Bindery Done

There was once a bindery in Berlin that was situated under railroad tracks... Incorporating that into my train layout seemed like a wonderful way to combine interests...

This is the concluding post of my "bindery" thread, wrapping up my big push in the last week or so to outfit the interior of the bindery. Shelves and cabinet fronts downloaded from Scalescenes, a few shelves ordered (3-d printed and laser cut) that still require work, but the heavy lifting of workbench, counter tops, board shear, Prägnant stamping press, and standing press were all scratch built to 1:87 or thereabouts. As a frame of reference most figures are just under 2cm tall, and "standard" bench height is about 1cm high.

Not sure why I do this to myself as it would have been so much easier to just glue in some photos from a bindery, set back behind the [grimy] window to make it look realish. What I do know is that it wouldn't have been half as much fun. Bonus, Fritz Otto and his smaller hands helped out a lot.

Counters and shelves assembled. That dropped section is
that way for a reason. 😉

Bench assembled. It has storage shelves
underneath for board and paper.
The black things are parts for the board shear.

No, that's not a Star Wars TIE fighter... Just board shear parts.

The assembled board shear, really just a massively over-sized
paper/sheet metal cutter. Note the blade...

Bindery staff debating the position of the blade when not in use...
Down like above, ...

..., or up like here. Most colleagues seem to say down.
I have mine up, so it's ready to use...
Yes, the blade moves.

Next piece of equipment, the Prägnant stamping press.
I loved using this as an apprentice because it was very easy to
adjust and you could see exactly where the type was going...
More here on Instagram.

See where the Prägnant stamping press goes.
Lower than the counters is the ideal working height.

Last big piece of equipment, a standing press. Still want to make
some hand-/finishing-presses, but yikes...
Note the posters on walls.

The posters for the bindery walls pull together a lot of threads from my bookbinding
related life, from Ernst Collin and W. Collin, to Babette, to Werner Kiessig,
to apprentice journal cartoons and bindery advertising.
Several also reference women binders, and this is a woman run bindery.

The bindery has a copper clad roof, too. And, yes, it is removable
to get the best view of the details, and light it up, sort of. 
Still some details to add like awnings over the side door and windows.

Also going to replace the windows. I liked the griminess,
but when sealing it with mat spray it got too cloudy.
It's good to have clean windows, and this is Germany after all.

Looking in through the new windows.

And more windows you can see through. Also added some window boxes an awning above.

We're closed now, but it looks like someone left their bike outside.
Hopefully, it'll still be there in the morning.

Still to do beyond the things already mentioned, making some Potemkinish stacks of work in progress, and hanging a shingle from the facade. Loving how this looks, and glad to have this model on my train layout, especially as it ties together so many personal experiences and research interests.

Getting the windows washed for the public opening of Buchbinderei.
The bike seems to have made it through the night unscathed.

Buchbinderei at night. Everyone is working late...

Buchbinderei is also no more, the space having become Tipico, a betting salon. As can be expected, the facade was repainted as well. I will imagine that the original Buchbinderi is just hidden beneath the sign... 

Tipico, formerly Buchbinderei, in Berlin.
Photo by https://buchrestaurierung-berlin.de/.
Danke für die Aufnahme.

Bindery Interior Progress

It's always wonderful when different parts of our lives and interests can intersect. In addition to bookbinding and conservation, model railroading has long been an interest and big part of my life, also in terms of basement square footage. 😏

In an earlier post, I described using photographic images to reinterpret an existing structure on my layout. At this stage almost all the structures on my layout are made from cardboard and paper including laser cut kits, but increasingly built from scratch by me using scraps from the bindery. In addition to the raw materials, there are also the skills of a binder that are widely applied, especially box making. After all, what is structure but an overly complicated box. You can read descriptions of some other similar projects on my main model railroad page.

Fritz Otto inspecting the facade so far.

Still a ways to go, but the elements fit on this weird, triangular
building site. Here the new bindery owner Gertrud Jannowitz poses
in front while her picture is taken [for the local paper?].

More images of the bindery exterior construction on the Papphausen blog. Papphausen? Papp[e] = card or cardboard. Makes sense, right?

Still to be determined is the interior, but the space is framed out, walls up, ... Pics of that process here. Now comes the hard work of detailing the interior with shelves, benches, storage, a desk, stools, a board shear, presses... We'll see how I make it work, but in 1:87?!?! I'll figure something out.

Looking in...

Finally, another fun fact is that there are numerous bookbinders and practitioners of allied arts and crafts who are also ferroequinologists. Gary Frost, Bernie Vinzani, and Bob Hanmer come to mind. Know anyone else?

Adding a Bindery to My Papphausen Train Layout

Back in 2014 I had shared images of what used to be a bindery located in an arcade under the Railroad and S[tadt]-Bahn tracks in Berlin. They weren't beautiful brick or stone arcades, but brutalist concrete on what is a kind of island between busy streets.

Yesterday, while surfing Google Maps I found that they had updated the images in that area, this time with an S-Bahn train overhead.

Buchbinderei near to Jannowitzbrücke, Berlin.

I think I will interpret that idea on my layout but opening a bindery in the lot below to the right of the gate and going back at an angle. The pigeon shack and BMW 2002s will need to be relocated...

The lot for the new bindery.

The facade of the bindery I apprenticed in Gelsenkirchen could also easily be adapted to the lot, and I have views that I can use to create the interior details regardless the facade. Rather than running on top of the bindery, the mainline runs above.

Bindery I apprenticed in 1985-87.

Should be a fun and relatively easy project to distract me from the main project of redoing the area around the turntable, finishing the Schrebergärten next to Posten 210..., and real bookish projects.

Visit to a Hand Bindery in Trier - Buchbinderei Mohr

Was searching YouTube for some bindery videos from Germany and came across this one from the Buchbinderei Franz Mohr in Trier, Germany. The Buchbinderei was founded in 1864 (via Archive.org), and was stop 1 on my apprenticeship interview tour in May 1985. The location was very convenient as I flew into Luxembourg from Baltimore... Trier has an incredibly rich history.

The Buchbinderei Mohr as I saw it in May 1985.

View in same direction from the video.

Device for fan gluing (Klebebindung, aka Lubecken) that starts at 2:08. It appears to be the same
as being used [by the Geselle?] in the foreground of the first image.

Here the video that shows the steps of case binding journals and periodicals for town, municipal, medical, law, ... Below the full video.

I did not end up apprenticing there, but it was the hand-bindery the other two I visited were compared to in terms of the type of work completed and overall atmosphere.

Werner Kiessig, MDE aus der DDR

Ich bin immer auf der Suche nach interessantem zur Buchbinderei. In letzter Zeit sind gleich 3  Päckchen zu Werner G. Kiessig, Meister der Einbandkunst (MDE) in der DDR, hier eingetroffen. 

I was recently able to acquire some ephemera and sample books relating to the bookbinder Werner Kiessig who lived and worked in Berlin, Ost, but was also a member of the Meister der Einbandkunst (MDE), then a largely West German group that changed its name to "Meister der Einbandkunst – Internationale Vereinigung e.V." so that Kiessig could become a member.

Backing board for a calendar advertising Werner Kiessig's bindery, 1972
The calendar board and exhibition catalog artwork is by Werner Klemke who was very well known internationally
More examples of Klemke's illustrations can be found here or here.

Kiessig wurde 1924 in eine buchbinderische Familie geboren - Der Grossvater gründete 1893 in Berlin eine Globusfabrik und Buchbinderei die sein Vater 1918 als industrielle Buchbinder übernahm. Kiessig machte seine Lehre bei Kurt Grünewald und studierte unter anderem mit Bruno Scheer an der Graphischen Fachschule in Berlin. Grünewald und Scheer waren beide Mitglieder der MDE. Er blieb in der DDR, machte 1948 seinen Meister im Buchbinderhandwerk, verpachtete die familiäre industrielle Buchbinderei und widmete sich der Einzel- und Sonderfertigung. 1956 wurder er als Kunstschaffender im Handwerk" anerkannt und später Mitglied im Verband Bildender Künstler wodurch er sich Vorteile verschafte und er die Erlaubnis bekam Mitglied der MDE zu werden auch weil MDE "Internationale" dem Vereinsnamen beifügten. Seine Arbeiten wurden international ausgestellt und er war aktive mit Veröffentlichungen und Vorträgen. Er starb 2014 in Berlin. Etwas zu Kiessig gibt es auch in dem Blog der Pirckheimer Gesellschaft in der Kiessig auch Mitglied war. 

Andere Aufsätze zu Werner Kiessig:

• Werner Kießig. MDE-Rundbrief . 2013, Nr. 2: 10-11
• Porträt, MDE-Ehrenmitglieder, Werner Kießig. MDE-Rundbrief . [2015], Nr. ?: 12-16
• Der Meister der Einbandkunst Werner G. Kießig. Enthalten in Marginalien Bd. 225, 2017, Nr. 2: 93-95

Kiessig was born into a Berlin trade/industrial bookbinding family, served his apprenticeship in with Kurt Grünewald and studied with Bruno Scheer, both members of the MDE. After the war, he remained in what became the DDR. He earned his Meister in 1948. With his interests clearly in the hand/fine bookbinding side of the trade he leased the industrial side of the firm to focus on the other. 1956 he was recognized as a "Kunstschaffender im Handwerk," a "trade-based" artist, as well as being a member of the "Verband Bildener Künstler" and other cultural organizations. Because of these, he had greater freedoms to pursue his creative work and become active in international organizations such as MDE. He also joined Designer Bookbinders in 1981. He exhibited and presented widely, mostly in Eastern Europe. He died in 2014.

Alle drei Musterbücher | All three sample books

"Schriften, Linien, Ornamente" sind Musterbücher von einigen derselbigen, die man Kunden vorlegte. Hier Beispiele. Insgesamt, konnte ich 3 solche Bände erwerben, alle so aus dem Zeitrum zwischen den späten 50er bis in 70er. 

The sample books "Schriften, Linien, Ornamente" were used to give clients an overview of the type faces and stamps that could have been used on their books.

"Handeinbände," eine Ausstellung der Deutschen Staatsbibliothek von 1984 zeigt viele seiner einfallsreichen Einbände mit einer Vielfalt an Materialien. Bei vielen kann mann sehen wie er auch mit einfachen Materialien sehr ansprechende Einbände schuff.

Handeinbände was a 1984 exhibit of his bindings at the Deutsche Staatsbibliothek. He was best known for his "fine bindings," many of which were shown in the exhibit. In some of the examples one can see how he used simple and more available materials to create handsome bindings.

Auch sehr schön ist die Werner Klemke Zeichnungen auf dem Deckblatt des Katalogs.

Werner Klemke also contributed the cover design of the catalog.

Book and Paper Arts for School Students, a tale of two Pralles

Willi Pralle, Papier- und Papparbeit. Schulzesche Verlagsbuchandlung, Oldenburg, 1938.

Given the date of publication and the torn-out title page in my copy, I'm going to assume that it contained information linking it to the National Socialist government... Per the OCLC record, it was published for the Gauwaltg. d. NS.-Lehrerbundes im Gau Weser-Ems (Administration of the NS Teacher's Federation in the Weser-Ems District) that was based in Oldenburg.

The book would have been used in the teaching of paper and book-related crafts to/by teachers working with the lower school grades.

Interestingly, a Heinrich Pralle taught this subject at the Staatliche Kunstgewerbeschule zu Hamburg where Franz Weisse and Ignatz Wiemeler also taught. The book Die staatliche Kunstgewerbeschule zu Hamburg (1913) shows examples of works created by Pralle's students starting page 383. Given the similarity in name and focus, were they father and son?

Workshop where teachers would have been taught these paper crafts and more at the
Staatliche Kunstgewerbeschule zu Hamburg ca. 1913.
Click to enlarge.

Paper crafts as taught by Heinrich Pralle at the
Staatliche Kunstgewerbeschule zu Hamburg ca. 1913.
Click to enlarge.

The purpose of this instruction (in German) was to get children used to working with their hands, something that privileged those in rural areas over the cities because the children were more likely to have direct contact with this kind of work. From Die staatliche Kunstgewerbeschule zu Hamburg, "The pupil's workshops should not train craftsmen, they should educate in the children of all professions in the right understanding, sharp vision, and aptitude. Manual dexterity is valuable if mind and body are to be cultivated."

Willi Pralle's book introduces the topic in the same manner with specific instructions for a number of excercises... A similar book is So fertige ich allerlei Buchbinderarbeiten (1911) by Richard Parthum.

The illustration depicts a class-sized tool cabinet for the making of paper crafts.

Schematic for a simple octavo stab-sewn notebook and loose documents.

Schematics for making round boxes with lids.

Tipped in paste paper swatches.

Tipped-in paste and marbled papers.