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book (design) story #600

ingo kaul:
deutsches volk – deutsche arbeit

gemeinnützige berliner ausstellungs- und messe-ges. m.b.h., berlin, 1934
printer: august scherl gmbh., berlin
size: 21 x 21 cm
designer: herbert bayer

book story #600! we celebrate this event with an infamous exhibition guide by a famous designer.

"german people – german work" was the first large propaganda exhibition organised by the national socialists in 1934, the year after they gained power in germany.

the official guide book for this berlin exhibition was designed by former bauhaus-meister herbert bayer (1900-1985). bayer designed the posters and catalogues for several major nazi exhibitions before he emigrated to the u.s. in 1938.

also other prominent bauhäuslers were involved in the design of this exhibition, among them walter gropius, joost schmidt and lilly reich.

the exhibition was organised under the patronage of reichspräsident von hindenburg, with dr. goebbels as honorary president.

bayer employed a page layout concept similar to book 32: titles, text blocks ans page numbers are arranged along a central horizontal axis, with bodoni typeface.

the nazi ideology is all there, e.g. in this hair-rising article on "racial hygiene". the drawing on the right explains the sterilisation of men and women who are "posing a threat to a pure and healthy aryan race" ...!

some of the photos are of an impressive quality.

the second section of the book is printed on grey paper, ...

... offset from the first section by a wider paper width ...

... – working like a thumb index.

the laid-in leaflet bears the title "what does today's berlin offer?"

some of the ads are (still) in the modernist style of the late 1920s.