OTTO HUPP

'Otto Hupp' (May 21 1859 - January 31 1949) was a German graphical artist. His main working area was heraldry, yet he also worked as a typeface designer, created commercial symbols and metal works.
Born in Düsseldorf as the fourth of five sons of the engraver Carl Heinrich Hupp, his father made him learn engraving as his profession as well. Shortly after finishing his education he moved to Munich in 1878, since 1891 till his death he lived in the suburb Oberschleißheim. By the painter Rudolf Seitz he learned many styles of painting, and when he met the architect Gabriel von Seidl he got several contract to paint wall and ceiling fresco.
His main working field was heraldry. He painted more than 6000 coats of arms and also wrote books on heraldry. His ''Wappen und Siegel der deutschen Städte, Flecken und Dörfer'' (Coat of arms and seal of the German cities and villages) book series was started in 1895, however of the originally 10 planned volumes only 5 were finished. 2800 of his paintings of coats of arms were published as a collecting set from the coffee company ''Kaffee HAG'' in the years 1913 till 1918 and 1926 till 1938. This publication helped to make heraldry better known to the general public. Another important heraldic publication by Otto Hupp were the ''Münchener Kalender'' (Munich calendar), of which 51 issues were published in the years 1885-1936 (the issue of 1933 was omitted). Additionally to painting the existing coat of arms he also created many drafts for communes, which were applying for a coat of arms. Maybe his most important coat of arms was the 1923 version for the state of Bavaria, which however was replaced with a new version after World War II.
The first typographic works of Otto Hupp were made in 1883. His first typeface ''Neudeutsch'' was published in 1899 by Genzsch & Heyse. He created several further typeface later, like ''Hupp-Gotisch'', ''Hupp-Fraktur'' or ''Hupp-Antiqua''. However as his typefaces weren't designed for standard uses they did not spread much, and are nowadays mostly forgotten. None of them was ever converted to be used in phototypesetting.
Other significant works of him include metal works for the Speyer Cathedral in 1904 (which also gained him the title professor in 1906), the cover of an astronomical clock donated to the city of Munich, or the company logo of the Spaten brewery.
Even though he was undoubtedly an artist, he himself always denied to be called one, claiming he is just using the technique of an artist, but failing to have to creativity of one.

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Reference

Weblinks

German

Reference

★ Wolfgang Hendlmeier. ''Otto Hupp - Kunsthandwerker, Heraldiker, Schriftkünstler''. Die deutsche Schrift, issue 2/1985 (#75), pp. 25-29. Online version at [1]

Weblinks

German

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★ Information with Examples

★ Literature List Online-Catalog of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin

★ Biography with Photo