Die Brücke (the Bridge) was an advocacy institute founded in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, in 1911. The official name was (The Bridge - International institute to organise intellectual work).

Description

Die Brücke was founded by Karl Wilhelm Bührer and Adolf Saager. It was essentially supported by

Wilhelm Ostwald Wilhelm Friedrich Ostwald (; – 4 April 1932) was a Latvian chemist and philosopher. Ostwald is credited with being one of the founders of the field of physical chemistry, with Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff, Walther Nernst and Svante Arrhenius. ...

. Amongst other supporters were Svante Arrhenius and Wilhelm Erner. Paul Otlet was named Honorary President. The Bridge tried to build a comprehensive, illustrated encyclopedia on sheets of standardized formats. Its aim was to improve and organize scholarly information and communication. The following tasks were mentioned and (partially) carried out: * to make a world archive of published material, especially from journals, catalogues, advertising material etc. It is mentioned that the Music and Theater section alone contained over 1 million items. * to be the source of information for exhibits and other activities * to become a college of organisation and organisation management * to publish a bi-weekly journal, ''Die Brückenzeitung''. The journal was had runs of 6.000 to 10.000 copies and was distributed either freely (reference 1) or for 10 Mark/year . Publication ceased when Die Brücke went bankrupt in 1913. * to set world standards for published material The archive seems to have existed, but was destroyed after Die Brücke went bankrupt. The college never started, the journal was published and a world standard was set.

Weltformat - World Standard

One of the main tasks of Die Brücke was to make a world standard for published materials. This was a new idea at the time. The idea was very simple and was based on two rules: * each standard size would be a rectangle with a dimensional ratio of √2 * each successive standard size would double in area, beginning with 1.41 cm² The standards were named World Standards (Weltformat) I-XVI and had the following sizes: *I : 1 x 1.41 cm *II : 1.41 x 2 cm *III : 2 x 2.83 cm *IV : 2.83 x 4 cm *V : 4 x 5.66 cm *VI : 5.66 x 8 cm — The standards I–VI were meant for labels, tickets, stamps, ex-libris and similar small items. *VII : 8 x 11.3 cm *VIII : 11.3 x 16 cm *IX : 16 x 22.6 cm *X : 22.6 x 32 cm — The standards VIII–X were meant for small books, leaflets and similar publications. *XI : 32 x 45.3 cm *XII : 45.3 x 64 cm *XIII : 64 x 90.5 cm *XIV : 90.5 x 128 cm *XV : 128 x 181 cm *XVI : 181 x 256 cm The institute wanted to promote their new standard by having advertisements and other items being printed in their format. They thus approached influential businessmen to adopt their standard. One of these was

Ludwig Roselius Ludwig Roselius (2 June 1874 – 15 May 1943) was a German coffee merchant and founder of the company Kaffee HAG. He was born in Bremen and is credited with the development of commercial decaffeination of coffee. As a patron, he supported ar ...

, founder of the Coffee Hag company. Karl Wilhelm Bührer approached the heraldic artist Otto Hupp and together with Roselius they started a large publication on German (and later foreign) arms of towns, cities and villages (known as the Coffee Hag albums). In the Coffee Hag packages coupons were added, for which one could obtain stamps with the arms of a town or city. These stamps could be glued in the albums. The stamps were printed in Weltformat V, the albums in Weltformat IX. These standards were also mentioned on the stamps and in the books to promote the idea. The series were issued long after the Brücke was abolished, and in the second edition of the German albums the referral to the Weltformat was removed. The size of the stamps, however, remained identical in all European albums until the 1950s. The Swiss stamps still used the text Weltformat V until the mid-1920s. The Brücke went bankrupt in 1913 and was abolished in 1914. The idea for a world standard was taken over by the

DIN DIN or Din or din may refer to: People and language * Din (name), people with the name * Dīn, an Arabic word with three general senses: judgment, custom, and religion from which the name originates * Dinka language (ISO 639 code: din), spoken ...

institute in 1922 and the present A1-A6 standard paper sizes are based on the same idea as the World standards of Die Brücke.

References

* ''Die Ortswappen des Königreichs Preussen. 1. Heft. Ostpreussen''. Issued by Coffee Hag, Bremen in 1913. It contains 5 pages on the Brücke, its tasks and the role of Coffee Hag. * Thomas Hapke
Wilhelm Ostwald, the "Brücke" (Bridge), and connections to other bibliographic activities at the beginning of the twentieth century
In

/ Edited by Mary Ellen Bowden, Trudi Bellardo Hahn, Robert V. Williams. Medford, NJ: Information Today, 1999. S. 139–147.

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brucke, Die Research institutes in Germany 1911 establishments in Germany Scientific organizations established in 1911 1913 disestablishments in Germany Organizations disestablished in 1913 1910s in science Information technology research institutes Knowledge sharing Defunct organisations based in Germany Organisations based in Munich