The Lifestory of Hermann Zapf

On the day I finished my apprenticeship, I handed in my notice and a few days later went to Frankfurt - without a journeyman’s certificate. I wouldn’t have stood a chance of getting a work permit for another company in Nuremberg. They could check up on everything using the so-called labor-book that everyone had to have.

In Frankfurt I went to the "Werkstatt Haus zum Fürsteneck", which was run by Paul Koch, son of Rudolf Koch. The Haus zum Fürsteneck was a beautiful building dating from around 1360. It stood on the Weckmarkt corner of the Fahrgasse. It was completely destroyed during the 1944 air raids on Frankfurt.

Most of my time there was spent in typography and writing songbooks. I learned a lot during my time at the Werkstatt Haus zum Fürsteneck. All my colleagues were specialists covering a wide range of subjects. One of the hallmarks of Paul Koch was his musical notation printing on the manual press.

It was through the print historian Gustav Mori that I first came into contact with the D. Stempel AG type foundry and Linotype GmbH in Frankfurt. It was for them that I designed my first printed type in 1938, a fraktur type called "Gilgengart".

On 1 April 1939 I was called up to reinforce the Siegfried Line against France near Pirmasens. I wasn’t used to the hard labor, my hand being skilled in the use of a brush rather than a heavy spade. After a few weeks I developed heart trouble and was sent to the writing room. There I wrote out the camp records and sports certificates in my best fraktur letters (see Figure 1).

In early September 1939, when war had broken out and the entire unit was to be taken into the Wehrmacht, I was informed that unfortunately, due to my heart complaint, I was not going to be transferred, but would be dismissed. I was not at all sad about this, it was my comrades who were sad about having to stay at the French border. But again on 1 April - this time in 1942 and not an April fool’s joke in sight - the Prussians summoned me to do my bit for the war effort. They were not sending me to the airforce, for which I had been selected, but instead to the artillery in Weimar. That’s just the way it is in the army.

I had problems with my superiors from day one. During training I often confused my left and my right, a problem which I still have today. To make matters worse, I was over-cautious and very clumsy with my gun. I soon had the officers in a state of despair and brought a premature end to my career in the artillery.