Last German typefounder

[Ed Vermue]

I'm in communication with Rainer Gerstenberg in Germany. He started with Stempel and has been casting hot metal since 1963, billing himself as "the last trained typecaster in Europe."

https://www.rainer-gerstenberg.de/?lang=en

He has space in the Hessian State Museum in Darmstadt, close to the birthplace of printing with moveable type. He tells me that the management of the museum is renovating and doing away with his foundry. He doesn't know the future of all of his equipment. There should be a wider conversation about re-homing his foundry which includes 40 machines and typefaces, this shouldn't be Rainer's battle on his own.

[Dave Hughes]

Hi Ed, thanks for bringing Rainer's plight to our attention.

Is there anything that ordinary members of the public can do to help?

[Michael Ruehle]

Wow. Such short-sightedness on the part of museum management.

I have family in Hessen, some who are lawyers, so I'll reach out and see if they are up for writing some sternly-worded objections as local citizens (which may be something that carries more weight).

Once I have some good German text for that, we might consider a change.org or similar campaign amongst type aficionados calling for preservation and even a program to revive the skills.

They have quite a few "old tech" schools in Germany meant to preserve traditions...

[Dave Hughes]

Wow. Such short-sightedness on the part of museum management.

I have family in Hessen, some who are lawyers, so I'll reach out and see if they are up for writing some sternly-worded objections as local citizens (which may be something that carries more weight).

Once I have some good German text for that, we might consider a change.org or similar campaign amongst type aficionados calling for preservation and even a program to revive the skills.

They have quite a few "old tech" schools in Germany meant to preserve traditions...

That sounds like a good plan Michael, please keep us informed of any progress.

[Marco Di Bella]

Definitely everyone interested in any aspect of letterpress should take action! Please keep us informed!

[BWhitley]

I've written several "letters," and signed and started petitions, but none of that seems to do any good.

Someone on the ground in Europe might have more effect than concerned printers and historians in the US.

The people making decisions here have an agenda, and they're stalling for time.

You might want to contact the AEPM (Association for European Printing Museums) which is aware of Rainer's situation.

[Ed Vermue]

Hi Ed, thanks for bringing Rainer's plight to our attention.

Is there anything that ordinary members of the public can do to help?

I'm hoping that there are people on this site who have some "inside intelligence" on German heritage.

I think that for anyone with good German language skills and a knowledge of who is who, might be able to generate some awareness in the public, government, grant organizations and philanthropists.

I'm not in any position to do any of that.  It just sounds to me like Ranier is currently on his own.

[Stefan Just]

Good evening, I'm writing from Munich, Germany, I came to read Your blog by recommendation of Wolfgang Schierl and I'm answering because the topic of Rainer Gerstenbergs type foundry came very close to me during the last months.

I've been a customer of his a few times, he was very reliable and sent me single letters in any quantity I wanted. So I wrote a rather personal (handwritten) letter to the secretary of culture of the land of Hessen - in whose responsibility the whole thing is. I could write in the name of the "Verein für die Schwarze Kunst", because they asked their members to do more than just sign a general petition.

The secretary's name was Angela Dorn, meanwhile she's replaced because the Green Party is no longer in the government in Hessen. 6 weeks later, on Jan. 15th, I got a personal and very friendly letter from her expressing her understanding of our concerns and saying: "Ich kann Ihnen mitteilen, dass sich aktuell eine Lösung für die Fortführung des Betriebs von Herrn Gerstenberg an anderer Stelle abzeichnet, so dass davon auszugehen ist, dass die Schriftgießerei erhalten bleibt." Which sounds good and leaves, though, a little room for doubt, if the next Secretary of Culture sticks to these promises.

Here's Stefan's letter in full (in German).


https://metaltype.co.uk/images/forum/Gerstenberg.pdf

Machine translation to English (not great!):

Subject: Gerstenberg type foundry in the House of Industrial Culture in Darmstadt

Munich, November 21, 2023

Dear Minister Ms. Dorn, dear affected clerks,

Parallel to an ongoing collection of signatures, I would like to tell you about the subject of type foundry Gerstenberg also writes for a personal reason. I have a hand press that Munich "briquette press", which works with the materials that Mr. Gerstenberg used as the last one in Germany now manufactures and offers.

I have attended again and again over the years ordered him and knows that a lot of what still exists in the niche of book printing and typesetting is through Computer typesetting and screen-generated fonts can only be replaced imperfectly. It would be a miracle if, in more than 500 years of printing, there weren't something special and distinctive would have been created and it would be a great loss if it only continued to exist as a museum would.

The cultural technique of printing is directly linked to our entire cultural development together. Many intellectual workers, since the beginning of modern times, have had very precise demands the typesetters and printers of their works. This led to a great closeness, and it is not It is surprising that printers and type founders became more and more popular even in the beginning of the workers' movement were on the progressive side.

With the gradual death of the great German type foundries, Berthold, Stempel, Bauer, Klingspor, Wagner, the knowledge of the techniques is also limited to fewer and fewer niches and fewer and fewer people were able to pass on this knowledge. I'm writing to you the simple fear that maybe you just can't fathom what a loss it is the atomization of the last working foundry in Europe would be, and what an opportunity on the other hand, it means that Mr. Ger stenberg could still train successors.

I would like therefore to urgently ask those affected at the Landesmuseum Darmstadt to make their decision To withdraw the closure of the type foundry and to consider models for further work, whereby help here would certainly come from those who still work with the old techniques in Germany.

Hesse is the land of Gutenberg and the museum named after him, it is the land of Bauerschen and Klingsporschen foundry and many old printing houses and publishing houses. There's one there Responsibility, but, if you will, a beautiful one.

With best regards and a bit of hope,

[Dave Hughes]

Here's a machine translation of the German-language part of Stefan's post:

"Ich kann Ihnen mitteilen, dass sich aktuell eine Lösung für die Fortführung des Betriebs von Herrn Gerstenberg an anderer Stelle abzeichnet, so dass davon auszugehen ist, dass die Schriftgießerei erhalten bleibt."

"I can inform you that a solution is currently emerging for Mr. Gerstenberg's continuation of operations elsewhere, so it can be assumed that the type foundry will be retained."

[Ed Vermue]

Thank you Stefan. I'm relieved that there are those able to carry the message to the government.  I hope they will intervene and the foundry can be preserved.