Gerd Hatje (14 April 1915 – 24 July 2007) was a German publisher. The publishing house that he founded in 1945, named the Humanitas Verlag, renamed in 1947 as Verlag Gerd Hatje, is internationally known for contemporary art, photography and architecture. It merged in to
Hatje Cantz in 1999.
Career
Hatje was born in
Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
, utc_offset1 = +1
, timezone1_DST = Central (CEST)
, utc_offset1_DST = +2
, postal ...
, the son of ''Eisenbahngewerkschafter'' and his wife Lina. The family moved to
Stuttgart when he was age 15. He apprenticed as a
typesetter
Typesetting is the composition of text by means of arranging physical ''type'' (or ''sort'') in mechanical systems or '' glyphs'' in digital systems representing '' characters'' (letters and other symbols).Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random ...
.
In November 1945, Hatje received a licence to found a publishing house from the American and the French
military government, which he called ''Humanitas Verlag''. It first published literature,
novellas,
novels,
world literature
World literature is used to refer to the total of the world's national literature and the circulation of works into the wider world beyond their country of origin. In the past, it primarily referred to the masterpieces of Western European lit ...
(''Weltliteratur''), and books on jazz. He renamed the house ''Verlag Gerd Hatje'' in 1947.
In the 1950s and 1960s, Hatje changed the focus to art, photography, and architecture.
He had contact with and was a friend of contemporary artists such as
Hans Arp,
Willi Baumeister
Willi Baumeister (22 January 1889 – 31 August 1955) was a German painter, scenic designer, art professor, and typographer. His work was part of the art competitions at the 1928 Summer Olympics and the 1932 Summer Olympics.
Life
Born in ...
,
Joseph Beuys
Joseph Heinrich Beuys ( , ; 12 May 1921 – 23 January 1986) was a German artist, teacher, performance artist, and art theorist whose work reflected concepts of humanism, sociology, and anthroposophy. He was a founder of a provocative art mov ...
,
Max Bill
Max Bill (22 December 1908 – 9 December 1994) was a Swiss architect, artist, painter, typeface designer, industrial designer and graphic designer.
Early life and education
Bill was born in Winterthur. After an apprenticeship as a silversm ...
,
Georges Braque,
Marcel Breuer
Marcel Lajos Breuer ( ; 21 May 1902 – 1 July 1981), was a Hungarian-born modernist architect and furniture designer.
At the Bauhaus he designed the Wassily Chair and the Cesca Chair, which ''The New York Times'' have called some of the most i ...
,
Marc Chagall,
Christo
Christo Vladimirov Javacheff (1935–2020) and Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon (1935–2009), known as Christo and Jeanne-Claude, were artists noted for their large-scale, site-specific environmental installations, often large landmarks and ...
,
Le Corbusier,
Max Ernst
Max Ernst (2 April 1891 – 1 April 1976) was a German (naturalised American in 1948 and French in 1958) painter, sculptor, printmaker, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and Surrealis ...
,
Alberto Giacometti,
Walter Gropius
Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (18 May 1883 – 5 July 1969) was a German-American architect and founder of the Bauhaus School, who, along with Alvar Aalto, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright, is widely regarded as one ...
,
Joan Miró,
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...
,
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and
James Stirling. He collaborated with international publishers such as
Harry N. Abrams and
Thames and Hudson
Thames & Hudson (sometimes T&H for brevity) is a publisher of illustrated books in all visually creative categories: art, architecture, design, photography, fashion, film, and the performing arts. It also publishes books on archaeology, history, ...
. Hatje described publishing as "intellectual spaces are made accessible".
The publishing house gained international recognition.
In 1990, he sold the publishing house to ''Dr. Cantz'sche Druckerei''. The companies merged as
Hatje Cantz in 1999.
Hatje kept working on a daily basis as senior editor.
He died in
Stuttgart.
Awards
Hatje was awarded the
Order of Merit of Baden-Württemberg
Order of Merit of Baden-Württemberg (german: link=no, Verdienstorden des Landes Baden-Württemberg) is the highest award of the German State of Baden-Württemberg. Established 26 November 1974, it was originally called the Medal of Merit of Bad ...
in 1996.
He was made Honorary Senator of the Stuttgart Academy of Arts.
References
External links
*
Verlag Gerd Hatjeopenlibrary.org
14.4.2005: Gerd Hatje (90)buchmarkt.de
Hatje Cantz, 14 April 2015
Ich wollte Bücher machen – Gerd HatjeLiteraturhaus Stuttgart
Edition Gerd Hatjechristies.com
History of Verlag Gerd Hatje
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hatje, Gerd
German book publishers (people)
20th-century publishers (people)
Recipients of the Order of Merit of Baden-Württemberg
1915 births
2007 deaths