Biography of Georg Hartmann Newly Published
Georg Hartmann (1870–1954) led the foundry to new heights by allowing typographers such as Paul Renner (Futura), Emil Rudolf Weiß (among others Weiß Antiqua, Weiß Rundgotisch), Heinrich Wieynck (Phyllis), Heinrich Jost (Beton, Bauer Bodoni), Lucian Bernhard (Bernhard Antiqua, Bernhard Schönschrift, Bernhard Modern, La Salle) Konrad F. Bauer mit Walter Baum (Volta, Folio, Impressum) und Friedrich Hermann Ernst Schneidler (Schneidler Mediäval, Zentenar Fraktur, Legende) to design printing types which are still to be found to this day in the libraries of the most important type manufacturers. The typeface Futura by Renner has certainly become one of the most successful type designs of the past 90 years. In addition to the Bauer Type Foundry, Hartmann acquired several other foundries before World War II, among them A. Numerich & Co., Flinsch, Wilhelm von Maur, Brötz & Clock, Schriftgießerei Otto Weisert, Stuttgart, and he established the Bauer Type Foundry in New York in 1927. In the course of his business endeavors numerous bibliophile publications appeared in which the company’s own designs were used. Readers interested in type will find information about the typographic aspects of the foundry profession, the threat that typesetting machines meant to the trade, the cooperation with type designers, and the political influences of the two world wars in this biography.
After the liquidation of the Bauer Type Foundry in 1972, a portion of the matrices and the international user rights of these types were sold to the Fundicion Tipografica Neufville in Barcelona. This company was part of the Bauer Type Foundry when it was acquired by Georg Hartmann in 1898. His son, Carlos Hartmann, took over the management of Neufville in 1923, from which point on the company functioned as an independent foundry in Spain. His grandson Wolfgang Hartmann has been its sole owner since 1995 and develops classical Bauer-types as well as contemparary fonts in digital form under the label Neufville Digital (ND).
The enthusiastic collector Eckehart Schumacher-Gebler acquired a further part of the collection for the Museum für Druckkunst (Museum for the Printing Arts) he had founded in 1994 in Leipzig. In 2008, the manufacture of hot metal printing types was discontinued in Barcelona. In Leipzig, however, hot metal type casters demonstrate to this day against the use of type casting machines within the context of the Museum’s operations.
After the liquidation of the Bauer Type Foundry in 1972, a portion of the matrices and the international user rights of these types were sold to the Fundicion Tipografica Neufville in Barcelona. This company was part of the Bauer Type Foundry when it was acquired by Georg Hartmann in 1898. His son, Carlos Hartmann, took over the management of Neufville in 1923, from which point on the company functioned as an independent foundry in Spain. His grandson Wolfgang Hartmann has been its sole owner since 1995 and develops classical Bauer-types as well as contemparary fonts in digital form under the label Neufville Digital (ND).
The enthusiastic collector Eckehart Schumacher-Gebler acquired a further part of the collection for the Museum für Druckkunst (Museum for the Printing Arts) he had founded in 1994 in Leipzig. In 2008, the manufacture of hot metal printing types was discontinued in Barcelona. In Leipzig, however, hot metal type casters demonstrate to this day against the use of type casting machines within the context of the Museum’s operations.
The photo shows the cover of his biography. It is published by Böhlau Verlag. Language: German. Georg Hartmann (1870 – 1954). Biografie eines Frankfurter Schriftgießers, Bibliophilen und Kunstmäzens. By Andreas Hansert, ISBN-13-978-3205783220.
