Günter Gerhard Lange
Commitment in phototypesetting and type library1921-2008Günther Gerhard Lange was a man who was hardly known among the public and yet he revolutionised the graphic industry within a few decades. His work for the company H. Berthold AG in Berlin, which was founded in 1858, led to the presentation of the first phototypesetting machine – the Diatype – 100 years later.
Tolbert Langston
Founder of the Monotype typesetting method1844-1913In Europe his name is all but unknown, but Tolbert Lanston achieved significant advancements for the printing industry. After fighting in the American civil war, he worked for the government pension department and met Hermann Hollerith, the inventor of the punch card method, there.
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
Philosopher, natural scientist and inventor1646-1716Lawyer’s son Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz already attended Leipzig University at the age of 14 and, while strolling in Rosenthal, he pondered the great philosophical concepts which had dominated western thinking since the Antique.
Louis Lemoine
Designer of Walt Disney’s amusement parks*1952Louis L. Lemoine completed an art degree at California State University in Los Angeles as a design major. In the 1980s he worked as an instructor at the city’s Trade Technical College and obtained a lifelong teaching licence for California’s community colleges.
Justus von Liebig
Chemist, entrepreneur and name giver for the “Liebigbilder” (Liebig pictures – collectors’ pieces)1803-1873The son of a druggist and paint dealer from Darmstadt had already achieved the title of professor in Giessen at the age of 21 after finishing his studies in chemistry in Bonn and Erlangen. He maintained this position until 1852 and then transferred to Munich.
El Lissitzky
A representative of the Russian avant-garde1890-1941El Lissitzky studied architecture from 1909 to 1914 at the Polytechnic University in Darmstadt before returning to his native Russia, where he undertook courses at a number of institutions including the Vitebsk Art School and the architecture department of the State Higher Artistic and Technical Workshops (Vkhutemas), a state-run art school in Moscow.
Herb Lubalin
Avant-garde graphics from New York for the advertising industry1918-1981Among typography aficionados, Herb Lubalin’s name is inextricably linked to one font above all others. His Avante Garde typeface is considered, retrospectively, either an innovative, trendsetting typeface or, conversely, the epitome of soulless formalism. A fifty-year-old Lubalin designed the Avante Garde font in 1968 for the newly founded lifestyle magazine of the same name.
Niklas Luhmann
Systems theory from a card index box1927-1999Even today, opinion is split on Niklas Luhmann’s life’s work in sociology – systems theory. Critics regard it as an easily understandable abstract theory made in an ivory tower of academia that avoids any kind of moral position; it's proponents view it as a innovative approach to observing human interaction.
Martin Luther
The Reformer1483-1546Printing was as important for the Reformation as the internet is today for the dissemination of revolutionary ideas. Martin Luther was the first person to make extensive use of the medium of popular prints in order to spread his ideas of a true Christianity.
E. Marlitt
Opera singer – public reader – bestselling author 1825-1887After the loss of her hearing had abruptly ended her fledgling musical career, the classically-trained singer Eugenie John began, in 1853, to serve the Princess of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen as a social attendant, travel companion, reader of literature and composer of letters.
