Fahrpläne des Kraftomnibusverkehrs, Winterfahrplan 1964/65
The rather fine cover to the encyclopaedic bus and coach timetables for the GDR in winter 1964/65. It is very much in the style of Socialist Modernism. Produced in association with the railways, the Deutsche Reichsbahn, it was published by the “Buchdienst Berlin Versandbuchhandlung des Berliner Volksbuchhandels”.
Tucked into the Winter 1964/65 East German GDR bus and coach timetable is this fine atlas showing sectional maps of the country and the many bus and coach routes. As well as atlas pages there are occassional photographs and blank pages for notes.
The typography features all three geometric grotesks that were commonly available in the GDR: on the cover, “Fahrpläne” is set in caps from the schmalfett (bold condensed) style of Fundamental-Grotesk, designed by Arno Drescher and first cast by the Ludwig Wagner foundry in Leipzig. It’s paired with two weights from Super-Grotesk – which is also a design by Drescher, issued by Schriftguss in Dresden. The sans shown in the image below is probably the rarest of the trio: Rhythmus is a geometric sans produced in-house at Schelter & Giesecke in Leipzig. All three designs were first cast in the 1930s. After the war, they were continued by VEB Typoart.
The maps show the bus and coach routes as well as the national railway system. This page also has a photograph of “Tankstelle Sangerhausen” – the petrol station at Sangerhausen – with the caption set in Kurier, a brush script by Herbert Thannhaeuser. Like Rhythmus, it originated at Schelter & Giesecke in the 1930s.
