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34: John Heartfield, part V

November 29, 2010

This week we’ll look at some John Heartfield designed covers he did for publishers other than Malik-Verlag. The covers here are from two other Berlin publishing houses: Verlag für Literatur und Politik and Neuer Deutscher Verlag. The image to the left is a cover Heartfield did for Fjodor Gladkow’s Zement (Verlag für Literatur und Politik, 1927), and is a testament to his ability to make an effective design with only the simplest elements.
 
Here are a couple more covers he did for Verlag für Literatur und Politik, first a Franz Jung book on Jack London (1924) and then Alexander Fadejew’s Die Neunzehn (1928). I love the yellow dot at the bottom left!:
 

 
Heartfield also did the cover design for the Verlag für Literatur und Politik’s 1927 edition of John Reed’s Zehn Tage, die die Welt erschütterten (10 Days that Shook the World). Below on the right is the cover in color, and below it is a mock-up of the cover design in process. To the left is the original cover Heartfield did for the 1922 edition, published by Verlag der Kommunistischen Internationale.
 

 

 
I really love much of the work he did for Neuer Deutscher Verlag. In 1927 Illustratrierte Geschichte der Russischen Revolution was published. Both the back and front covers are below, the back (on the left) is graphically stunning, a great use of spot color in a montage.
 

 
In 1929 they published Kurt Tucholsky’s Deutschland, Deutschland über alles, which has a great cover that is rightfully one of Heartfield’s best known. The insides also contained many Heartfield montages. Below shows the full cover, with spine:
 

 
Neuer Deutscher also published Otto Rühle’s Illustrierte Kultur—und Sittengeschichte. Kampf und Leben des Proletariats (1929/30) and Tarassow-Rodionow’s Februar. Der Trilogie erster Teil (1930):
 

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Anti-capitalismCulture & Media

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