Jan and Edith Tschichold on the way to Leipzig,
May 1971. Photo by the author.

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CHRONOLOGY

1902

1914

1916-19

1919-21

1921-3

1923-5

1923

1925

1925-6

1926

1926-33

1928

1929

Born 2 April in Leipzig, eldest son of Franz Tschichold, sign painter and
lettering artist, and his wife Maria, née Zapff.

‘bugra’ (International Exhibition of the Graphic Arts) in Leipzig was an
important event, and the ‘Hall of Culture’, which remained open after
the main exhibition closed, laid the foundations of Tschichold’s
education.

Student at Teacher Training College in Grimma, near Leipzig.

Tschichold, aged seventeen, was accepted into the class of Professor
Hermann Delitsch at the Academy for Graphic Arts and Book Production in
Leipzig, and learned calligraphy, engraving, etching, wood-engraving and
book-binding. Delitsch was above all a calligrapher, and introduced
Tschichold to the writing masters of the Italian Renaissance.

Worked in School of Arts and Crafts, Dresden, under Heinrich Wieynck, and
was then appointed assistant in charge of evening classes in lettering at the
Leipzig Academy, by Walter Tiemann, whose special student he became.

Freelance typographer and calligrapher in Leipzig.

First Bauhaus exhibition at Weimar, visited by Tschichold.

Tschichold’s ‘Elementare Typographie’ published as a special number of
Typographische Mitteilungen, Leipzig.

Freelance work in Berlin.

Married Edith Kramer. Invited by Paul Renner to German Master Printers
School, Munich, to teach typography and calligraphy.

Taught C.30 hours a week in Munich.

Tschichold’s first book, Die neue Typographie, published in Berlin.

Birth of son Peter.

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