Der Kleine Schweizer Führer (A Short Guide to Switzerland), 1935 for the Swiss Tourist Office – by Paul Renner

The Swiss Tourist Office in Zurich (Schweizerischen Verkehrzentrale Zürich) launched a travel advertising campaign in 1935 focused on showcasing Switzerland’s attractions and across all the seasons of the year. The Tourist Office engaged some leading graphic artists of the time to design the series. As Felix Wiedler notes on his website, generic viagra viagra Paul Renner (the creator of Futura type), viagra usa was hired to work on the series. it is likely that Renner set the guidelines around which others (among which Herbert Matter here and here) would follow over the length of the series which was issued into 1940:

“[Renner] was invited by the swiss tourist board to work on the typography of a new series of tourist brochures, so Renner spent most of 1933 and 1934 in Bern and Zürich. Renner’s design concept was used for a series of brochures which were published in different languages.”

Der Kleine Schweizer Führer, 1935. Front cover photomontage by Herbert Matter

Der Kleine Schweizer Führer, 1935. Front cover photomontage by Herbert Matter

This brochure was designed by Paul Renner and included three-color photomontages by Herbert Matter as the covers and text by Rudolf Schmid. Herbert Matter also designed a number of brochures for the Swiss Tourist Office within the framework created by Renner. Paul Renner was persecuted by the Nazis and ended up working in Switzerland because he could not work in Germany. The cover photomontage by Herbert Matter captures the basis of Swiss democracy in action: citizens voting by raising their hands in “aye.”

Consider that this booklet was published in 1935, designed by Renner and using as its cover a Herbert Matter photomontage that uses at least two things the Nazis also employed: the word “Führer” or “Guide” and the hands raised in the air, though in this case to vote democratically in a guide (or “Führer”) for a country the opposite of the German Reich: Switzerland. I can’t say that this was an intentional message, it is simply my speculation. But it is something to think about.

Der Kleine Schweizer Führer, 1935. Back cover photomontage by Herbert Matter

Der Kleine Schweizer Führer, 1935. Back cover photomontage by Herbert Matter

Der Kleine Schweizer Führer, 1935. Inside cover of the Matterhorn

Der Kleine Schweizer Führer, 1935. Inside cover of the Matterhorn

Der Kleine Schweizer Führer, 1935. Inside View One

Der Kleine Schweizer Führer, 1935. Inside View One

Der Kleine Schweizer Führer, 1935. Inside View Two

Der Kleine Schweizer Führer, 1935. Inside View Two

Der Kleine Schweizer Führer, 1935. Inside View Three

Der Kleine Schweizer Führer, 1935. Inside View Three

Der Kleine Schweizer Führer, 1935. Inside View Four

Der Kleine Schweizer Führer, 1935. Inside View Four

Der Kleine Schweizer Führer, 1935. Inside View Five

Der Kleine Schweizer Führer, 1935. Inside View Five

Der Kleine Schweizer Führer, 1935. Inside View Six with Railroad Engines featured in other Swiss Travel Brochures of the era, especially the modern one on the upper right

Der Kleine Schweizer Führer, 1935. Inside View Six with Railroad Engines featured in other Swiss Travel Brochures of the era, especially the modern one on the upper right

Der Kleine Schweizer Führer, 1935. Inside View Seven - Herbert Matter would create a number of photomontages and posters of the winding road in the center photo

Der Kleine Schweizer Führer, 1935. Inside View Seven – Herbert Matter would create a number of photomontages and posters of the winding road in the center photo

Der Kleine Schweizer Führer, 1935. Inside View Eight

Der Kleine Schweizer Führer, 1935. Inside View Eight

Der Kleine Schweizer Führer, 1935. Inside Back Cover

Der Kleine Schweizer Führer, 1935. Inside Back Cover

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