Propaganda
Edward Bernays’ pioneering PR manual, 1928Since its linguistic appropriation by totalitarian regimes of the 20th century, in particular by the Nazis, the term ‘propaganda’ has had negative overtones. However, this was not the case when American author Edward Bernays (1891-1995) chose the word with Latin origins as the title for his influential book on the methodology of modern public relations work.
Record
Music for everyone, from 1897 onwardsAfter American Thomas Alva Edison discovered in 1877 that sounds could be recorded and reproduced mechanically, the cylinder phonograph he invented for this purpose did not remain without competition for long. Only ten years later, his colleague Emil Berliner, who had emigrated to the States from Germany, applied for a patent for his so-called gramophone which, as a device used purely for playing, was the forerunner of the record player.
Rotary printing papers
Cheap coloured papers for book binders, cardboard manufacturers and playing card producersColoured papers made it possible to render more attractive the outer appearance of objects such as book covers, albums, boxes or cartons in a diverse manner of ways. When making playing cards, rotary printing papers, thus named because of how they were manufactured, also made it possible to print the rear side of the cards with a fully identical pattern.
Sachsenspiegel (Saxon mirror)
Law in the 13th centuryThe “Sachsenspiegel” (“Saxon Mirror”) is one of the most significant works of German medieval law. Under this title, Eike von Repgow depicted prevailing common law for the first time between 1220 and 1235. This contributed to the canonisation of legal provisions and to their wider dissemination.
Scene with a Bänkelsänger
A wandering digest of sensations, c. 1860Here a Bänkelsänger points to pictures with a stick while performing. The oilcloth scrolls with arresting pictures were intended to attract a crowd.
Schedelsche Weltchronik (Nuremberg Chronicle)
A mammoth work from the era of early book printingThe Weltchronik (Nuremberg Chronicle), a work authored by Nuremberg physician Hartmann Schedel, is located historically at the turning point between a medieval conception of the world and an exact, modern world historiography.
Sheet from a Gutenberg Bible
Who cut up the Bible?This single page from a Gutenberg Bible was bought by the Leipziger Buch- und Schriftmuseum in 1956 in the antique book shop of Menno Hertzberger in Amsterdam as a replacement for the specimen that was brought to Moscow during the war. The puzzle as to the provenance of the page was only solved recently: in the early print phase, one book wasn’t finished yet when it left the printing press.
Smartphone
A handy media all-rounder of the early 21st centuryThe term ‘smartphone’ refers to mobile telephones which combine the functionality of normal mobiles with modern address and calendar functionality, interactive entertainment programmes, as well as online access. In recent years, target-group-oriented applications – apps – have enjoyed increasing popularity, through which devices gain quick access to Internet-based services.
The Dreaming Boys
An expressionistic children’s book by Oskar Kokoschka, 1908The Austrian painter and graphic artist Oskar Kokoschka was given a commission by the Wiener Werkstätte (Vienna Workshops) in 1907 to design a children’s book. He wrote a text about first love, the period between childhood and adulthood and the longing for foreign countries – issues that already interested him at that time.
The tragic story of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
A masterpiece from the Cranach-Presse printing house, 1929Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Prince of Denmark printed by Cranach-Presse in Weimar is one of this printing house’s most important works and one of the most important hand-pressed prints in German book art. Harry Graf Kessler was responsible for the type and print of the volume, and it was issued by the publishers Insel-Verlag in Leipzig and den S. Fischer Verlag in Berlin.
