerbe, 1944, pp. 41-51
  • F.-A. Schmidt-Künsemüller, ‘Carl Ernst Poschel in memoriam’, Gutenberg Jahrbuch, 1944/9, pp. 195-205
  • Fritz Adolf Hünich, ‘Fünfzig Jahre Insel-Verlag’, Das Buchgewerbe, 1949, v. 10, pp. 254-9
  • J. Rodenberg, ‘Carl Ernst Poeschel. Dem Leipziger Meisterdrucker zum Gedächtnis’, Das Druckgewerbe 2, 1949, Nr. 17
  • 1950-59: H.P. Schmoller, ‘Carl Ernst Poeschel’, Signature 11, 1950, pp. 20-36
  • Julius Rodenberg (tr. L.S. Thompson), ‘Carl Ernst Poeschel’, Print, Winter 1950-51, pp. 11-21
  • J. Rodenberg, ‘Carl Ernst Poeschel 1874-1944. Der Buchdrucker und Mensch’, Das Antiquariat, 1951, 7, pp. 63-6
  • Annemarie Meiner, ‘Carl Ernst Poeschel zum Gedächtnis’, Imprimatur, 1950/51, pp. 8-20
  • J. Rodenberg, ‘Carl Ernst Poeschel. Der Buchdrucker und Mensch’, Das Antiquariat, 1951, Nr. 21/24, pp. 63-6
  • Anton Kippenberg, Reden und Schriften, Wiesbaden: Insel, 1952
  • Hermann Leins and others, 50 Jahre C.E. Poeschel Verlag, 1902-52, Stuttgart: 1952 (photo of CEP, p. 17
  • bibliography 1946-52)
  • ‘Die Privatpressen mit besonderer Berücksichtigung’, Form und Technik, 1955, pp. 442-50
  • ‘Montanus’, ‘Carl Ernst Poeschel – Wegbereiter für den schönen Druck’ (obituary), der Polygraph, v. 13, 1957, p. G13
  • 1960-present: GKS, 1963, pp. 22, 198-9
  • Walther G. Oschilewski, ‘ Typographus regius. Carl Ernst Poeschel’, Imprimatur, 1963/64, pp. 113-22
  • Julius Rodenberg, ‘Dem Andenken Carl Ernst Poeschels 1874-1943’, Papier und Druck, Oct. 1964, pp. 232-6
  • Julius Rodenberg, ‘Der grosse Leipziger Buchdrucker Carl Ernst Poeschel‘, Druckspiegel, no. 11, Nov. 1964, pp. 760-65
  • Gunther Haupt, ‘Erinnerungen an C.E. Poeschel’, Marginalien, March 1965, pp. 59-63
  • Richard von Sichowsky and Hermann Tiemann (eds.), Typographie und Bibliophilie, Hamburg: Maximilian-Gesellschaft, 1971, pp. 259-60
  • Herbert Lechner, ‘Von der Steglitzer Werkstatt zum Kathodenstrahl’, Graphik, 1980, 2, pp. 35-41
  • Walter Wilkes, ‘Handpressendruck in Deutschland im 20. Jahrhundert’, Imprimatur, Band XII, 1987, pp. 11-19
  • Dietmar Debes, ‘Carl Ernst Poeschel’, Traditionen Leipziger Buchkunst, (Albert Kapr, ed.), Leipzig: VEB Fachbuchverlag, 1989, pp. 24-65 (drawing of CEP, p. 24
  • writings by CEP, p. 64
  • wrings about CEP, pp. 64-5)
  • DBE, 1998
  • Hans Peter Willberg, ‘Schrift und Typographie im 20. Jahrhundert’, Gutenberg Jahrbuch, 2000, pp. 257-87
  • RK, 2004
  • Richard Healy, ‘Germany‘s First Private Press‘, Matrix, Winter 2007, pp.136-43.

Exhibitions

  • Kunstgewerbemuseum, Berlin, 1921
  • Museum der Bildenden Künste, Leipzig, 1941
  • University Library, Heidelberg, 1972.

Collections

  • (Janus-Presse) Klingspor Museum, Offenbach a.M.