Article in JAMA
Lionel S. Zuckier, Professor at the Department of Radiology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, published an article on Fritz Kahn’s “Doctor of the Future” in JAMA on May 6, 2024. JAMA, published continuously since 1883, is an international peer-reviewed general medical journal. JAMA is a member of the JAMA Network, a consortium of […]
Exhibition in Berlin: The Brain in Science and Art
Fritz Kahn’s most famous visual “Man as Industrial Palace” – as animated installation brought to life by Henning Lederer – is showcased in the Medical History Museum Berlin. As part of the reopening of the Berlin Medical History Museum of the Charité, the exhibition “The Brain in Science and Art” will be on display in […]
Rota Ciencia 2023
Fritz Kahn is also being talked about in Andalusia this year: The Spanish city of Rota will host the “Rota Ciencia” congress on science communication on March 11, 2023. Researchers from the fields of biology, medicine, psychology, astronomy, chemistry and physics will come together to exchange ideas on how to communicate complex scientific content in […]
Weltwoche: Fritz Kahn listed as Books of the Year
The Swiss weekly magazine Weltwoche lists the monograph Fritz Kahn among the “Books of the Year 2022”. In addition to new publications such as Werner Herzog’s autobiography or a book of letters by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the Kahn volume is also recommended. Daniel Weber, editor of the online medium Literature and Art, writes: “Many highlights can […]
Louisiana Museum of Modern Art
“The Cold gaze – Germany in the 1920s” is a sweeping journey through the roaring and explosive arts and cultural life of the 1920s Weimar Republik. At the center is the significant movement of Neue Sachlichkeit and its sober, harsh realism. The original poster “Der Mensch als Industriepalast” (1926) by Fritz Kahn is among the […]
New monograph out now
After the monograph FRITZ KAHN had been out of print for some time, a new edition of the book with expanded content was published in September 2022. More than 30,000 monographs have already been distributed worldwide, but demand could no longer be satisfied. Now the volume is available again in a trilingual edition (English, German, […]
CD „Wheel of Life“
Julian Hesse, trumpeter and composer from Munich/Germany, has released a Jazz album which was largely inspired by the works of Fritz Kahn. It is entitled “Wheel of Life”, was recorded in conjunction with pianist Stephan Plecher and issued by the label HGBS Blue on June 19, 2020. The CD artwork – inspired by Kahn as […]
Industrial Palace in the Dalí home
Dated 1931, this old photograph depicts Gala and Salvador Dalí in their Portugese house in Portlligat. On the wall: Fritz Kahn’s Man as Industrial Palace in a French version (L’homme comme palais de l’industrie). The Kahn infographic was first published in the book Das Leben des Menschen (Life of Man), volume 3, in 1926, and […]
Exhibition: The Assembled Human, Folkwang Museum
Images and books by Fritz Kahn are on display in Der montierte Mensch (The Assembled Human), an exhibition in the Folkwang Museum, Essen/Germany. The show transcends media and epochs to explore the major societal issues and upheavals of the last 150 years. The Assembled Human presents art as a mirror of industrialisation, technologisation and digitisation. […]
Talk: Graphic Matters 2019 in Breda
At “Graphic Matters” in Breda, The Netherlands, Thilo von Debschitz will give a talk on Fritz Kahn on September 29, 2019. This years’ motto of “Graphic Matters” is “Information Superpower”, several events will take place at the Havenkwartier from September 20 to October 27. Beside relevant talks, visitors can experience a design market, guided tours […]
Book: History of Information Graphics
Two Fritz Kahn images are included in the 462-page publication “History of Information Graphics” (TASCHEN, 2019). In the chapter “Understanding Men and Machines”, Michael Stoll presents Kahns famous poster “Man as Industrial Palace” as a sample for path-breaking information design. The book also depicts the Kahn illustration “The Number of Bacteria in the Air of […]
Homo Machina: Official Launch
Homo Machina is a puzzle game inspired by the work of avant-garde scientist Fritz Kahn. Set off on a crazy journey to solve surreal puzzles and learn about the internal working of the human body, represented as a gigantic 1920s factory. In this narrative puzzle, players are plunged into an ingenious system of nerves, vessels […]
Homo Machina: Winner at Game Connection America 2018
Even before its official launch, Homo Machina was declared as winner by the Game Connection America 2018 jury. The contest was open to console, mobile, social, casual and online games with no restriction on genre, platform or distribution method. All submissions were assessed by the Judging Committee of international experts. The Game Connection Development Awards […]
Homo Machina: Nomination for Gamer’s Voice Awards
South by Southwest (SXSW) is a leading international conference for music, film and interactive media. For this years’ event – taking place in Austin/Texas from March 9 to17, 2018 – the finalists of the Gamer’s Voice Awards have been announced – the competition acknowledges independant game developers from all parts of the world. Among the […]
Exhibition: Image Factories
Even 100 years ago, typographers, scientists and graphic artists worked on a picture-based “language” that used the universal understanding through images. “Words separate, images unite“ was the motto for a new visual language created by Otto Neurath, who – like Fritz Kahn – stands out as one of the pioneers of popular infographics. Under the […]
Radio feature: Fritz Kahn
Fifty years after Fritz Kahn’s day of death, German radio station WDR remembers the pioneer of infographics with a 15-minute feature. ZeitZeichen: Fritz Kahn (German)
Book: Image Factories
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the newly emerging mass media began circulating an unwonted volume of information, leading to a huge surge in visualization. The abundance of news required new forms of representation to provide a quick understanding of complex circumstances at a glance: this prompted the invention of infographics as a visual […]
Exhibition review: Süddeutsche Zeitung
In her recommendation of the exhibition “Bildfabriken: Infografik 1920-1945“ Sandra Rendgen points out that in addition to the often-published infographics of Fritz Kahn and Otto Neurath, the show also presents previously unknown exhibits which are otherwise stored in international archives. In addition, the visitor learns about Kahn’s and Neurath’s creative networks and it becomes clear […]
Talk: Tallinn Design Festival
Invited by the Tallinn Design Festival organizers, Thilo von Debschitz presented a lecture on Fritz Kahn and his outstanding ability to make complex facts easy to understand through creative visuals. The event took place at the Noblessner halls, which served as submarine workshops in the early 20th century. Today, the Noblessner complex is a creative […]
Exhibition review: DIE WELT
“Do you speak infographics?” asks Marc Reichwein in German newspaper DIE WELT on Sept. 20, 2017. To receive an answer to his question, he recommends a visit of the exhibition “Bildfabriken: Infografik 1920–1945” in Leipzig. The journalist calls the presentation of juxtapositioned work by Fritz Kahn and Otto Neurath as “design-historic delicacy show”. DIE WELT […]
Exhibition: Can Graphic Design save your life?
Can graphic design save your life? The curators of an exhibition posing that question at London’s Wellcome Collection think so, and have martialed around 200 examples – including the famous Fritz Kahn poster “Man as Industrial Palace” – ranging from designs for the outside of ambulances, hospital interiors, hard-hitting posters, cigarette packaging and images of […]
Book: Body Modern
The American medical historian Michael Sappol has recently published a first in-depth critical study of Fritz Kahn’s visual rhetoric: Body Modern – Fritz Kahn, Scientific Illustration, and the Homuncular Subject (University of Minnesota Press) explores how Fritz Kahn’s popular scientific illustrations visualized and performed industrial modernity. Lavishly illustrated with more than 100 images, the book […]
Exhibition: Phänomen Energie
“Crush on the human machine” reported the local press after the opening of the special exhibition Phänomen Energie in Lüdenscheid. Schoolchildren had enthusiastically climbed an interactive sculpture, designed after Fritz Kahn’s visualization “Man as Industrial Palace”. Using simple mechanisms, the larger than life-sized body model illustrates various processes of energy generation and transformation in the […]
Reference: For the deeper sense
None of our senses is deeper connected with our memory than the sense of smell. Shouldn’t we pay as much attention to this dimension in the context of design as we do in other media? Martin Hegel and Matthias Wagner K examine this question in their book “Für den tieferen Sinn – Duft als Medium […]
Exhibition: Den Körper im Blick
From early anatomy studies, created as woodcuts, to digital images of microbiological structures – the techniques and technologies to make human bodily functions visible have changed throughout the centuries. The exhibition “Den Körper im Blick” (The Body in Focus) at the Bibliothek Münstergasse in Bern, Switzerland, presents various methods of depicting the human body. One […]
Reference: The Invisible War
An image from the Fritz Kahn publication “Das Leben des Menschen”, vol. III (1928) appears in the graphic novel “The Invisible War”. The main character of the comic, which is set during World War I, is the nurse Annie Barnaby. While caring for a wounded soldier, she is infected by a life-threatening virus. The story, […]
Radio Feature: Rete Uno
In the Rete Uno radio show “Chi Assaggia Rimane”, curator Elizabeth Camozzi talks about Fritz Kahn’s years in Switzerlands’ Ticino canton. Kahn lived in Ascona from 1948 to 1950, in Lugano in the 1950s, and finally in Locarno, where he passed away in 1968. – Rete Uno, produced in Lugao-Besso, is the first public radio […]
Exhibition: Grand Palais, Paris
In the exhibition “Carambolage” (March 2 to July 4, 2016, Grand Palais, Paris), curator Jean-Hubert Martin assembled works by known and unknown artists. Just like a billiard ball hitting two other balls, each work reverberates with another. The presentation of the 185 artworks from various epochs and genres departs from the traditional art-historical approach and […]
Fritz Kahn monograph in “Irrational Man”
The monograph Fritz Kahn plays a supporting role in the Woody Allen movie “Irrational Man” (2015): In the one of the first scenes and for a length of 17 seconds, the book can be seen behind Emma Stone and Jamie Blackley on the reading table of the (fictitious) Braylin College library. We congratulate the (fictitious) […]
Talk: Pentagram, New York
Twenty-two years ago, as he was completing a graphic design internship at Pentagram in New York City, Thilo von Debschitz happened to meet the son of Fritz Kahn. This personal encounter was followed by another unexpected event, 15 years later, when von Debschitz stumbled upon the name Fritz Kahn in a small credit line in […]
Talk: TEDx RheinMain (Video)
The annual TEDx RheinMain conference took place at the Campus Kronberg near the City of Frankfurt; among others, the list of eight speakers included Vincent Hendricks (Center for Information & Bubble Studies, Copenhagen), Mark Higgins (Eumetsat, Darmstadt), Kasper Fangel Skov (Skanderborg), Maryline Lengert (ESA, Rome), and Thilo von Debschitz. The co-author of the monograph “Fritz […]
Talk: Tÿpo St.Gallen
The theme of the three-day typographic symposium Typo 2015 in St.Gallen, Switzerland was “Tempo”. World-class speakers, including the designer Dafi Kühne (Switzerland), François Chastanet (France), Benji Wiedemann (Great Britain), and Carvalho Bernau (The Netherlands), presented current agency and publication projects related to the topic. On the speakers’ list also: Thilo von Debschitz, co-author of the […]
Interview: Design made in Germany
In an interview with Viola von Zadow, journalist with the German blog “Design made in Germany”, co-author Thilo von Debschitz describes what kept him motivated for working on the “Fritz Kahn” publication project . Design made in Germany (full article in German)
Review: Welt der Wunder
In her article “Man as high-performance machine: How our body works” and a gallery of 17 images, journalist Sandra Leinfelder refers to the work of Fritz Kahn and the monograph published by the Debschitz siblings. She states that Kahn “visualized complex biological and physical processes with impressive visuals that are easy to comprehend for a […]
Featuring Kahn: Medicine Anthropology Theory
“The Doctor of the Future”, a visionary image from a 1939 Fritz Kahn book, illustrated a retrospective on the Medicine and the Digital Revolution conference. The event, held in December 2014 at the University of Zürich, brought together an international group of anthropologists, sociologists, and historians. Over two days, these scholars discussed the convergence of […]
Talk: QVED 2015
At QVED 2015, Thilo von Debschitz presented highlights from publications by Dr. Fritz Kahn. His speech was part of a program section focusing on information design, curated by Professor Michael Stoll. – QVED (Quo Vadis Editorial Design) is an annual, international design conference held in Munich where designers, journalists, and publishers report about their projects. […]
Book Review: The Illustrated Forest
The Illustrated Forest, an independent review site “dedicated to showcasing fantastic picture books”, judges the FRITZ KAHN monograph as a “truly inspirational book. [… ] Each turn of the page offers something different, and of course unexpected. Kahn’s ability to make science more approachable is masterful. [… ] With so many images contained this is […]
Book Review: NRC Handelsblad
Asked about her literary favourites for 2014, cultural journalist Marianne Vermeijden counts Fritz Kahn as one of the three best books of the year. Her review of February 21, 2014, in the Dutch daily newspaper NRC Handelsblad, concludes: “This monograph is a must.” – The NRC Handelsblad is a national newspaper and among the most […]
Book recommendation: Wiesbadener Kurier
Viola Bolduan, cultural editor of the Wiesbadener Kurier newspaper, recommends the Kahn monograph as a Christmas gift. She writes: “With a glass of hot wine punch in hand, one could enjoy the almost 400-page volume about the pioneer of information design by the von Debschitz siblings. Anybody looking for something heavy and prestigious – to […]
Exhibition: History of Medicine Museum, Riga
Der Mensch als Industriepalast, Fritz Kahn’s famous wall chart, is part of the exhibition Anatomist: The Factory of the Human Body in the Pauls Stradiņš History of Medicine Museum in Riga, Latvia. The exhibition, on display until March 16, 2015, has two closely linked parts: The first reviews modern artists’ interpretations of the “factory of […]
Featuring Kahn: Understanding the World
The illustration “Animal Clock” from the Fritz Kahn publication Das Buch der Natur (The Book of Nature) is the opening visual of the brand new book Understanding the World (TASCHEN, 2014). The hefty, four kilogram volume, subtitled The Atlas of Infographics, features more than 280 artworks that explain how the world works, from a 19th […]
Book recommendation: MONOQI
As the first item in its section “Selected Art and Design Titles”, MONOQI recommends the monograph FRITZ KAHN to its members. – MONOQI decribes itself as “the online destination for hand-picked design”. With over 70 employees from 22 countries, MONOQI’s international scouting team searches the globe for the best contemporary design. Each day, in its […]
Book review: uncube magazine
In his article Fritz Kahn: Picturing the Man Machine in uncube magazine, Leigh Theodore Vlassis introduces Fritz Kahn to his readers: “His ambitious approach to his speculative drawings provided viewers with a different perspective in understanding science and the functions of the human body at the start of the twentieth century.” Vlassis documents his judgment […]
Exhibit: University of Pittsburgh
As a result of a graduate seminar in the History of Art and Architecture department led by Professors Drew Armstrong and Joshua Ellenbogen, the students of the University of Pittsburg organized an exhibit, titled “Configuring Disciplines: Fragments of an Encyclopedia”. Broadly, it examines how images (maps, portraits, anatomical illustrations, etc.) shape disciplines such as physics, […]
Nominee: Science Book of the Year 2014
The monograph Fritz Kahn was nominated for Science Book of the Year 2014 by a jury of eleven experts: Urs Willmann (Die Zeit), Dr. Dr. Jens Simon (PTB), Reto Schneider (Neue Zürcher Zeitung), Barbara Ritzert (freelance journalist), Jürgen Nakott (National Geographic Germany), Joachim Müller-Jung (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung), Peter Ehmer (WDR), Dr. Joachim Bublath (science publicist), […]
Book recommendation: Kulturradio RBB
In its list “Books for the Summer of 2014”, the cultural radio station Kulturradio RBB recommends the monograph Fritz Kahn to its listeners. In the category “Suspenseful relaxation”, the TASCHEN publication is listed as one of 19 book tips. Editor Dr. Danuta Goernandt writes: “A cross-generational book for a wonderful, amusing, and informative journey into […]
Book review: Orthopädie & Rheuma
The German medical journal Orthopädie & Rheuma (Orthopedics & Rheumatism, issue 3/2014) published a book review on the new Fritz Kahn monograph. Journalist Eberhard J. Wormer writes, among other comments: “Kahn takes his readers on a journey through the body and tells exciting, entertaining, and informative stories about the secrets of life. […] With this […]
Book reference: Design Observer
In his article “The Body as Factory: Anatomy of an Image”, British columnist Rick Poynor identifies relationships between the famous Fritz Kahn chart “Der Mensch als Industriepalast” (Man as Industrial Palace) with several works created by Nichola Bruce, Michael Coulson, and Eduardo Paolozzi. Poynor presents various images that depict the inner human body as both […]
Fritz Kahn: Official Selection TED Book Club
Four times a year, the TED organization sends out a fine selection of up to three books that support the TED mission: spreading thoughts that change attitudes, lives, and ultimately the world, by bringing together ideas from the fields of technology, entertainment, and design (= TED). Now, the TED Book Club jury has included the […]
Lecture: TYPO Berlin
“Roots” was the theme of this years TYPO Berlin, Europe’s biggest design conference. Since Fritz Kahn was a pioneer of information design, Thilo von Debschitz was invited to give a lecture about Kahn. On the TYPO stage he took his audience on a time journey back to the Weimar Republic, presented selected work from Kahn’s […]
Book review: Kulturradio RBB
“A discovery!“ Danuta Görnandt of German radio station Kulturradio RBB pronounces positive judgment on the new monograph Fritz Kahn. In her review, she states among other things: “Fritz Kahn did what one often would love to be proficient with when the human body is explained in natural scientific or medical lingo. Where we are about […]
Book recommendation: Esslinger Zeitung
German newspaper Esslinger Zeitung refers to the new monograph Fritz Kahn in its Media and Review section with a large image of the illustration “Biology of a roast’s smell” – a masterpiece of early information design conceived by Fritz Kahn. Kahn is called a “universal genius” and “highly creative” whose “graphic depictions followed the plan […]
Book review: SWR2 Lesezeichen
In Lesezeichen (bookmarks), a new program on German cultural radio station SWR2, journalist Rochus Gross takes a look at the new monograph Fritz Kahn. Framed by three text excerpts from Kahn’s original publications, Gross conducts an interview with co-author Uta von Debschitz. The conversation covers the graphic quality of the Kahn books, his fanciful excursions […]
Book: Nützliche Bilder
The nonfiction book Nützliche Bilder (Useful Images, Lit Verlag, Münster 2015) addresses visualizations that in certain ways are perceived as true. Author Rolf F. Nohr, a professor of media aesthetics, analyzes the open corpus of images and examines operations that make images become “useful”. Evidence theory, collective symbol analyzation, image and media sciences, the visual […]
Book review: Tages-Anzeiger
In her book review in the Swiss Tages-Anzeiger, journalist Annett Stein recommends the Fritz Kahn monograph. Entitled “Knowledge in Book – A different look at the Human Body”, her article concludes: “Kahn’s work is an impressive example of how complex content can be described by images and metaphors – and made accessible even for laymen. […]
Book recommendation: IN GRAPHICS
In its seventh issue, IN GRAPHICS pays tribute to Dr. Fritz Kahn and refers to the new monograph. The magazine, which is devoted to information graphics, presents two black-and-white illustrations (Man as Industrial Palace, The length of the intestine) as two examples of Kahn’s way of explaining the phenomena of nature visually. In the article, […]
Book recommendation: Works Design Group
In its blog, New Jersey-based studio Works Design Group calls Fritz Kahn a “Creative Titan”. The article presents basic information about Kahn and his work. Among other things, it says: “He set the stage for visual representations of complicated data and his images are still widely used, covered and studied today. […] His illustrations and […]
Book Review: De Standaard
Entitled “The Body as Engine Room”, cultural journalist Hans Cottyn’s review states that the book on Fritz Kahn presents “hundreds of his path-breaking and bizarre visions”. The monograph “celebrates the wonders of the body” and rightfully rescues the work of the multi-talented Kahn from oblivion. – De Standaard is a national Dutch-language daily newspaper, published […]
Book recommendation: Installation Magazine
Installation Magazine “previews TASCHEN’s fall collection and selects seven wondrous books that we would like to add to our own personal libraries.” The editors rank the new Fritz Kahn monograph first and name Kahn as an “information graphics pioneer whose brillant work has all but fallen into oblivion.” Installation Magazine
Book review: Dreisechsnull
In its news section, Dreisechsnull magazine reviews the Fritz Kahn monograph in a review entitled “Man in images”: “When a single hair loops 30 meters around the body, the human heart pumps an elevator up five floors, cells potter around in underground tunnels, we still don’t know what keeps the world running. But we see […]
Book review: Multimania
In its issue 46 (February/March 2014) Multimania – a bimonthly German magazine for contemporary multimedia culture – published a review of the Kahn monograph. Headlined “About Insects and Homunculi”, journalist Lutz Granert writes, among other comments: “The description of processes in the human body may be sometimes boring to laymen. But that doesn’t count for […]
Book recommendation: Blueprint
Entitled “Man Machine: The visionary work of Dr. Fritz Kahn”, London-based magazine Blueprint introduces the work of Fritz Kahn: “After looking at the graphic visualisations of the human body and its organs as devised by German scientist, gynaecologist and author Dr Fritz Kahn as a way to explain complex functions, it may not be possible […]
Book review: ÄrzteZeitung
Christoph Fuhr, in ÄrzteZeitung, writes: “In the Weimar Republic, Fritz Kahn visualized the wonderworlds of the human body in a path-breaking technique. A new coffee-table book opens up his oevre. […] He created a fascinating but mostly forgotten life’s work. On the occasion of his 125th birthday, TASCHEN published a monograph with more than 350 […]
Book review: Toronto Book Examiner
Journalist Kristin Lee Bryson from the Toronto Books Examiner explains how the coffee-table book Fritz Kahn was inspired by a coincidence and points out that the publication was recommended by the TED Book Club recently, acknowledging Kahn’s significant contribution to the birth of information design. The monograph, writes the author, is a “well-curated overview” of […]
Book review: Jildy Sauce
British culture blog Jildy Sauce publishes a review on the new Fritz Kahn monograph. Entitled “Nature imitates art”, the article states that “our understanding of nature is necessarily metaphorical. We can only understand the unknown through the known.” Fritz Kahn “takes the metaphorical, model-building mode of thinking that lies at the heart of science and […]
Book review: EuropeanCEO
In his review of the monograph Fritz Kahn, journalist Jo Caird writes that the publication “is bringing one of the most inventive thinkers of the 20th century into the public’s consciousness. Uta and Thilo von Debschitz have rescued Kahn from obscurity with a gorrgeous coffee-table book.” – European CEO is a leading subscription-based print and […]
Book review: Innovation Review
“A masterpiece!” judges Dr. Ulf Pillkahn in his review of the monograph Fritz Kahn. He writes: “The authors succeed in presenting the life of Fritz Kahn as well as collecting and savoring his oeuvre in 400 pages. Both are quite impressive.” Innovation review (full article in German)
Book review: Natur
In his article entitled “A visualizing genius”, Journalist Martin Rasper writes about the “magnificent” new monograph about Fritz Kahn. Rasper states that Kahn transformed anything worth knowing into images. “The burden of air pressure? Like carrying stell safes on one’s shoulders. The durability of the skin? Strong enough to hold a high-wire artist on a […]
Monograph Fritz Kahn one of the best books of 2013
US magazine Fast Company, The New York Observer, Brainpickings, and the blog Beautiful Now list the new monograph Fritz Kahn amongst the best books of 2013. Fast Company (best design books) Brainpickings (best art and design books) Beautiful Now (most beautiful books) The New York Observer (favourite coffee-table books) Morton R. Godine Library (Highlights of […]
Book review: Deutsches Ärzteblatt
In his review of the monograph Fritz Kahn entitled “The world as diagram”, editor Eberhard Hahne writes: “With lovingly illustrated deptictions and comparisons with common processes, Kahn pulled complicated biological and physical operations off their scientific throne. […] The monograph’s thematic variety, illustrative charm, and lighthearted humour invite one to browse through on long winter […]
Book recommendation: Hollywood Reporter
Library curator Thatcher Wine, who assembles book collections for interior designers and private clients, presents his “best-looking books of the year – which are also great reads”, including the new Kahn monograph. His comment: “Uta and Thilo von Debschitz’s eye-opening book highlights a lesser-known figure in the field of infographics – Fritz Kahn, a pioneer […]
Book review: Technology Review
In its January 2014 issue, the German magazine Technology Review published an article on the new Kahn monograph. Jens Lubbadeh writes: “Kahn’s illustrations are still fascinating because they convey a sense of childish enthusiasm for technology which men might have felt when the modern era dawned.” Technology Review (German website)
Book recommendation: The Toronto Star
Heather Mallick, Toronto Star columnist, presents her list of books she “most loved and admired this year” and names the new Fritz Kahn monograph at number one. Her judgment on Kahn’s way of visualizing data: “It’s beyond cool.” The Toronto Star (full article)
Book recommendation: Le Monde
On the web site of the French newspaper Le Monde, Fritz Kahn is first in a list of science book recommendations. Entitled “The science of beautiful books”, the article points out eight new publications and begins with a description of the “beautiful” Kahn monograph. The reviewers write that in a time when imaging techniques can […]
Book recommendation: Der Tagesspiegel
Editors of Der Tagesspiegel recommend non-fiction books “to give away at Christmas – or to keep”, among the new monograph on Fritz Kahn. Amory Burchard writes about Kahn: “In terms of didactics he still is in sync with the times. Physicians of today might notice where his explanations have become outdated. But they will be […]
Berlin: Fritz Kahn and the new TASCHEN store
On the 125th anniversary of his birth, the work of Fritz Kahn is dramatically visible in Berlin again, in Charlottenburg, the same district of the German capital where Kahn spent his youth, started his international career as a popular science author, and from where he was expelled by the Nazis. For the TASCHEN store in […]
Book recommendation: Architectural Digest
In its German December/January edition, Architectural Digest (AD) lists “the most stylish gifts” for its readers. At the top of the book recommendations is the new TASCHEN book on Fritz Kahn: “As a pioneer of information design, Fritz Kahn found popular science metaphors and comparisons in the fields of biology, anatomy, physics, and technology. His […]
Book review: Science Friday
In her article entitled “Fritz Kahn’s Fantastical Journey Through the Body”, Science Friday’s SciArts producer Annie Minoff writes about Kahn’s goal to “educate the public about how their bodies worked using familiar machines and other objects as visual metaphors for biological processes. A new book, Fritz Kahn, reacquaints us with this pioneer of popular science […]
Book recommendation: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger
In a two-page article in the Cologne newspaper “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger”, journalist Christian Seiter writes about Fritz Kahn as a “pioneer of information graphics” whose “illustrations are adventurous journeys into one’s own body”. Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger
Book review: Typografische Gesellschaft München
On the website of the Typografische Gesellschaft München (Munich Typographic Society), book designer and author Rudolf Paulus Gorbach refers to the Fritz Kahn monograph. He writes that the new publication presents Kahn’s illustrations in large formats, and its simple page layout allows readers to view the images without distraction and enjoy pleasantly brief captions. He […]
Book recommendation: WIRED
In its UK edition of January 2014, WIRED magazine introduces its readers to Fritz Kahn. Entitled “Where data-viz began”, the article states that “Fritz Kahn’s imaginative visualisations helped to pave the way for the infographics of today.” It quotes co-author Uta von Debschitz explaining why Kahn’s work from the 1920s and 30s is relevant to […]
Book reference: Slanted
Julia Gordeeva informs readers of Slanted.de about the new monograph on Fritz Kahn. She writes: “Uta and Thilo von Debschitz searched for biographical traces and brought Kahn’s creative and scientific work to life again. [Our editorial department] is in possession of a publication with numerous visual analogies and exceptionally fascinating artworks. His oevre is now […]
Book review: VizWorld
In his article entitled “Two new books for visual thinkers you can’t read on a Kindle”, journalist Dean Meyers reviews The CG Story (a publication about computer-generated animation) – and the new Kahn monograph: “This amazing book, carefully curated and filled with images, displaying page after page of work by this pioneer of visual representation […]
Book review: Proper Magazine
In his review in Proper Magazine, editor Neil Summers describes Fritz Kahn as “a total hero” as he is “he is pretty much solely responsible for bringing a real sense of fun and artistic merit to the previously quite dull and drab world of science via his truly incredible drawings.” Summers states that if he’d […]
Book review: Süddeutsche Zeitung
In her review of the “magnificent volume” about Kahn, author Laura Weissmüller describes him as “a kind of prime father of data visualization”: “He wanted to visualize knowledge in a way that made it comprehensible for anyone.” Among the illustrative material, she discovers “almost surrealistic excursions into the inner nose, psychedelic color explosions on the […]
Book recommendation: ARCH+
ARCH+ magazine and the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation organized the international competition Out of Balance – Critique of the Present. Information Design after Otto Neurath. The results are presented in ARCH+ issue 213, which also includes a supplement on the history of information graphics, from ancient visualizations to today’s interface designs. A full-page article is dedicated […]
Book recommendation: VOGUE
In its German issue, fashion magazine VOGUE recommends the new Fritz Kahn monograph: “A pioneer of information graphics is rediscovered. How Fritz Kahn – polymath, doctor and bestselling author – translated the wonder worlds of the cosmos and the human body into vivid images is astonishing to this day, and has a bizarre charm.” VOGUE […]
Book recommendation: Translations 4 Symposium
The fourth Translations Symposium, hosted by the design laboratory Gutenberg and the faculty for communication design of the University of Applied Sciences in Mainz, Germany, was entitled Design of Knowledge. The two-day event explored how designers analyze complex content and display it comprehensibly. Among the speakers were Stefanie Posavec (London), Oliver Reichenstein (Zürich, Tokyo), Jan […]
Book review: Nature
In her review of the Fritz Kahn monograph in Nature (Vol. 503), Barbara Kiser writes: “A modernist genius, Kahn’s illustrations were endlessly inventive, often darkly comic and occasionally macabre. The 1924 drawing Travel Experiences of a Wandering Cell: In the Valley of a Flesh Wound, for example, beautifully elucidates the living landscape of blood, nerves […]
Exhibition: Showing labour
In the historic blower plant of Henrichs Steelworks in Hattingen, Germany, a venue of the Westphalian State Museum for Industrial Culture, visitors can see the exhibition “Arbeit zeigen” (Showing Labour) until March 23, 2014. Among the 150 objects on display is the original wall chart Man as Industrial Palace by Dr. Fritz Kahn (1926) as […]
Book review: The Daily Mirror
In its online edition, Britain’s newspaper The Daily Mirror publishes a review on the monograph Fritz Kahn. Journalist Martin Newman writes: “Fritz Kahn by Uta and Thila von Debschitz collates the most interesting images from Kahn’s complete works and presents them in a large, beautifully-bound book. It highlights the ingenuity of his ideas, full of […]
Book review: Brain Pickings
Maria Popova, a blogger and critic living in Brooklyn, names Fritz Kahn “the little-known Godfather of Infographics”. She writes that his “influence reverberates through much of our present visual communication and today’s best infographics. … Now, visual culture powerhouse Taschen has captured the life’s work of this infographic pioneer in the magnificent monograph Fritz Kahn. […]
Book review: Fast Company
In the section “Infographic of the Day” the online version of the magazine Fast Company introduces Fritz Kahn as “grandfather of data visualization”. Kahn’s “Fairy Tale Journey on the Bloodstream”, for example, is presented as a forerunner of the popular book and tv series “Miss Frizzle’s Magic School Bus”. Editor Carey Dunne then refers to […]
Book recommendation: Business Punk
Lifestyle magazine Business Punk mentions the new Kahn monograph on its watchlist: “No matter how eagerly the pavonine data journalists might wave their funny flow charts, the most ingenious explanatory visuals were created by Fritz Kahn, physician and prime father of information graphics in the 1920s. His work is now accessible in a hilarious coffee-table […]
Book review: Fontblog
Fontblog author Jürgen Siebert says about the Fritz Kahn monograph: “In his publications, Fritz Kahn visualized the human body and other phenomena of nature so vividly that even those without scientific education could understand them. That was mainly because of his illustrations which he got made by graphic designers and artists. For this reason his […]
Book reference: The Telegraph
In its art features section – headlined “Fritz Kahn: the lost pioneer of info graphics” – The Telegraph publishes a shortened version of Steven Heller’s foreword as well as five images taken from the new Fritz Kahn monograph. – The Telegraph is the online version of The Daily Telegraph, a leading British newspaper. The Telegraph […]
Book review: WDR 3 “Mosaik”
On the Mosaik radio show on German broadcasting station WDR 3, host Daniel Finkernagel and design theorist René Spitz review the book Fritz Kahn which rediscovers Kahn as the “father of visual storytelling” and chronicles his work. To hold and “flip through the voluminous publication one will need a heavy underframe”, the pair say, but […]
Book review: RTVE
In a book review on the website of the Spanish broadcasting corporation Radiotelevisión Española (RTVE), Jesús Jiménez writes about the monograph Fritz Kahn. The journalist describes the new publication as a “fascinating book” and homage to the great achievements of Kahn, which not only enthuses scientists and designers but everyone interested in the visual transformation […]
Interview: Monocle 24
In the one-hour news show Midori House, hosts Georgina Godwin and Phil Han talked with co-author Uta von Debschitz about the legacy of Fritz Kahn. Uta explained how the illustrations in his popular science books captured her attention and how the recent Kahn monograph was born. She described her personal favorite Kahn image, Walnut and […]
Book review: Selectism
In its Books & Magazines category, Selectism recommends the new monograph Fritz Kahn. Thomas Welch states that the volume is “a must for everyone interested in the process of graphic visualization, or has any interest in a true artistic pioneer.” – Selectism is a lifestyle news website, run by independent publisher Titelmedia UG with offices […]
Book Review: Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung
Referencing the new monograph Fritz Kahn, cultural editor Ronald Meyer-Arlt writes: “Fritz Kahn created infographics when the word infographics hadn’t yet been invented. (…) An opulent coffee-table book reminds of the grand simplifier.” – The Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung is a newspaper, distributed mainly in Northern Germany. Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung
Book review: profil
Journalist Sebastian Hofer honors Fritz Kahn in a two-page article in profil, Austria’s leading news magazine: “Fritz Kahn, physician and author of basic popular science publications in the 1920s and 1930s, dramatically changed our image of ourselves. A monograph issued on the occasion of Kahn’s 125th birthday presents his work in all its variety and […]
Book review and interview: novum
In its November issue, the magazine novum – World of Graphic Design devotes a two-page spread to an article about the new monograph Fritz Kahn (“an attractive compendium meticously researched”). The article presents images taken from the book (“Even now, the images have lost none of their charm”), and an interview with co-author Thilo von […]
Kahn portrait: B.Z.
The B.Z., Berlin’s biggest and oldest daily newspaper, recalls Fritz Kahn in an illustrated article entitled “The pioneer of the man-machine celebrates birthday”. The author, Michael Heine, points to the new Kahn monograph and writes: “The Berlin all-round genius Fritz Kahn was born 125 years ago. Many of his visions have become reality. For example, […]
Book review: DIE WELT / Hamburger Abendblatt
A full-page article in another leading German newspaper, DIE WELT, published in a literary supplement on the occasion of the Frankfurt International Book Fair, is dedicated to the new book on Fritz Kahn. In his review, journalist Hans-Joachim Müller writes: “A lavish illustrated volume celebrates the forgotten science author Fritz Kahn as a pioneer of […]
Interview: radioeins
The popular science program “Die Profis” (The Professionals), broadcast by the Berlin-based radio station radioeins discussed Fritz Kahn and his visualizations in an eight-minute interview. After giving some basic information, presenter Stephan Karkowsky asked Uta von Debschitz about various Kahn illustrations and their historical context. The interview was conducted on the occasion of the newly […]
Kahn portrait: Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung
The Sunday edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeine (a leading German newspaper) devotes a two-page spread to Fritz Kahn, including 11 illustrations from his books. Journalist Sonja Kastilan recalls the life of the popular science author and and his “strong sense of image”. And she refers to the new Fritz Kahn monograph: “An opulent coffee-table book […]
Kahn portrait: El País Semanal
“Fritz Kahn, a forgotten genius” is the headline of a multi-page article in El País Semanal, the weekly magazine of the highest-circulation daily newspaper in Spain. The author introduces Kahn as an educator with “extraordinary imagination and boldness” who revolutionized the depiction of the human body during the 1920s. He describes how Kahn became famous, […]
Exhibition: Das Erklären erklären.
In her review of the exhibition “Das Erklären erklären” (Explaining how to explain) about the history of information design, journalist Laura Weissmüller writes: “Images transport information – often much more clearly than bare numbers or matter-of-fact reports. (…) New inventions and new media made the tremendous spread of information graphics possible and popular. And this […]
Kahn portrait: The Times of Israel
In his detailed article on Fritz Kahn in The Times of Israel, Graham Lawson writes about “an innovator who merged medicine with the industrial age” whose “influence on graphic design and art is still apparent”. Lawson concludes: “For an influential but long-neglected thinker, Kahn’s return, however modest, represents part of his well-deserved due”.
Exhibition: Superhuman
“Superhuman”, an exhibition of the Wellcome Collection in London, takes a broad and playful look at our obsession with being the best we can be. Items on display range from works of art and science to objects of utility like an ancient Egyptian prosthetic toe, a Victorian dildo, and the Spanish version of Fritz Kahn’s […]
Exhibition: Ghosts in the Machine
The exhibition “Ghosts in the Machine” in the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, surveys the constantly shifting relationship between humans, machines and art. Occupying the three main galleries of the museum, the exhibition presents the dreams and nightmares of technolgy as expressed by over seventy artists, writers, and visionaries – among them Fritz […]
Lecture: Jornadas Cantianas
Uta and Thilo von Debschitz presented their book project “Fritz Kahn – Man Machine” on March 17, 2012 at the two-day Jornadas Cantianas conference in Lisbon, Portugal. Invited by cultural organization Oporto and design studio Barbara says … , the siblings reported on their exciting search for information and images that made the life and […]
Lecture: Grafikdesign Münster
On February 6, Thilo von Debschitz spoke in the City of Münster, Germany, about the most important professional project of his life so far – the search for traces of Fritz Kahn. Entitled “Fritz Kahn – Pioneer in Information Design”, his lecture surveyed the forgotten author’s work. The talk included fascinating images from Fritz Kahn’s […]
Book: Information Graphics
With a full-page depiction of the famous Fritz Kahn poster “Der Mensch als Industriepalast” (Man as Industrial Palace), the magazine of the international publishing house Taschen promotes their upcoming book Information Graphics. Edited by Sandra Rendgen and Julius Wiedemann, the book presents a historical perspective on the subject, highlighting the work of the masters of […]
Exhibition: Our Daily Bread
The exhibition Unser täglich Brot – Die Industrialisierung der Ernährung (Our Daily Bread – The Industrialization of Nutrition) at the Technoseum in Mannheim, Germany, opens on October 28, 2011 and continues until April 29, 2012. The exhibition includes four rarely seen images from books by Fritz Kahn. For example, “Biology of a roast’s smell” or […]
Article: Seminars in Nuclear Medicine
In the newest edition of the US-American science journal Seminars in Nuclear Medicine Lionel S. Zuckier, MD, illustrates his guest editorial on “Image Perception in nuclear medicine” with Fritz Kahn’s “The doctor of the future“. He finds it quite remarkable, that many elements of today’s reading room were already intuited by Fritz Kahn some 85 years […]
Lecture: SenseMaker Dialogs
Thilo von Debschitz guided the SenseMaker Dialogs audience at Pratt Institute on a journey into history: He summarized his work on Fritz Kahn (1888–1968), whose popular science books and images he stumbled upon by mere chance. The designer von Debschitz was blown away by the communicative impact of the book illustrations, which made complex facts […]
Article: Neue Zürcher Zeitung
The may 2011 issue of the German magazine “Guter Rat” (good advice) features – among other topics – the human digestive system. A four-page article includes a summary of the famous Fritz Kahn illustration “Man as Industrial Palace”: “ … Chunks of raw material are thrown into the mouth, where grinding wheels pulverize the chunks, […]
Article: Autoportret
In an article in the sience section of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, the poster »Der Mensch als Industriepalast« (Man as Industrial Palace) by Fritz Kahn is characterized again as a “highlight of the current exhibition Health for Sale” (see entry from June 21, 2011, The New York Times) and displayed in a large format. The […]
Exhibition: Images of the Mind
The exhibition “Images of the Mind” (July 23 to Oct. 31, 2011) – a bi-national project of the Deutsches Hygiene-Museum in Dresden and the Mährische Galerie in Brno (Czech Republic) – examines the human mind as visual phenomena. Through selected exhibits from antiquity to presence, it analyzes the role of the image in comprehending mental […]
Exhibition: Health for Sale (The New York Times)
In the Health section of The New York Times, Abigail Zuger judges the exhibition „Health for Sale“ at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (see entry from April 1, 2011) as “georgous and fiercely funny”. The journalist writes: “… But the star of the show may be the single image intended neither to cajole nor to […]
Exhibition: Health for Sale (Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung)
In an article in the sience section of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, the poster “Der Mensch als Industriepalast” (Man as Industrial Palace) by Fritz Kahn is characterized again as a “highlight of the current exhibition Health for Sale” (see entry from June 21, 2011, The New York Times) and displayed in a large format. The […]
Recommendation: Designers Book List
What are the 10 favourite books of today’s leading designers? The people who operate the Designers & Books website asked famous creatives to submit their lists, and we discovered that American designer Seymour Chwast includes the monograph Fritz Kahn – Man Machine on his top-10 list. Chwast is one of the most influential illustrators and […]
Ausstellung: Health for Sale
From April 1 to July 31, 2011, the Philadelphia Museum of Art is exhibiting “Health for Sale”, a collection of antique medical- and health-related posters from the William H. Helfand Collection. One of the museum’s exhibits is “Der Mensch als Industriepalast”, a 1926 poster by Fritz Kahn that depicts the human body as a factory […]
Recommendation: The Scientist
Fritz Kahn’s illustration “sunbath” is the visual teaser of “Light Therapy, circa 1939” in the online edition of The Scientist. A supplementary slide show presents additional images from the highly illustrated book Fritz Kahn – Man Machine. The article especially recommends the monograph’s numerous images and the “riveting narration revealing the mastermind behind them”. The […]
Kahn portrait: SPIEGEL online
On its home page the weekly magazine DER SPIEGEL introduces Fritz Kahn with a detail of the poster “Man as Industrial Palace”. In the section “One day – contemporary histories”, Christoph Gunkel’s article “Inside the Human Machine” portrays the “body explainer Fritz Kahn”, closely following “the amazing volume Fritz Kahn – Man Machine / Maschine […]
Arredamento Mimarlik
In its September issue, Arredamento Mimarlik, a leading magazine for architecture and design in Turkey, looks back on the TYPO 2010 conference in Berlin and focuses on the rediscovery of Fritz Kahn. The article reads, in part: “The talk by Uta and Thilo von Debschitz on Dr. Fritz Kahn pointed out how Kahn compared the […]
Book review: designreport
“Furnished upper story” – referring to Fritz Kahns cross-sectional depictions of the human head and its various chambers – is the title of a two-page review by journalist Thomas Edelmann in the German magazine “designreport” (issue 1/2010). Among other observations, he notes: “He was one of the pioneers in information design in the 1920s: author […]
Book review: literaturkritik.de
In his review entitled “Man as Industrial Palace“ Behrang Samsami features the monograph “Fritz Kahn – Man Machine”. In his conclusion he says it was “an important new release in many respects”. – Literaturkritik.de is an online magazine, reviewing new publications in fiction, literature, and cultural studies. literaturkritik.de (full review in German)
Book review: Orthopädie & Rheuma
The May 2010 issue of the special-interest magazine Orthopädie & Rheuma (Orthopaedics & Rheumatism) features a three-page article and book recommendation for Fritz Kahn – Man Machine by Dr. med. Eberhard J. Wormer. He writes: “Until recently he was the big unknown, an outdated littérateur of the 20th century. Now the enigmatic Fritz Kahn has […]
Lecture: TYPO Berlin
At the TYPO Berlin design conference, Uta und Thilo von Debschitz presented their work on the monograph “Fritz Kahn – Man Machine” and a subsequent exhibition. Entitled “Infected! The Picture Virus of Dr. Fritz Kahn”, the lecture described their research (initiated by coincidence) in Berlin, Zürich, and New York. The siblings showed selected illustrations from […]
Art auction: Christie’s
An event at London-based auctioneer Christie’s focuses on Vintage Posters. Among the objects being auctioned in South Kensington on May 13, 2010, is “Der Mensch als Industriepalast” (Man as Industrial Palace), Fritz Kahn’s famous depiction of the human body as a factory. Christie’s (detail page)
Book review: designabilities
Tom Bieling, designer, author, and founding member of the Design Research Network, presents a book review on Fritz Kahn – Man Machine in his research blog designabilities.org. Among other comments, he writes: “The book ‘Man Machine‘ contains two aspects. … On one hand, it preserves and bestows the almost forgotten story of a German researcher’s […]
Article: Eye
The current issue of Eye, the London-based international review of graphic design, introduces Fritz Kahn’s imagery in a four-page article. Referring to the monograph “Fritz Kahn – Man Machine/Maschine Mensch”, Eye founder Rick Poynor emphasizes the continuing impact of the illustrations: “Images that once looked futuristic, expressing the technological dreams and aspirations of their time, […]
Book review: Rhein-Zeitung
In its literature section, the German newspaper Rhein-Zeitung published an article on the book “Fritz Kahn – Man Machine / Maschine Mensch”. It notes that Kahn’s work has been forgotten for many years. But now, an “opulent literary monument” has been erected for him by the “magnificent, visually expressive monograph”. – Rhein-Zeitung is the leading […]
Interview Borck: univadis
Medicine portal univadis published an elaborate interview as a special article, entitled “Fritz Kahn: a solitaire in a league of his own”, which quotes findings from the monograph “Fritz Kahn – Man Machine”. Professor Cornelius Borck, head of the institute for the history of medicine and science studies in Lübeck, Germany, emphasizes Fritz Kahn’s influence […]
Kahn exhibition (Berliner Morgenpost)
The Berliner Morgenpost publishes a 16-page special edition celebrating the 300th anniversary of the Charité (university hospital) in Berlin. On the back page a large image from the Fritz-Kahn-exhibition introduces the “events” section. – The Morgenpost, founded in 1898 and today part of the Welt-company, has a circulation of 134,000 copies and is the second-most […]
Exhibition: The Essence of Things
The exhibition “The Essence of Things” at the vitra Design Museum (March 20 to September 19, 2010) looks at the motifs of reduction principles that have shaped design througout time and many environments. In the exhibition catalogue, co-curator Martin Hartung raises the question of man as the “measure of all things”. He writes that due […]
Book review: F.LM
German online film magazine F.LM has published an interesting double review entitled “Machine heart and heart machine” on two books with a lot in common: the monograph “Fritz Kahn – Man Machine” and a catalogue titled “Fritz Lang’s Metropolis”. Just like the film “Metropolis”, which is celebrating a great comeback in its restored version, public […]
Recommendation: Deutscher Drucker
The rediscovery of Dr. Fritz Kahn earned a recommendation from Deutscher Drucker magazine. The article praises the “master of visualization” and “pioneer of popular science publication whose images inspire designers and artists even today”. The result of the Debschitz siblings’ research is a “wonderfully designed book” and a “remarkable exhibition”. – Deutscher Drucker is the […]
Book review: Junge Welt
Wolfgang Müller, artist and spokesman of the Berlin avant garde group “Die Tödliche Doris,” published a review in the daily newspaper Junge Welt. He recommends the monograph “Fritz Kahn – Man Machine” and concludes: “A beautifully designed, informative, and entertaining book that includes a critique of the life and work of Fritz Kahn. This is […]
Book and exhibition review: Deutsches Ärzteblatt
Fritz Kahn is the subject of a three-page article by Nobert Jachertz, the long-time former chief editor of Deutsches Ärzteblatt. Reffering to the monograph “Fritz Kahn – Man Machine / Maschine Mensch” (a “perfectly designed volume”) and the Charité-exhibition (“the machine-man in exciting contrast to Virchow’s specimens”), he portrays Kahn as a representative of modernity. […]
Book and exhibition review: Deutsche Welle
On the Russian website of Deutsche Welle, Germany’s international broadcaster, Andrey Gorokhov reports on Fritz Kahn in two articles, one on Kahn’s biography, and the other on the exhibition in Berlin. Gorokhov calls Kahn “one of the most interesting popularizers of science”, who explained human nature with “unique and expressive images at the edge of […]
Book and exhibition review: Berliner Ärzte
“An important rediscovery!” This statement opens a one-page article on Fritz Kahn in “Berliner Ärzte” (March 2010). The author describes her perception of the exhibition in the Berlin Museum of Medical History (“well integrated with the permanent exhibition”) and the monograph (“commendable book … one gets to know many interesting things about Kahn’s life and […]
Recommendation: Intelligence in Lifestyle
IL, the monthly lifestyle supplement of the leading Italian financial newspaper Il Sole 24 ORE, recommended the exhibition in Berlin. Among other comments, IL notes: “What happens when we ring a bell, smell a roast, or have an erection? Jewish intellectual and gynaecologist Fritz Kahn (1888–1968) dedicated his life to explaining the human machine and […]
Recommendation: VivArt
“Extraordinary. It is not only a literary examination of cultural history, but also a survey of design history. A must see and must read!” VivArt, Spring issue 2010
Interview: tv berlin
he exhibition “Fritz Kahn – Man Machine” is the topic of the “Frühcafé Talk” on tv berlin. Curator Uta Debschitz, the studio guest, provdes detailed information about Fritz Kahn and the illustrations shown in the exhibition. tv berlin (broadcast recording in German)
Book and exhibition review: Frankfurter Rundschau
In his two-page article for the Frankfurter Rundschau, Felix Helberg wrote: “A monograph about Fritz Kahn, presented by the authors Uta and Thilo von Debschitz, and simultaneously an exhibition at the Berlin Charité, show how significantly Kahn’s human-mechanical images influenced modern man’s understanding of his bodily functions. […] What is left of Kahn has been […]
Exhibition review: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
The FAZ dedicates half of the page titled “Research and Teaching” to a review of the exhibition Fritz Kahn – Maschine Mensch. The author describes Kahn as a “magician of popular science”, his “always surprising and often hilarious visual metaphors are disconcerting, but also fascinating.” As example, she mentions images like “Man eats 1400 times […]
Article: mare
“Man as Aquarium” is the title of a ten-page article about ocean lover Fritz Kahn in “mare–the magazine of the seas” (issue 78, February/March 2010). Whereas Kahn’s man-machine analogies are the focus of the Fritz Kahn monograph and exhibition, Uta von Debschitz introduces a less recognized, but particularly charming subject in this article: Kahn’s human-sea-analogies. […]
Book review: pro care
A review in the February issue of “pro care” magazine deals with the monograph “Fritz Kahn – Man Machine / Maschine Mensch”. It notes: “Kahn creates a fantastic world that shapes complex coherencies into stirring stories and makes them easy to grasp. In the 1920s, his audience appreciated that, but then the treasure became buried. […]
Exhibition review: Berliner Zeitung
Fritz Kahn’s “Man as Industrial Palace” adorned the front-page of the special supplement to the 26th “Long Night of the Museums” in Berlin. The symbiosis between art and science was the main focus. Feuilleton editor Ingeborg Ruthe commented on the motif and the Kahn exhibition in the introduction: “It was one of the most brilliant […]
Book review: designreport
“Furnished upper story” – referring to Fritz Kahns cross-sectional depictions of the human head and its various chambers – is the title of a two-page review by journalist Thomas Edelmann in the German magazine “designreport” (issue 1/2010). Among other observations, he notes: “He was one of the pioneers in information design in the 1920s: author […]
Book review: Ärzte Woche
“Kahn’s analogies and detailed depictions, which still influence our ideas about bodily functions, are fascinating and captivating. He creates a fantastic world that forms complex interrelations into stirring stories and in this way, makes things easy to understand. His audience in the 1920s appreciated this before this treasure was buried. Now it has been revived.” […]
Book review: Scienceblog
Luciana Christante, a freelance journalist in Brazil, publishes in her blog on science, history, and art a detailed article about the Fritz Kahn monograph and the exhibition in Berlin. Scienceblogs (full article in Portugese)
Exhibition review: Neues Deutschland
Journalist Andreas Heinz of Neues Deutschland reviews the Fritz Kahn exhibition in an article entitled: “Was eine Wanderzelle alles erlebt” (The experiences of a wandering cell). Neues Deutschland is a nationwide newspaper based in Berlin, focusing on East Germany. Neues Deutschland (full article in German)
Interview: Radio Eins
The popular science program “Die Profis” (“The Pros”) short for “The Professionals” features an interview with Uta von Debschitz, curator of the exhibition “Fritz Kahn – Maschine Mensch” at the Berlin Medical Historical Museum. – Radio Eins, produced by Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg, is a leading infotainment radio station in the Berlin capital region with an average […]
Opening of exhibition “Fritz Kahn – Maschine Mensch”
The Berlin Museum of Medical History of the Charité (university hospital) presents the world’s first Fritz Kahn exhibition, from January 23 to April 11, 2010, entitled “Fritz Kahn – Maschine Mensch”. The exhibition under the patronage of Ulla Schmidt, the former Federal Minister of Health, is part of the series “Intervention”, which presents art in […]
Exhibition review: SPIEGEL Online
The international edition of SPIEGEL Online reports on the exhibition “Fritz Kahn – Maschine Mensch” in an article entitled ”Exhibition Pays Tribute to 1920s Doctor – The Human Body as Factory”. – DER SPIEGEL is Europe’s leading newsmagazine, and SPIEGEL Online is the most-visited news site in Germany. SPIEGEL International brings this unique European perspective […]
Recommendation: DER SPIEGEL
”Man as a machine. – Starting next Saturday, the Museum of Medical History of the Charité in Berlin shows almost forgotten graphics and illustrations by the legendary gynecologist Fritz Kahn. From 1922 to 1931, Dr. Kahn published a five-volume book series, ‘The Life of Man‘, which became a bestseller. The series explains the complicated processes of the human […]
Book review: Wiesbadener Kurier
Johanna Dupré, cultural journalist for the Wiesbadener Kurier, reviews Fritz Kahn’s visual language and describes how the monograph was created. In her article, “Biology of a roast’s smell”, she writes: “The reader always gets surprised by humorous image ideas and might be reminded of contemporary movements such as Cubism, Futurism, Art Déco, or – as clash between […]
Recommendation: grafik
“A humanist and educator, a visualiser of the amazing things happening inside our bodies and out, Fritz Kahn was inspiring. This book is the first monograph to be published about the German doctor and scientist who wowed the 1920s world with his book ‘Das Leben des Menschen (The Life of Man)’. In the graphic design […]
Book review: étapes
étapes, the French magazine of design and visual culture, published a review of “Fritz Kahn – Man Machine” in its international (French/English) issue, December 2010. It concludes: “The scientific pedagogy they [Kahns’ images] bring forward, midway between the worlds of arts and apprenticeship, could serve as excellent flagships for visual communication.” étapes (full review as […]
Book review: PAGE
PAGE, Germany’s leading magazine for design, advertising, and media, praises the Fritz Kahn book in its 01/2010 issue and wonders “how discoveries like this could be possible at all”. Entitled “Inside Man”, a three-page review tells the story of how the Kahn monograph came to be and why the works of the famous popular science author remained […]
Book review: Slanted
In the German weblog Slanted, which focuses on typography and design, an article titled “An exceptional monograph” starts as follows: “After extensive research, Uta and Thilo von Debschitz compiled their spectacular discoveries about the life and work of Fritz Kahn in a publication. The result is an exciting monograph on the life and legacy of a man […]
Lecture: TYPO Berlin 2010
At TYPO Berlin 2010 (Passion), in addition to renowned speakers such as Carlos Segura (Chicago), Rick Poynor (London), and Oliver Reichenstein (Zurich), siblings Uta and Thilo von Debschitz will present their passionate book project on Fritz Kahn. They will explain how they became fascinated by Kahn’s inspiring work and how their fascination led to an adventurous […]
Book review: Immer schön sachlich
In his blog on specialized books, “Immer schön sachlich“ (stick to facts), Michael Schikowski reviews the Fritz Kahn monograph. Under the title “Verblüffungsmaschine Fritz Kahn” (amazement machine Fritz Kahn), he summarizes a “wonderfully designed book” whose authors remain objective while conveying their passion for visualization. Schikowski emphasizes the original illustration “Walnut and Brain” and the […]
Book review: The New York Times
“The Moment”, the New York Times Style Magazine blog, features an article on Fritz Kahn and the monograph “Fritz Kahn – Man Machine”. Author Steven Heller explains his fascination with Kahn’s visual style in his review of the “beautiful Kahn monograph”. The New York Times (full review)
Recommendation: Roger Willemsen
“Uta and Thilo von Debschitz have saved the memory of a unique man who was an allrounder, an explorer, and a designer of the humanly possible in text, image, and science. If there was any justice in the world of art, Kahn would be considered as someone who almost singlehandly opened and closed a chapter […]
Recommendations: Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer, Dr. Eckart von Hirschhausen
“To me it’s just fascinating that at the end of the year 2009 we are interested in books from long ago. I’m thinking of the monograph ‘Fritz Kahn – Man Machine’, for example, or of ‘The Red Book’ of C. G. Jung, which was published just recently. They lead us to the conclusion that we should not forget […]