Beethoven-Halle souvenir sheet
Miniature sheet issued by the German federal post office to celebrate the opening of the Beethoven-Halle in Bonn in 1959, designed by Herbert Kern. The stamps themselves show his lettering. The two lines on the sheet, however, are typographic. They are set in Weiß-Lapidar (c. 1949), the typeface that evolved from Weiß-Initialen II (1931), with added punctuation and numerals.
Herbert Kern (1912–1998) was a student of Emil Preetorius at the Munich Academy of Applied Arts (merged into the Academy of Fine Arts in 1946) and became his assistant after World War II. From 1958, he ran the school’s workshop for screen and film printing. In 1974, Kern became professor for Schriftgestaltung (letterform design), a position he held until 1981. He is best known for his theater posters, stage designs, and postage stamps. [Bayerische Staatsoper, AdBK]
