Offenbach pays tribute to the pioneer of modern printing

• fromEast Tinç

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Alois Senefelder would have been 250 years old today. In Offenbach, people like to remember the short time the inventor of lithography worked.

A statue is dedicated to him in Offenbach, a street and even an entire quarter have been named after him. Alois Senefelder only lived in Offenbach for a short time – with an interruption from the end of 1799 to 1801 – but the city still honors him for the importance of his work. Today, Saturday, the inventor of lithography would have been 250 years old. The Haus der Stadtgeschichte is celebrating a birthday party from 3:30 p.m., including a special exhibition of Senefelder portrait drawings, a printing demonstration on the replica of the bar press and a tour of the printing workshop in the Bernard building.

“Senefelder was responsible for the fact that the commercial use of picture printing ultimately came from Offenbach,” says Harry Neß, Chairman of the International Working Group on Printing and Media History. Katja M. Schneider, curator of the Haus der Stadtgeschichte, compares his invention with the cultural revolution that selfies triggered. “Senefelder’s invention made the picture socially acceptable. Before that, you could only reproduce pictures in small editions, ”she says. In the case of copper plates, which were common up until then, a maximum of 100 prints were possible. And they were expensive.

In contrast to Johannes Gutenberg, the inventor of book printing, Senefelder published a textbook while he was still alive, in 1818. In it, he not only describes his technique, but also his path in life. “Senefelder comes from a humble background,” says Neß. He was born in Prague on November 6, 1771 and moved to Bavaria with his family at an early age. After he had to break off his law studies in 1793 because of the death of his father in order to help his mother and two brothers with the maintenance, he went to Munich. There he began to write plays, but he could not find a publisher. So he started experimenting in order to reproduce his writings himself. “The story goes like this: He made notes with the crayon on a stone and then put a sheet of paper on it,” says Neß. It was a Solnhofen limestone slab, which has a special density and hardness.

Thanks in part to the financial support of the composer and court musician Franz Gleißner, he tinkered around until he had the desired result in 1798. The stone must be sanded smooth, then the motif to be printed is drawn on the plate reversed either with grease chalk or with ink and a caustic liquid is applied. This only penetrates the stone where no ink or chalk has been applied. Then the printing paper is placed on top of the template, covered and moved onto the carriage of the printing press under the “rubbing element”. Quite a lot of effort. Senefelder and Gleißner founded a printing company and received a “Privilegium exclusivum” for a period of 15 years from the Bavarian Elector Maximilian IV. Joseph. That meant that nobody could compete with them.

To draw attention to their printing company, they placed an ad that Johannes Anton André saw. The sheet music publisher and composer from Offenbach was on his way to Vienna, where he wanted to buy her estate from Constanze Mozart and did so later. “André quickly recognized the potential of lithography. The stone was more durable, could be used again and again and higher editions were possible, ”says Neß. André went to the printing works of Senefelder and Gleißner and signed a contract with them. It said that the two of them should come to Offenbach immediately to set up a print shop there and use it for his needs, printing notes.

“It was a dawning market for house music and bourgeois culture,” says Neß. Five copperplate printing presses in André’s printing workshop in what was then Domstrasse 21 were replaced by lithographic presses. 1500 sheets could be printed every day. “Suddenly you could buy Rafael’s depiction of Mary for little money and hang it in the living room,” says Schneider. At that time, Gleißner created the first directory of Mozart original notes, the forerunner of the Köchel directory. Senefelder printed for André and trained other printers.

The good relationship between André and Senefelder, who was three years older, did not last long. “At the end of 1800 André sent his brother Philip and Senefelder to London to acquire a patent for the printing,” says Neß. That probably gave Senefelder the impression that André was trying to do business behind his back because he hadn’t heard from his family and because the acquisition of the patent took until mid-1801. Back in Offenbach, the patent disputes continued in Vienna, where Gleißner’s wife, Senefelder’s mother and André had an argument. “André didn’t want Senefelder to go to Vienna because he had a big job. They got into such an argument about it that he left Offenbach, ”says Neß. Later, the two came into contact again when it came to the publication of Senefelder’s book. André even placed an advertisement for the Leipzig Book Fair in 1816. However, Senefelder did not make it in time and the book was published in Munich in 1818, where Senefelder died on February 26, 1834.

“After the invention, it went around the world like wildfire,” says Schneider. In London, Paris, Stockholm and Berlin, Senefelder’s bar presses were copied and the printing principle was further developed. A red line can be drawn from the lithographic printing up to the present day offset printing. During the Second World War, the former André printing workshop was bombed. Nevertheless, many lithographic stones have been found during excavations from that time, which are exhibited in the House of City History. “A good lithographer might be able to get something out of one or the other stone,” believes Schneider.

For the exhibition, she also put various commemorative publications in a showcase in order to underline Senefelder’s importance for the printer’s guild. Festschriften have been published all over Europe on all major birthdays. In Offenbach today there is a special cake in honor of Senefelder – with mirror-inverted writing. Just as he would have drawn it in a stone before the platen rolled over it.