2 February 2021 press release

Book bags
The collection of Leipzig publisher Mark Lehmstedt is coming to the German National Library

For more than two decades, the Leipzig publisher and bibliographer Mark Lehmstedt has been collecting all kinds of bags that are dedicated in some way to the world of Gutenberg, printed books, their makers, and the public who reads them. No matter whether they are made of paper, plastic, or linen, brand-new or used, beautiful or ugly, these bags are all testimonies of a literary culture that, at the beginning of the 21st century, has been increasingly under pressure. In honour of his 60th birthday Mark Lehmstedt presents his collection of around 3,000 book bags to the German Museum of Books and Writing at the German National Library in Leipzig.

“As a museum dedicated to book trade the appreciation of industrial manufacturing has been written into the history of the German Museum of Books and Writing since its beginnings,” says Stephanie Jacobs, director of the museum. “The acquisition of this collection will add a whole new dimension to a unique collection that testifies the history of writing, paper, printing, and books. It will also add distinction to a genre that is otherwise largely disregarded.”
Items like these, which most people carelessly discard and even the manufacturers have never kept, are of great interest for an archaeology of the present. The book bags are a reminder of long-lost book dealers and publishers and illustrate the transition from the analogue to the digital age, while the switch from plastic to fabric also reflects the shift towards a sustainability-conscious society. Last but not least, they are marvellous testimonies to design development and product advertising.

Book bags with their imprints have consequently turned out to be a barometer of the state of an entire industry. Originally produced as consumables, it is only with the passage of time that they have acquired the status of items of cultural heritage that can be trusted to make general statements about historical developments.

The collection is now accompanied by a publication; this is neither a catalogue, nor is it a scientific exposition of the history of the (book) bag. Featuring a selection of more than 550 of the most beautiful, interesting and original book bags from throughout the German-speaking countries (along with a few that were a wonderful failure), this book offers an overview of an astonishing variety of motifs and designs.

Mark Lehmstedt: Buchtüten. Werbung für das Buch [Book Bags. Advertising for the Book].
Leipzig: Lehmstedt Verlag, 2021. 120 pages with 580 colour illustrations, 21 x 27 cm, softcover with flaps, thread-sewn binding, ISBN 978-3-95797-125-8, 20 Euro

The publisher will gladly send you a review copy (order: info@lehmstedt.de).

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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 in Leipzig 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 holdings. The Museum has a history of collecting and researching unique commercial material relating to book and media history and providing access to it for scientific purposes.

PD Dr. Mark Lehmstedt, Leipzig publisher and bibliographer, 1990 doctoral thesis on the publisher Philipp Erasmus Reich, 2012 habilitation thesis on comics in the GDR, member of the Historic Commission of the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels (German Books Traders’ Association), chairman of the Leipziger Geschichtsverein (Leipzig History Association), lecturer in the Department of History at the University of Leipzig, numerous publications on the history of books, most recently “Lexikon der Buchstadt Leipzig, Band 1: 1420-1538” (Lexicon of the Book City Leipzig, volume 1: 1420-1538).

Images for editorial use

Press image material is only available in German.