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 Otto 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 Otto 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 Otto 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 Otto 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)

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 more information can be seen here.

Some examples:

1886	1893	1899	1901	1903
1914	1917	1923	1925	1935

Klingspor Kalender

In 1940 Hupp designed and write the annual kalender of the Klingspor publishing house in Offenbach am Main, the Klingspor Kalender für das Gutenbergjahr, 1940. (pdf)

It was published as a small hard-cover booklet, with 12 city arms, a calendar and a text, printed in one of Hupp's own fonts, about the history or book printing.

front	Mainz	Bamberg	Strasbourg	Köln
Roma	Eltville am Rhein	Augsburg	Basel	Nürnberg
Speyer	Ulm	Erfurt

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)).

He also made some other non-heraldic images for the books, which are also shown below.

Other images from the book series:

Municipal arms and seals

Hupp designed a number of arms for (Bavarian) municipalities. An example of those is shown below.

Scetches for new municipal arms by Hupp (from an auction picture)

Coins and banknotes

Hupp also many numerous designs for Bavaraian and German coins and banknotes, but only a few actually were used.

German coin with arms of Bremen (source)

Medal by Hupp for the German shooting competition, 1881 (source)

Deutsches Museum

Hupp designed the logo of the Deutsches Museum in München in 1923.

Plate by Villeroy & Boch, 1930

Beer tanker with the arms (picture from eBay)

leaflet with the arms (picture from eBay)

Ex Libris

Hupp also designed numerous ex-librices. Some examples are shown below.

(images below from www.zvab.com)

(images below from Klaas Padberg Evenboer)

Die Wappenbücher vom Arlberg

The book is on-line available at http://bilderserver.at/wappenbuecher/ProfHuppOSPv2_52z2/

Some images :

Wine labels

Niersteiner Auflangen (source)

Other images

The famous logo of the Spaten brewery (stamp from 1910s):

An image of the German Wine Road (from here)

An image for a vineyard

Books/publications by Hupp

Hupp, O. : Alphabete und Ornamente. München; Bassermann; 1883; 23 p.
Hupp, O. : Ein Missale speciale. Vorläufer des Psalteriums von 1457. Beitrag zur Geschichte der ältesten Druckwerke. München-Regensburg. Nationale Verlagsanstalt & Buch- und Kunstdruckerei AG, 30 p.
Hupp, O. : Wappen und Siegel der deutschen Städte. 2. Heft, Pommern, Posen und Schlesien. Keller, Frankfurt, 1898, 104 p.
Hupp, O. : Gutenbergs erste Drucke Ein weiterer Beitrag zur Geschichte der ältesten Druckwerke. Mainz, Verlagsanstalt Vorm, 1902, 98 p.
Hupp, O : Evangelisches Gesangbuch für Elsass-Lothringen. Straßburg: Verlag der Straßburger Pastoral-Konferenz, 1902. 536 p.
Hupp, O. : Wappen und Siegel der deutschen Städte. 3. Heft, Provinz Sachsen und Schleswig-Holstein. Keller, Frankfurt, 1903, 76 p.
Hupp, O. : Liturgisch. Schrift, Schmuck und Bilder für kirchliche und weltliche Zwecke. Offenbach, Gebr. Klingspor, 1906, 48 p.
Hupp, O : Philipp Apian's Bayerische Landtafeln und Peter Weiner's Chorographia Bavariae : eine bibliographische Untersuchung.Frankfurt, 1910, 43 p.
Hupp, O. : Der Hausfrau Wirthschaftsbuch. München, Huttler & Cie. +/-1910, 16 p.
Hupp, O. : Das Rathaus zu Regensburg : ein Markstein Deutscher Geschichte und Deutscher Kunst : die Stadt Regensburg seit hundert Jahren Bayerns Krone huldigend widmet diese werk dem Bayerischen Stammlande. J. Habbel, Regensburg, 1910, 183 p.
Hupp, O. : Rudolf von Seitz ; eine Erinnerung für seine Freunde. München ; Meisenbach Riffarth; 1911; 11 p.
Hupp, O. : Wappen und Siegel der deutschen Städte. 6. Heft, Königreich Bayern, Kreis Ober- und Niederbayern. Keller, Frankfurt, 1912, 90 p.
Hupp. O : Kunstschätze des Regensburger Rathauses. Regensburg Verlag von J. Habbel 1912, 63 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 : Zum Streit um das Missale speciale Constantiense. Ein dritter Beitrag zur Geschichte der ältesten Druckwerke.Strassburg. Verlag J.H. Ed. Heitz & Mündel. 1917. 142 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 : Runen und Hakenkreuz. Eine archäologische Studie mit heraldischen Schlussfolgerungen. Max Keller verlag, München, 1921, 160 p.
Hupp, O. : Halali! Die Beleidigungsklage Koerner gegen Hupp nach den Gerichtsakten dargestellt. München, Kellerer, 1923. 133 p.
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 : Scheltbriefe und Schandbilder. Ein Rechtsbehelf aus dem 15. u. Own publication, 1930, 92 p.
Hupp. O : Die Wappenbücher vom Arlberg. Volksbund der Deutschen Sippenkunde, Berlin, 1937-1939.
Hupp : O. : Der Neudruck des Canon missae und der Sandguss. Festgabe der Gutenberg-Gesellschaft zur 500-Jahr-Feier der Druckkunst im Jahr 1940. 18 p.
Hupp, O : Königreich Preussen. Wappen der Städte, Flecken und Dörfer. Reprint von 1896 und 1898. Kulturstiftung der deutschen Vertriebenen, Bonn, 1993.

Books/publications about Hupp

Otto Hupp, Meister der Wappenkunst 1859-1949. Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv, 1984. ISBN 3-7686-3037-1
Böcher, O : Otto Hupp und seine Wein-Etiketten. Gutenberg Jahrbuch 76(2001)248-253 (pdf for private use available on request)
Lange, W. A. : Otto Hupp, Das Werk eines deutschen Meisters. Berlin, Heintze & Blanckert, 1940. 64 p.(pdf for private use available on request)