TYPE DESIGN INFORMATION PAGE last updated on Wed Jan 29 16:40:36 EST 2025

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ABOUT

Johannes Wagner

Johannes Wagner was born in 1888 and died in Ingolstadt in 1965. The oldest son of Ludwig Wagner, he started out in his father's foundry in Leipzig. In 1921, he founded the Norddeutsche Schriftgießerei in Berlin, together with his brother Ludwig and his brother-in-law Willy Jahr. That business moves to Ingolstadt in 1949. In 1956, he moves the Ludwig Wagner company to West Berlin. He dies in 1965. The company was taken over by Arnold Dröse in 1972. Present-day ownership of the Johannes Wagner designs is claimed by Manfred Dröse, Lettern-Service Ingolstadt, Postfach 101027, Ingolstadt, 85010 Germany. In the late 1980s, they recut many famous typefaces, such as Andreas Schrift (1988, after the original by Hans Kühne, 1942).

Type designs of Johannes Wagner: Aurora-Grotesk (1912: Hans van Maanen digitized and expanded Aurora Grotesk and called it Annonce (2006, Canada Type)), Steinschrift (1912), Fette Antiqua (1913), Druckhaus-Antiqua (1919), Romana (1930, a display roman with lots of weight, short ascenders and descenders, old typeface serifs, generally looked at as a German adaptation of De Vinne. Linotype carries 6 weights. See "Rookie" on the SoftMaker MegaFont XXL CD, 2002), Gong (1950, a script face) and Neue Aurora Grotesk (1964). The Johannes Wagner Schriftgiesserei published Druckhaus Kursiv (1919), Elvira Kursiv Fett (1926), Jowa Schreibschrift (1967, revived by Ralph M. Unger at Profonts as Iova Nova in 2007), Neue Fraktur (1927) and Neue Fraktur Extra Fett (1927), both revived in 2003 by Petra Heidorn, as well as Schadow (1938, Georg Trump) and Impuls (1945, Paul Zimmermann). In the grotesk category, they published Edel Grotesque (also known as Lessing, Reichgrotesk, and Wotan Bold Condensed) in 1914. The Edel Grotesque Bold Condensed was digitally revived in 2010 at Canada Type (by Patrick Griffin and Kevin Allan King) as Wagner Grotesk. Wotan was revived in 2021 by Ralph Unger as Royal Grotesque and in 2022 as RMU Royal Sans.

Kristall Now Pro (2019, Elsner & Flake) is a text family that revives Kristall Grotesk Buchschrift by Johannes Wagner GmbH, 1937.

URW++ sells Blizzard standard (D), Fette Fraktur standard (D), Fette Fraktur Initials standard (D), Fette Fraktur OnlyShadow standard (D), and Fette Gotisch standard (D).

Linotype link. Digital typefaces based on old Wagner designs.

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Type designers ⦿ Type designers ⦿ Extinct 20th century foundries ⦿ German type scene ⦿