wiedler.ch

book (design) story #108

nikolai bogdanow:
dorf und kommune

verlag der bücherkreis gmbh, berlin, 1933
printer: bremer buchdruckerei j. h. schmalfeldt & co., bremen
size: 19 x 13 cm
designer: andreas niessen

"village and commune" – the original title of this novel by russian writer nikolaj vladimirovic bogdanov (1906-1989) is "vysov" (challenge). it is a post-revolutionary story about the difficult relationship between the inhabitants of a traditional village and a cooperative of young communists nearby.

this is one of the last bücherkreis editions, before the socialist book club was closed down by the nazis in 1933. the impressum credits andreas niessen for the cover design and typography, and the jacket bears his signature, too. on the dustjacket we see a farmer with an old-fashioned horse-drawn plough at the back, walking "backwards in history" to the left. at the front a modern tractor with caterpillar tracks, rolling "forwards" to the right – showing off a huge red star. the cover features a frans-masereel-style linocut.

i couldn't find biographical details about the designer andreas niessen yet.

niessen's style is quite different from jan tschichold's who had designed most of the bücherkreis' output since 1930: socialist realism instead of constructivist new typography!