2002 Otto Rohse

Typographer, wood and copper engraver and publisher of the Otto-Rohse-press / Insterburg, Russland

The typographer, wood and copperplate engraver Otto Rohse, born in 1925 and deceased in 2016, still enjoys an international reputation as a book designer. Inspired by the painter Helene Wagenbichler, he began studying at the Kunstakademie Königsberg with Alfred Partikel in 1943. The war interrupted his studies, which he resumed from 1948 to 1952 at the College of Fine Arts in Hamburg, where he became assistant to Richard Sichowsky, his teacher of typography and book design. Rohse illustrated in 1954 the "Versmärchen für Kinder" by Friedrich Rückerts. This was followed, among other things, by "Antigone oder Roman auf Kreta" for the Büchergilde Gutenberg and "Pet der Fisch", a fairy tale by his future wife Marianne Rohse.
After leading the class for typography and book design at the Werkkunstschule Offenbach/Main from 1960 to 1961, he founded the "Otto Rohse Presse" in Hamburg in 1962, in which more than 50 bibliophile prints were published until 2002. In 1969, he published the first issue of "Sigill - Blätter für Buch und Kunst", a magazine for typographic works and illustrations. He was best known for his design of stamps and stamp series for the Deutsche Bundespost. His extensive work includes 650 wood engravings, 350 copperplate engravings, numerous book productions and etchings. In 2002, Otto Rohse received the Gutenberg Prize of the City of Mainz and the International Gutenberg Society for his outstanding work as an illustrator.