Heinrich Jost

Biography

Journalist, typography, book designs, bookbindings, book jackets, type design, exhibition stands. Born 13 October 1889 in Magdeburg; his father a bookbinder. Jost first learned the business of bookselling, at the same time training at the Kunstgewerbe- und Handwerkerschule, Magdeburg. 1908: moved to Munich. From 1911: studied illustration and book design at the Munich Akademie für graphische Künste: his teachers included Paul Renner and Emil Preetorius. By 1914: designed books and jackets for several publishers, especially C.H. Beck. From 1917: typographic adviser to Münchener Neuesten Nachrichten and designed its pages of classified ads; worked for numerous publishers: Hanfstaengl, Drei Masken, Müller, Langen, Callwey. 1923-48: art director for the Bauer typefoundry, Frankfurt a.M., where he was in charge of the foundry’s splendid private-press books and type specimen productions (succeeded by Konrad Friedrich Bauer). By 1924: first chairman, Landesgruppe Rhein-Main des Bundes Deutscher Gebrauchsgraphiker [Rhine-Main group, BDG]). 1926: directed publicity film for Bauer: Werden und Wachsen einer deutschen Schriftgiesserei, and (in 1937) designed the firm’s centenary book (of the same name). 1940: designed K.F. Bauer’s magisterial chronicle of book design Aventur und Kunst. Designer of the typefaces Jost-Fraktur (1925, Monotype), Atrax (1926, Bauer), Jost Mediaeval (1927-9, Ludwig & Mayer), Altrömisch (Ludwig & Mayer), Beton (1929/36, Bauer), Hessen-Fraktur (1938, Monotype) and Georg-Hartmann (1948, Bauer). Died 25 September 1948 in Frankfurt a.M. prematurely, Stresow suggests, as a result of Jost having spent a period in a prisoner-of-war camp in 1945 (Stresow, 1989, p. 225; see below).

‘[Jost] deserves to be considered among the pioneers of German printing art.’ (O.E. Sutter, in Gg, Dec. 1937, p. 38 (see below).

Writings by

  • 1915-35: ‘Kriegsgraphik’, Das Plakat, 1915, pp. 22-8
  • ‘Münchener Plakatkunst in der Kriegszeit’ (wartime posters), Das Plakat, 1917, pp. 92-5
  • ‘Wettbewerb für ein bayrisches Opfertag-Plakat’, Das Plakat, 1917, pp. 289-90
  • ‘Wege des Büchersammelns’, Almanach der Bücherstube, München: Horst Stobbe, 1918, pp. 62-7
  • reviews of Richard Braungart’s Julius Diez, and Oscar Bie’s Walter Schnackenberg, in Das Plakat, Jan. 1921, pp. 56-7
  • Gotische Schriften, Ravensburg, 1923
  • introduction in Buchkunst Ausstellung (Rhine-Main group of the Bundes Deutscher Gebrauchsgraphiker), Frankfurt a.M.: Hauser, 1924
  • ‘Warum und wie wir heute eine alte Schrift schneiden’, Die Bücherstube, 1924, pp. 406-14
  • ‘Deutsche Schriftgiessereien’, Gg, 1925, v. 9, pp. 41-4, and design of covers
  • introduction in Bodoni. Schriften, Frankfurt a.M., 1926
  • ‘Plakatkunst in der Schweiz’, Gg, 1926?, v. 7, pp. 17-23
  • ‘Zweifel’ (comments on new type designs: Bayer, Schwitters, Tschichold), Klimschs Jahrbuch, 1928, pp. 6-15
  • W. Gaunt, ‘The spirit and the letter of modern advertising design’, Commercial Art, 1929, VII, pp. 142-6, esp. p. 144
  • ‘Der Weg der Typographie’, Deutscher Drucker, June 1935, p. 352
  • ‘E.R. Weiss als Typograph’, DzS, Oct. 1935, pp. 21-9
  • 1936-48: ‘Die typographischen Bestrebungen in Deutschland und ihr Einfluss auf die Typographie anderer Länder’, Klimschs Jahrbuch, 1937, pp. 50-59
  • ‘Fritz Kredel. A German illustrator’, Gg, June 1939, pp. 9-16 plus 4-page supplement
  • ‘Der Verlegereinband’, Klimschs Jahrbuch, 1939, pp. 110-19
  • ‘Die neue Buchkunst in Deutschland’, Imprimatur, 1939/40, pp. 105-28
  • ‘Gutenberg-Bildnisse im Wandel der Zeit’, Klimschs Jahrbuch, 1940, pp. 7-14
  • ‘Hans Bohn – a calligrapher and book artist’, Gg, April 1941, pp. 13-24
  • ‘Yngve Berg’, Gg, (month?) 1941, pp. 12-24
  • ‘Die Offenbacher Monatsrundschau’ (journal), Gg, Oct. 1942, p. 36 (and 4-pp of ills.)
  • ‘Der Buch- und Schriftkünstler E.R. Weiss’, AfB, 1943, v. 3, pp. 78-100, plus 8-p. supplement
  • introduction, Georg Hartmann (Festschrift for 75th birthday), Frankfurt a.M.: Der goldene Brunnen, 1946, pp. 5-6
  • ‘Hugo Steiner-Prag’, SGM, Sept. 1948, pp. 373-5 (brief Eng. summary p. 390)
  • ‘Eine Gutenberg-Gedenkstätte in Eltville am Rhein’, SGM, Dec. 1948, pp. 483-4.

Writings about

  • 1915-36: Walter Bloch, ‘Berlin und das übrige Deutschland’, Das Plakat, 1915
  • Das Plakat (Munich ed.), Jan. 1921 (numerous ills.)
  • Richard Braungart, ‘Heinrich Jost’, Deutscher Buch- und Steindrucker, Dec. 1924
  • Fritz Hellwag, ‘Der Briefkopf’ (letterheads), Gg, Jhrg. 1, v. 7 (1924-5), pp. 3-48
  • Robert Diehl, ‘Heinrich Jost’, AfB, 1926, 7, pp. i-lviii (after p. 454)
  • DdW, 1927
  • Rudolf Conrad, ‘Heinrich Jost als Typograph’, Klimschs Jahrbuch, 1928, pp. 34-41
  • Konrad F. Bauer, ‘Die Jost-Mediaeval’, Philobiblon, May 1929, pp. 153-4, and 4p. inset betw. pp. 172-3
  • W. Gaunt, ‘The spirit and the letter of modern advertising design’, Commercial Art, 1929, VII, pp. 142-7
  • note on Beton, Gg, March 1930, p. 77
  • K.F. Bauer, ‘Heinrich Jost’, Gg, April 1930, pp. 41-56
  • note on typeface Jost-Mediäval and Kursiv, Gg, Oct. 1930, p. 78
  • Konrad Friedrich Bauer, ‘Bericht über neue Schriften’, Imprimatur, 1931, pp. 65-85, esp. p. 71 and 4 pp. after p. 72 (Jost Mediaeval), and p. 82 (Beton)
  • Gustav Stresow, ‘Beton – a new type’, Gg, April 1932, pp. 60-65
  • Otto Ernst Sutter, ‘Creative propaganda in miniature’ (Bauer specimen books), Gg, Aug. 1934, pp. 34-7
  • Hans Bockwitz, ‘Junge deutsche Büchkunstler’, AfB, Nov. 1934, pp. 699-784, esp. p. 700
  • Frederick A. Horn, ‘Type tactics’ (Beton), Commercial Art and Industry, 1936, XX, pp. 94-7
  • Robert Harling, ‘Typefounders and their publicity’, Commercial Art and Industry, 1936, XX, pp. 141-6
  • Robert Harling, ‘Bauer. Frankfurt-on-Main’, Art and Industry, July 1936, pp. 49-53
  • ‘Beton’, Typography 1, Nov. 1936, p. 36
  • 1937: Eberhard Hölscher, ‘Title pages designed by Heinrich Jost’, AfB, May 1937, pp. 203-6, plus 16-page supplement
  • ‘Hundert Jahre Bauersche Giesserei’, Deutscher Drucker, Oct. 1937, pp. 17-20
  • Bauer centenary, Deutscher Drucker, Dec. 1937, supplement between pp. 108/109, and p. 120
  • Otto Ernst Sutter, ‘Books printed at the private plant of the Bauer Typefoundry’, Gg, Dec. 1937, pp. 35-42
  • Carl Wagner, ‘Bauer’s Type-foundry 1837-1937’ (centenary), AfB, Dec. 1937, pp. 439-43 plus 20-page supplement
  • 1938-present: Gustav Stresow, ‘The centenary of the Bauer Type-foundry’, Penrose Annual, 1938, pp. 64-7 plus 8-pp. inset (includes photo of HJ)
  • ‘A Brief History of the Bauer Type Foundry’, Typography, Spring 1938, pp. 18-27 (tr. E. Loescher)
  • L. Fritz Gruber, ‘Some German types and their evolution’, Art and Industry, 1938, v. 25, pp. 74-7
  • Wilhelm H. Lange, ‘Schriftkünstler von heute’, AfB, 1939, v. 1, pp. 59-70
  • ‘Ein Meister der Typographie. Heinrich Jost 50 Jahre’, Deutscher Drucker, Oct. 1939, p. 23
  • Walther G. Oschilewski, ‘Heinrich Jost’ (50th birthday), Imprimatur, 1939/40, 8-p. inset between pp. 192/3 (types, book covers)
  • Walter Zerbe, ‘Kurzbiographie Heinrich Jost’, SGM, Jan. 1948, pp. 45, 47
  • K.F. Bauer, ‘Heinrich Jost, 1889-1948’ (obituary), Alphabet and Image 8, 1948, p. 70
  • K.F. Bauer, ‘Nachruf auf Heinrich Jost’, Das Druckgewerbe, 1948, v. 30, p. 433
  • K.F. Bauer, ‘Heinrich Jost’ (obituary), Der Druckspiegel, 1948, v. 11, pp. 2-3
  • K.F. Bauer, ‘Heinrich Jost gestorben’ (obituary), Börsenblatt, 1948, v. 24, p. 855
  • Emil Wetzig, ‘In memoriam Heinrich Jost’, Das Buchgewerbe, Dec. 1948, p. 324
  • ‘Schriftskizzieren’ (Jost-Mediäval), Druck und Papier, Oct. 1955, pp. 159-60
  • Vollmer, 1955
  • WM, 1966
  • Gustav Stresow, ‘Gedenkblatt für Heinrich Jost’, Philobiblon, Sept. 1989, pp. 218-26
  • DBE, 1997
  • www.klingspor-museum.de.

Collections

  • Klingspor Museum, Offenbach a.M.

Exhibitions

  • Deutsche Kulturmuseum, Leipzig, 1918