Lucian Bernhard

(Stuttgart, Germany, 1883 - New York, NY, USA, 1972)

Perhaps the greatest proponent of the Sachplakat (“object poster”), Lucian Bernhard was born Emil Kahn in Stuttgart, and assumed his better-known pseudonym in 1905. By and large, the artist was self-taught, although he did study at the Academy of Fine Arts Munich for a time. An 1898 exhibition at the Munich Glaspalast showcasing graphic works by French artists Jules Chéret, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and Alphonse Mucha alongside works by the British Beggarstaff Brothers left a young Bernhard “drunk with color.” This effect was soon to reverberate throughout his graphics.

Bernhard moved to Berlin in 1901, finding work as a poster designer and magazine art director. He eventually joined the renowned printing firm Hollerbaum & Schmidt, where he oversaw a team of artists that included Ernst Deutsch, Hans Rudi Erdt, Edmund Edel, Julius Klinger, and others. Bernhard's Hollerbaum & Schmidt designs,  for clients such as Adler Typewriters, Bosch, and Stiller Shoes, constitute some of the most memorable examples of the Sachplakat.

Beginning in 1920, Bernhard was named the first professor of graphic design at the Berlin School of Arts and Crafts; he resigned in 1922 and emigrated to New York. Here, in 1928, he established the first international design consortium, Contempora.

Edmund Edel

(Stolp, Pommern (Poland), 1863 - Berlin, Germany, 1934)

As a young man, Edmund Edel was apprenticed to a businessman and traveled to Paris for training. Once there, however, he decided to become an artist. At the end of 1886, he went to Munich, where he studied first at Simon Hollósy’s private painting school and then at the Royal Academy of Painting. Another trip to Paris followed, for an additional two years of study at the prestigious Académie Julien. 

Paris also exposed Edel to the graphic work of Jules Chéret and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, who inspired him to apprentice at the Brussels print shop of O. de Rycker in 1891. After a year in Belgium, Edel moved to Berlin and began working as an illustrator. Beginning in 1896, he contributed to the satirical magazines Ulk, Fliegende Blätter, and Der Wahre Jacob, and was art director for Narrenschiff, a short-lived competitor to the immensely popular Munich weekly Simplicissimus. Edel’s caricatures are notable for their subtle, precisely chosen details. 

Edel also did commercial assignments for theaters, art associations, cabarets, and the Ullstein Verlag, and worked as costume designer for Ernst von Wolzogen’s Berlin cabaret Überbrettl. 

After 1916, Edel’s attention shifted to screenwriting and directing films. Denounced by the Nazi party, he passed away in 1934.

Julius Klinger

(Dornbach, Germany, 1876 - Maly Trostinets, Belarus, 1942)

Although born in Vienna, Julius Klinger is most strongly associated with Berlin. After attending the Technologisches Gewerbemuseum, a trade school, and taking private art lessons with the Secessionist painter Koloman Moser, Klinger moved to Berlin in 1897. Here he would enjoy nearly two decades of enormous productivity as a writer, typographer, illustrator, and commercial artist. His drawings and designs graced the pages of the magazine Lustige Blätter, as well as countless posters advertising cabaret and theatrical performances, modes of transportation, and technological and design exhibitions. From 1898 onward, he was affiliated with Ernst Growald’s prestigious printing firm, Hollerbaum & Schmidt. He enjoyed a close friendship with Hans Sachs, an early collector of posters and the founder of the Verein der Plakatfreunde (Association of the Friends of the Poster). In 1911, Klinger joined the Deutscher Werkbund  and began teaching at the Schule Reimann, where he promoted a broader notion of modern design, encompassing fashion illustration, window display, and exhibition design. 

After serving in the Austrian army during World War I, Klinger resumed working as a designer. His comprehensive advertising program for Tabu Cigarettes was ubiquitous in Vienna. For a short while he lived in Detroit, working for the firm McManus Inc. He was invited to join the international design consortium Contempora (founded in Manhattan by his former Hollerbaum & Schmidt colleague, Lucian Bernhard), and in late 1931, led a ten-week seminar at the New School for Social Research. On June 2, 1942, the Nazis deported Klinger and his wife to Maly Trostinets, where they were murdered one week later.