Literary publishing house established in 1915 by Albert Karl Lang. Little is known about its early years, which coincided with World War I. In 1919 Hans Theodor Joel purchased the entity, continuing to publish under its name. That same year, together with editor Eduard Trautner, began to issue the short-lived Expressionist periodical Der Weg (The path), which featured Expressionist poems, political essays, and exhibition reviews alongside prints by mostly Munich-based artists, such as Heinrich Campendonk, Fritz Schaefler, Georg Schrimpf, and Maria Uhden. Relocated to Darmstadt in November 1919, where he opened a gallery and bookstore; published prints by several leading artists, including Max Beckmann and former Brücke members Otto Mueller and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, but more often by lesser-known figures such as Gottfried Graf, Walter Gramatté, and Schaefler, among others. Published a print almanac for the year 1919, Das graphische Jahrbuch (The graphics yearbook), featuring three original prints (woodcuts by Graf and Schmidt-Rottluff and a lithograph by Walter Ruttmann) and reproductions of prints by other Expressionists.

Selected Bibliography

Weinstein, Joan. The End of Expressionism: Art and the November Revolution in Germany, 1918–19, pp. 161–218. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990.