Auf der Suche nach Gatt by Erik Neutsch
This is the second edition of Auf der Suche nach Gatt (“Looking for Gatt”), a novel by Erik Neutsch (1931–2013), a writer from East Germany. The verso of the title page (not shown) says “© Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle (Saale), 1973” while in this edition we see 1974 on the title page and in the colophon. The cover is designed by Walter Schiller – a designer from East Germany, director of the Typography department at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst, Leipzig (and also the co-author of Gestalt und Funktion der Typografie with Albert Kapr). The Gesamtherstellung (“overall production”) was provided by Märkische Volksstimme Potsdam (today Märkische Allgemeine) – a branch of the printing organ of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands), then the ruling party in the East Germany.
The front cover is set in Trump-Mediäval, assumedly size 14pt, and a dissected Egyptienne Bold Condensed (But how?).
Liberta it appears in at least six sizes in the book (see the last image).
2 Comments on “Auf der Suche nach Gatt by Erik Neutsch”
That’s a superb addition to our humble (but steadily growing) record of East German typography, and the first documented Use of Liberta – thank you!
I would assume it was a hands-on process that involved cutting up the big Egyptienne letters and pasting them up, interspersed with strips of text printed in Trump-Mediäval. The resulting board was shot with a stat camera to create a negative, which was then used to produce a printing plate.
Yes, Florian, the technique you described would be familiar to those of us who have actually done cut-and-paste layouts…