wiedler.ch

book (design) story #73

otto mänchen-helfen:
karl und jenny marx

verlag der bücherkreis gmbh., berlin, 1933
printer: vorwärts buchdruckerei, berlin
size: 23 x 14 cm
designer: jan tschichold

50 years after the death of karl marx, otto mänchen-helfen (1894–1969) and boris nicolaevsky (1887–1966) published this biography. as the authors say in the foreword, dated februray 1933, this was supposed to be the first volume of the biography, covering the years 1818–1848. however, the socialist "bücherkreis" book club was not able to publish a second volume: the nazi government closed it down shortly after publication of this edition.

we have come across otto mänchen-helfen before (see stories 11 and 71). boris nicolaevsky was a prominent "menshevik" and an expert in the history of communism. both authors finally emigrated to the usa.

although no designer is credited in the impressum, this book can be attributed to jan tschichold (1902–1974), likely his last design for the bücherkreis. in march 1933 tschichold was arrested, and he emigrated to switzerland later that year.

in his 1928 book "die neue typographie" (see story 29), tschichold had condemned blackletter type as "nationalist", claiming sans-serif being the only modern typeface. by the early 1930s he revised this purist position ("it leads to a certain monotony") and recommended a good mix of typefaces. even blackletter was acceptable again, as long as it was used in a modern page layout. this book is an example for this: not only the page numbers, also the margins are asymmetric to the spine.