Otto Hupp

Heraldry of the World
Heraldic artists

OTTO HUPP

A page devoted to the famous heraldic artist Otto Hupp, born May 21, 1859 in Düsseldorf (Germany), died January 31, 1949 in Oberschleissheim (Germany).

Biography

Hupp was born in Düsseldorf, as the fourth of five sons of the engraver Carl Heinrich Hupp. His father made him learn engraving as his profession, and, shortly after finishing his education, he moved to Munich in 1878. Since 1891 till his death Hupp lived in the suburb Oberschleißheim. From the painter Rudolf Seitz he learned many styles of painting, and when he met the architect Gabriel von Seidl he received several contracts to paint wall and ceiling frescos.

Hupp's main field of work was heraldry, painting more than 6,000 coats of arms and writing books on heraldry.

In 1895 he started a series of books entitled Wappen und Siegel der deutschen Städte, Flecken und Dörfer (Coat of arms and seal of the German cities and villages), however of the originally 10 planned volumes only 5 were finished by 1928. These books were very exclusive, they were printed in editions of only 400 copies and sold for 60 Goldmark.

Another important heraldic publication by Otto Hupp were the Münchener Kalender (Munich calendars), of which 51 issues were published in the years 1885-1936 (the issue of 1933 was omitted). Additionally to painting the existing coat of arms he also created new arms for (mainly Bavarian) municipalities. He also created the 1923 version for the state of Bayern (Bavaria), which however was replaced with a new version after World War II.

Over 3500 of his paintings of coats of arms were published as a collecting set from the coffee company Kaffee HAG from 1913–18 (old series)and 1926–38 (new series). This publication helped to make heraldry better known to the general public.

When Ludwig Roselius (the owner/founder of Kaffee Hag) and the Brücke initiated the idea of the heraldic albums, Otto Hupp was asked to make the images and texts. He agreed and to make a quick start, he used the images that he already had made for his book series, which were Ostpreussen, Westpreussen and Brandenburg (published by him in 1894), Pommern, Posen, Schlesien (1898) and Ober- and Niederbayern (1913). For his last book Rheinpfalz (1928) on the other hand he used the images he already made for the Kaffe Hag albums.

All the images of the old albums bear the initials OH for Otto Hupp. The initials are printed in black, with the exception of numbers 192-223 that show either initials in blue, or no initials at all.

Along with painting existing coats of arms, he also created many drafts for municipalities which were applying for new arms. Possibly his most important coat of arms was the 1923 version for the state of Bavaria, which, however, was replaced with a new version after World War II.

The first typographic works of Hupp were made in 1883. His first typeface, Neudeutsch, was published in 1899 by Genzsch & Heyse. He created several further typeface later, such as Hupp-Gotisch, Hupp-Fraktur, and Hupp-Antiqua. However, as his typefaces were not designed for standard uses, they did not spread much, and are nowadays mostly forgotten. None of them was ever converted to be used in phototypesetting.

Other significant works of Hupp include metal works for Speyer Cathedral in 1904 (which also gained him the title professor in 1906), the cover of an astronomical clock donated to the city of Munich, and the company logo of the Spaten brewery.

Though Hupp was undoubtedly an artist, he himself always denied to be called one, claiming he was just using the technique of an artist, but failing to have the creativity of one.

(source Wikipedia)

Books by Hupp

Hupp, O. : Wappen und Siegel der deutschen Städte. 2. Heft, Pommern, Posen und Schlesien. Keller, Frankfurt, 1898, 104 p.
Hupp, O. : Wappen und Siegel der deutschen Städte. 3. Heft, Provinz Sachsen und Schleswig-Holstein. Keller, Frankfurt, 1903, 76 p.
Hupp, O. : Wappen und Siegel der deutschen Städte. 6. Heft, Königreich Bayern, Kreis Ober- und Niederbayern. Keller, Frankfurt, 1912, 90 p.
Hupp, O. : Die Ortswappen des Königreichs Preussen. 1. Heft: Provinz Ostpreussen. Kaffee Hag, Bremen, 1913, 44 p.
Hupp, O. : Die Ortswappen des Königreichs Preussen. 2. Heft: Provinz Westpreussen. Kaffee Hag, Bremen, 1914, 32 p.
Hupp, O. : Die Ortswappen des Königreichs Preussen. 3. Heft: Provinz Brandenburg. Kaffee Hag, Bremen, 1914, 45 p.
Hupp, O. : Die Ortswappen des Königreichs Bayern. 1. Heft: Kreise Oberbayern und Niederbayern. Kaffee Hag, Bremen, 1914, 50 p.
Hupp, O. : Die Ortswappen des Königreichs Preussen. 4. Heft: Provinz Posen. Kaffee Hag, Bremen, 1915, 48 p.
Hupp, O. : Die Ortswappen des Königreichs Preussen. 5. Heft: Provinz Pommern. Kaffee Hag, Bremen, 1916, 40 p.
Hupp, O. : Wider die Schwarmgeister ! Erster Teil. Berichtigung irriger Meinungen über das Wappenwesen. Max Kellerer, München, 1918, 70 p. No ISBN.
Hupp, O. : Wider die Schwarmgeister ! Zweiter Teil. Beiträge zur Entstehung und Entwicklungsgeschichte der Wappen. Max Kellerer, München, 1918, 88 p. No ISBN.
Hupp, O. : Wider die Schwarmgeister ! Dritter Teil. Zu den neuen Staatswappen, zum Wappengebrauch det Städte und der Bürgerlichen, der Runenstar, Zantgemal und Wappen. Max Kellerer, München, 1919, 96 p. No ISBN.
Hupp, O. : Deutsche Ortswappen. Series of 10 albums issued by the Kaffee Hag company, Bremen, 1925-39, 2811 images and a separate register. See for more information here.
Hupp, O. : Wappen und Siegel der deutschen Städte. 7. Heft, Bayern, Kreis Rheinpfalz. Verlag Pfälzische Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften. Speyer , 1928, 82 p.
Hupp, O : Königreich Preussen. Wappen der Städte, Flecken und Dörfer. Reprint von 1896 und 1898. Kulturstiftung der deutschen Vertriebenen, Bonn, 1993.

Books about Hupp

Otto Hupp, Meister der Wappenkunst 1859-1949. Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv, 1984. ISBN 3-7686-3037-1

Images (scans) from his work

Coffee Hag albums

All images of the Coffee Hag albums can be see here, in total there are over 4000 images displayed.

Some examples :
Old series

New series

Münchener Kalenders

All covers of the Münchener Kalenders and mor einformation can be seen here.

Some examples:

1886	1893	1899	1901	1903
1914	1917	1923	1925	1935

Book series

In 1895 he started a series of books entitled Wappen und Siegel der deutschen Städte, Flecken und Dörfer (Coat of arms and seal of the German cities and villages), however of the originally 10 planned volumes only 5 were finished by 1928. These books were very exclusive, they were printed in editions of only 400 copies and sold for 60 Goldmark. In 1993 a reprint of the arms of Brandenburg, Pommern, Posen Ost- and Westpreussen was published.

The images of the books are mainly published in the Coffee hag albums and can thus be seen there. The only images that have not been published in the albums or the reprint are the images of the Rheinpfalz, issued in 1928. These are shown below ((click on image for larger resolution)).