Press release: 20.6.2013

Friedrich Pfäfflin is to be awarded the Gutenberg Prize of the City of Leipzig - prompting the German National Library in Leipzig to present an exhibition entitled “Reihenweise – folgenreich: aus der Arbeit eines Serien-Täters”. A committed maker of books, the award-winner Pfäfflin has devised numerous book series over the last half century.

Deploying a successful combination of classic typography, experimental and playful handling of fonts, subtle use of materials, bold utilisation of colour and a painstaking attention to detail, Pfäfflin creates aesthetic conceptions for literatary and publishing history topics, and documents which he is responsible for editing, publishing and also, to a not inconsiderable extent, providing the content. The imagination of this “serial offender” is particularly striking in the cover designs of his book series.

The key series of Friedrich Pfäfflin, a selection of which is being displayed, include the Kösel publishing house news plus special issues (1963 to 1972), 100 editions of the Marbacher Magazin (1976-2000), 27 volumes of the Marbach catalogues, 52 Marbacher Spuren issues, the Bibliotheca Bodmeriana in Cologny, Geneva (2001-2003), the publications of the Munich Lyrik Kabinett (since 1999), Ulrich Keicher's prints of the Janowitz library (since 2001) and the exhibition catalogues of the Verband Deutscher Antiquare (since 2007).

The prize-winner Pfäfflin was born in 1935 and was an employee - and lector - of various well-known publishing houses and book shops in Stuttgart, Hamburg, Paris, Tübingen, Munich; he was head of the museum department of the Schiller-Nationalmuseum / Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach; he worked as an editor and author with John Haertfield, Karl Kraus, Else Lasker-Schüler, Mechtilde Lichnowsky, Berthold Viertel and Ludwig Greve; he is a member of the Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung; a member of the PEN club and honorary doctor of the Philosophy Faculty of the University of Tübingen.

Oberbürgermeister Burkhard Jung is to present the Gutenberg Prize of the City of Leipzig to Friedrich Pfäfflin at an official ceremony held at the German National Library in June 2013. The Gutenberg Prize has been awarded every two years since 1959 - and has alternated since 1993 with the city of Mainz. It honours individuals and institutions which have rendered great service in the form of outstanding and exemplary artistic, technical or scientific achievements especially in the fields of typography, book illustration, book art editing and book manufacture.

Reihenweise – folgenreich: aus der Arbeit eines Serien-Täters
Exhibition at the German Museum of Books and Writing of the German National Library in Leipzig from 21 June to 29 September 2013
Opening hours: Monday to Saturday 10:00 - 18:00
Admission is free of charge.

Background

The book has shaped our culture and civilisation like no other medium. For centuries our knowledge about the world and its peoples has been stored in books. The task of the German Book and Writing Museum of the German National Library is to collect, exhibit and process evidence of book and media history. Founded in 1884 as the Deutsches Buchgewerbemuseum (German Book Trade Museum), it is the oldest museum in the world in the field of book culture, and also one of the most important with regard to the scope and quality of its stocks.

The main focus is on the book and its myriad aspects: as an ingenious invention and as the product of economic and technical processes, as a social icon and the most important vehicle of culture, as a work of art and as a censored and burned repository of ideas.

Contact persons

s.jacobs@dnb.de
Hannelore Schneiderheinze