Deutsche Fotothek dates this photograph to “around 1935/1940”.

Historic image of a printing firm’s building in Frohburg, Saxony (Germany). The firm printed newspapers such as Frohburger Wochenblatt and later Wirtschafts-Anzeiger, the latter using Triumph (1929) for its masthead. The signage on the building was created using the same typeface.

Parts of the signage on the landmarked building have survived until today: the word “Buchdruckerei” (print shop), the stylized printers coats of arms, as well as a ceramic relief showing Johannes Gutenberg created by Kurt Feuerriegel.

Nameplate of the Wirtschafts-Anzeiger issue from January 30, 1943. The smaller lines are set in Romana and Nofretete.

This poster (41×59 cm) was issued by Reichsbahndirektion Cottbus, one of eight regional directorates of the East German state railway, in 1969. It advertises trips to the Sächsische Schweiz, or Saxon Switzerland, and the Lausitzer Bergland, or Lusatian Highlands, two neighboring tourist regions at Saxony’s border with Bohemia. The space to the right of the illustration showing a rock formation of the Elbe Sandstone Mountains and a paddle steamer on the Elbe River is left empty, probably so that current offers can be added manually.

All typefaces were already thirty to forty years old at the time. “Ausflugsverkehr” is set in Bison (1938), a sharply cut brush script also known as Blizzard. As far as I know, it wasn’t cast by Typoart, who carried the similar Impuls (1954) and Stentor (1964). The reversed sans-serif caps are from Lucina (1926), a display extension to the Erbar-Grotesk series. The sender info at the bottom is set in caps from the fett and dreiviertelfett weights of Super-Grotesk. Arno Drescher’s geometric sans was first cast by Schriftguss in 1930 and became the GDR’s ersatz Futura after World War II. The modulated sans used for “Sächsische Schweiz” appears to be custom drawn. It’s a bit similar to Walter Käch’s Röntgen Therapie lettering model from 1949. See also Baker Sans (1973).

Detail

Detail