Hans Peter Schmoller (9 April 1916 – 25 September 1985) was a German and British graphic designer who worked as Head of

Typography Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, line-spacing ( leading), ...

and Design at

Penguin Books Penguin Books is a British publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year. During his Penguin years he played a crucial role in postwar British typography, and has been described as one of the most influential typographers of the last century.

Early life and family

His father, Hans, was a

paediatrician Pediatrics ( also spelled ''paediatrics'' or ''pædiatrics'') is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, paediatrics covers many of their youth until the ...

and his mother Marie owned a small business making and selling folded paper lampshades. He excelled in athletics as a child and in 1933 attempted to study art history at university, but was prohibited owing to his

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

descent. Instead he applied to become a student of

Rudolf Koch Rudolf Koch (20 November 1876 – 9 April 1934) was a German type designer, professor, and a master of lettering, calligraphy, typography and illustration. Commonly known for his typefaces created for the Klingspor Type Foundry, his most widely ...

but Koch insisted on Hans receiving prior craft training. In 1933 Schmoller began a four year apprenticeship as a compositor in the Jewish book-printing firm of Siegfried Scholem. He studied fine typography during the day at the Staatliche Kunstbibliothek and in evenings with Johannes Boehland at the Höhere Graphische Fachschule. As the situation in Germany worsened for Jews, Schmoller made efforts to move abroad. He received a letter from the

Paris Evangelical Missionary Society The Paris Evangelical Missionary Society (in French, ''Société des missions évangéliques de Paris''), also known as the ''SMEP'' or ''Mission de Paris'', was a Protestant missionary association created in 1822. As with other Christian societie ...

in Basutoland (now Lesotho) to take a temporary job as manager of the missionary press. In December he returned to Berlin where he saw his parents for the last time, who were transported in October 1942. His father died of a heart attack in the

Theresienstadt Ghetto Theresienstadt Ghetto was established by the SS during World War II in the fortress town of Terezín, in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia ( German-occupied Czechoslovakia). Theresienstadt served as a waystation to the extermination ca ...

soon after arrival, and his mother was murdered in the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1944. Schmoller was interned in South Africa as an enemy alien from July 1940 to April 1942 and became a British citizen in 1946. He married Tanya Schmoller in 1950. In 1949 he replaced

Jan Tschichold Jan Tschichold (born Johannes Tzschichhold, also known as Iwan Tschichold, or Ivan Tschichold; 2 April 1902 – 11 August 1974) was a German calligrapher, typographer and book designer. He played a significant role in the development of gra ...

as Typographer at Penguin Books.

Accomplishments at Penguin

* Buildings of England * Pelican History of Art * The Complete Pelican Shakespeare * Chief examiner in Typography to the City and Guilds of London Institute ''‘Hans Schmoller was one of the last species of typographers with a profound background of the history of types and with an eye nobody could fool.’'' - Hermann Zapf

Notable publications

* Mr. Gladstoneʹs Washi. A survey of Reports on the manufacture of paper in Japan "The Parkes Report of 1871". Bird & Bull Press, Newtown, Pa. 1984. * Hans Schmoller ; Tanya Schmoller ; Henry Morris: ''Chinese decorated papers. "Chinoiserie for three"''. Bird & Bull Press, Newtown, Pa. 1987.

References

External links

Schmoller Collection
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schmoller, Hans 1916 births 1970 deaths 20th-century German artists Artists from Berlin German graphic designers Jewish artists Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United Kingdom Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom Penguin Books people