BERTHOLD’S 1924

HEBREW

TYPE CATALOGUE

RENAISSANCE

BEFORE THE FALLBY STEVEN HELLER

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without vowels), which were commonly used in European andAmerican commercial, book, and newspaper printing. Thesetypes were made available in various weights through gener-al Berthold specimen catalogues, which featured also othernon-western alphabets. But in 1924 a dedicated Hebrew cata-logue was produced that perfectly complimented Berthold’sroutine promotional materials for sheer precision and graph-ic splendor. In hindsight, knowing that barely 11 years later,Jews would be ostracized and so-called ‘Jewish lettering’ wouldalso be outlawed by the Nazi state, makes this catalogue allthe more poignant.

At the time of what some have called the ‘HebrewRenaissance’ in Germany, which took hold throughout Centraland Eastern Europe, the catalogue was nothing less than ajoyous celebration of Hebrew and Yiddish culture. The spec-imens were vibrantly rendered in the dominant Art Nouveauand Art Moderne (Deco) graphic mannerisms used byEuropean printers for all kinds of commercial purposes. Yetthese graphics also exuded a decidedly Jewish style. The manresponsible for the catalogue’s creation, Joseph Tscherkassky,was the Manager of the Oriental Department of H Berthold AG.The department was founded to cater to the growing printingmarket in Europe and abroad. Born in the Ukraine in 1879,Tscherkassky was proprietor of his own self-named foundryin Kiev, where he created Hebrew fonts for secular use. Yetlittle is known about his early life, the success or failure of hisfoundry, or when, in fact, he immigrated to Germany –although his reasons must have been tied to the fortunes (ormisfortunes) of the Revolution. Type historian StephenLubell, author of ‘Joseph Tscherkassky: Orientalist andTypefounder’, published in Gutenberg-Jahrbuch in 1996,writes that Tscherkassky was interested in the traditions ofboth Hebrew and Arabic types. This interest and researchresulted later on in an equally exquisite Berthold compan-ion catalogue dedicated to Arabic faces.

‘Tscherkassky attempted to give the type specimens a veryoriental character combined with his visions of the newHebrew typography,’ writes Lubell about the man who mightarguably be called the Jan Tschichold of Jewish type. Howmany typefaces he commissioned, designed, or whether heeven designed the complete type catalogue is not categoricallyknown. But it is certain that Tscherkassky, at the behest ofBerthold’s directors Dr. Oskar Jolles and Erwin Graumann,was responsible for providing Jewish publishers and culturalorganizations with a well-stocked library of fine types.

EBREW WAS prohibited in Russiaafter the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution,effectively curtailing a rich traditionof Jewish publishing. As a resultthose scholars and authors whocould, emigrated to England, France,and The United States, while a par-ticularly larger number also reset-tled in Germany (in part owing to

the shared linguistics of German and Yiddish). As Berlin’sJewish community swelled in the 1920s, the city became awellspring for Jewish book and periodical publishing withvarious ambitious endeavours. Notably the eight volumeEncyclopedia Judaica (the last volume was published in 1933,the year Hitler was appointed German Chancellor). Anotherimpressive series, the 12 volume Weltgeschichte des JüdischenVolkes, sold over 100,000 copies. In 1931 Salaman Schockenfounded the prestigious Schocken Verlag. A leading Jewishpublisher who produced fiction and non-fiction books, as wellas an acclaimed annual Almanach of Jewish literature. Thefirm released over 225 titles until 1938 when forced into exileafter the Krystal Nacht pogrom (night of broken glass).(Salaman had already left Germany in 1934 for a new life inPalestine, leaving his manager in charge until they couldpublish no longer. Later in the 1980s, over twenty years afterSalaman died, Schocken became an imprint of the Americanpublisher, Pantheon Books).

With this critical mass of Jewish culture emerging duringthe post-Russian Revolution and post-World War I years, itmade sense that one of Germany’s most venerable and largesttype foundries, H Berthold AG, (founded in Berlin in 1858,with outlets in Leipzig, Stuttgart, Vienna, and Riga), would rig-orously develop, produce, and market a relatively wide selec-tion of Hebrew typefaces and ornaments designed both forsecular and religious applications. By the late1910s Bertholdhad already adopted standard fonts used for text and displaybased on original ‘Shephardic’ faces cut in the 16th century byFrench punch-cutter Guillaume Le Bé (known for a keeninterest in Hebrew and Arabic lettering). They also offeredlatter-day variations: Frank Rühl (designed by CantorRafael Frank in 1909 for CF Rühl Schriftgießerei in Leipzig,which was bought by Berthold in 1918), Meruba, Margalit,Rashi, and Miriam. Berthold also seriously invested in theproduction of new faces in the European or ‘Ashkenazi’ styleincluding, Stam, Stam Book, Rahel, and Rambam (all with and

1 Cover of the Berthold Hebrew cat-alogue, reading from left to right. Thiscover has an oriental stylistic sensi-bility that suggests a biblical text.Designer unknown

2 Title page of the Berthold cata-logue in German, reading from leftto right. The Jewish star on this book,when viewed in retrospect, is an omi-nous prefiguring of things to come

3 Title page of the Berthold cata-logue in Hebrew letters, reading fromright to left. Although the catalogue in-cludes Yiddish as well as Hebrew, thelatter was the more ‘official’ language

4 Cover of the Berthold Hebrewcatalogue with Berthold in Hebrewletters. The layout of this catalogueallowed for the fundamental lettersamples when opened this way, andthe applications were shown whenopened in reverse

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5 A type sample using orientalist dec-orative borders and bright ‘mid-eastern’colors. Some of the samples hereinwere for restaurants and businesses,others for biblical excerpts

6 ‘Ramsis Series’ of ornaments basedon Egyptian motifs: Art Nouveau andArt Deco styles borrowed heavily fromthese ancient forms, making them moremodern by simplifying the lines.Berthold used these motifs in theirGerman catalogues as well

7 These type compositions were usedfor admonishing people to emigrateto the State of Israel (top) and as an adfor a travel and automobile agent.Much of the Hebrew type, whether usedfor Yiddish or Hebrew applications,had functional, non-decorative purposes

8 Type specimens displaying differentborder treatments for use in poetry(left) and liturgy (right) were commonthroughout the catalogue

9 These are pages from a bookabout historical objects and localesusing a classical styling wed to theEgyptian motifs shown above

10 Common fluerons and border motifsare drawn from Middle Eastern archi-tecture and applied to printing. Again,many of these elements were used innon-Hebrew Berthold catalogues

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OTHING WAS spared in the production of thecatalogue, which opens both right to left (with text setin Roman) and left to right (with text set in Hebrew).

In addition to its intricately embossed reddish-brown coverswith hints of gold leaf printing (actually quite biblical inappearance), the endpapers are a cleverly repeating patternof interlocking Stars of David with the Berthold logo inHebrew. Inside the bountiful offerings include numerous exam-ples of calligraphic text and display faces along with assort-ments, decorative initial capitals, dingbats, fleurons, andborders. The typefaces are mostly printed in black, yet the orna-ments and a major section devoted to especially designedapplications is saturated in vibrant colours. A few spreads ofsample book title pages show the blend of classical and moderninfluences, while the majority of customized designed samples,included menus, theatre programs, and letter and billheads, areilluminated as though contemporary Medieval manuscripts.There is also a noticeable Arts and Crafts influence in somePre-Raphaelite illuminated initials. But the over-arching stylis-tic trope is streamlined Egyptian borrowed from the Pharaoh’stombs. One of the specimens features a quotation from MartinLuther about the ancient Hebrew language, which Lubellcorrectly observes is ‘a curious and somewhat disconcertingquotation given Martin Luther’s other statements about Jews.’

‘This catalogue of Hebrew and Jewish Types,’ writesTscherkassky in his seven-language Preface (including Arabic),‘the first of its kind should redress a great deficiency hithertoexisting in Hebrew printing matters.’ This correctly presumedgreat interest on the part of publishing houses and bibli-ographic societies to preserve and propagate the Hebrewalphabet and language. ‘“During my long years” as owner ofthe type-foundry Joseph Tscherkassky in Kiew [Kiev] I had nochance of carrying out the long entertained idea of perfectingthe Hebrew types,’ he adds. ‘Only by assistance on the part ofthe firm H Berthold AG the largest type-foundry in GermanyI was able to realize my plans to this great extent.’ He continuesin a salutary tone, it took ‘long years’ toilsome preparatorywork to examine the Berthold stocks of Hebrew types withthe aid of leading Jewish type experts and typographers andI hope I have found the best and most perfect as regards toform, shape and technical make.’ He ends by dedicating thecatalogue to Dr. Jolles on the celebration of his 25th jubileeas Director. Dr. Jolles, incidentally, though trained as an econ-omist and banker, was an avid Jewish bibliophile, the forcebehind Berthold-Drucke private press monographs used for

11 Samples showing common usesof Hebrew characters for food andwine menus as well as a Yiddish musicbook (bottom right) and an announce-ment for a sculpture exhibit (top left).With the influx of Yiddish speakersinto Germany, these applications wereincreasingly common

12 The endpapers of the cataloguefeature a design of interconnectedStars of David with the Hebrew char-acters for H Berthold inserted in themiddle of each

13 Sample of Frank Rühl typefaceusing words from Genesis: Top line:‘In the Beginning’ (ie the lead to theBook of Genesis); Middle line: ‘TheWater;’ Bottom line: ‘One’

14 Old Style Hebrew Capitals (asopposed to Modern Hebrew scripts),titled ‘Syrian Series,’ were popularprinting elements for documents pur-porting to have biblical references

15 More borders and ornaments,titled ‘Leana Shmok Series,’ pro-duced in a Classical spirit

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publishing work of Hebrew type designers and other typematters – and so the perfect advocate for Tscherkassky’s work.

The Berthold Hebrew catalogue was largely responsiblefor spreading the gospel of type throughout central Europe,but it was not the only vehicle. Also in 1924, Berthold pro-duced a booklet of Hebrew types designed by LeopoldKurzböck and Anton Schmid, according to Lubell. And in1925 Berthold also printed a limited edition of 10 verses fromthe ‘Book of Ecclesiasticus’. Still, Tscherkassky’s catalogue wasthe flagship for Hebrew lettering for many years. Althoughhe was not able in 1924 to predict the campaign to rid Europeof Jewish culture (even though Hitler’s beer hall anti-Semitismwas audible), he predicted a resurgence of Yiddish in everydaylife, thus a growing market for books and other commercialprinting. 1924 also marked the founding of The Soncino-Gesellschaft (the Society for the Friends of Jewish Book) inGermany, which according the Lubell was critical of the cata-logue in its official newsletter. Although grateful to Bertholdfor making the effort, the society took issue with the nuancesof its design. ‘Yet once again one must add with regret, that thecreation of a completely satisfactory, well-conceived and clas-sical Hebrew type has not yet been achieved’ wrote a review-er. Similar sighs of classical angst were also heard when in1925 Tschichold edited an issue of the magazine TM, devotedto radical modern ‘Elementare Typographie’. Tscherkassky wasunderstandably disappointed by the response.

While Tscherkassky’s contribution was considerable, themarket for commercial Hebrew type did not grow as rapidly asanticipated. This may have been one reason why in 1930 hemoved to South America to manage a Berthold branch inBrazil. Lubell assumes he was demoted from his position inBerlin, but nonetheless the move saved his life. Three yearslater in1933 he was fired in a move that prefigured the wide-spread dismissals of Jews from German professions. He starteda new printing company, which became the largest packagingprinter in South America. Although Joseph Tscherkasskyseemed to have abandoned his overt interests in Hebrew types,Berthold’s 1924 Hebrew type catalogue – while rare today –is a crucial historical document in light of the fate that befell theJews of (and so-called Jewish lettering in) Europe.

16 This rate sheet for a business iswhere Egyptian meets Art Decostyling, printed in vibrant, almost flu-orescent colors; it both suggests aunique Hebrew style while conform-ing to international trends in design

17 A sample page that includes apassage from the Torah, from a bookcalled ‘Stories from the Torah,’aboutJacob and his son Joseph. It employsan oriental motif

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