Emil Doepler (29 October 1855, in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

– 21 December 1922, in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

) was a German illustrator, graphic artist, and heraldist. He is usually referred to as The Younger, to distinguish him from his father.

Life and work

He was born to Carl Emil Doepler, an illustrator and designer, who was head of the costume department at the

Bayreuth Festival The Bayreuth Festival () is a music festival held annually in Bayreuth, Germany, at which performances of stage works by the 19th-century German composer Richard Wagner are presented. Wagner himself conceived and promoted the idea of a special ...

. He was also Emil's first teacher. Heraldry was among his earliest interests, but he also created landscapes and

still-life A still life (: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or human-made (drinking glasses, books, ...

s. From 1870, he studied at the of the Arts and Crafts Museum in Berlin. Upon graduating, in 1873, he worked as a free-lance illustrator. From 1876 to 1877, he took further lessons at the

Prussian Academy of Arts The Prussian Academy of Arts () was a state arts academy first established in 1694 by prince-elector Frederick III of Electorate of Brandenburg, Brandenburg in Berlin, in personal union Duke Frederick I of Prussia, and later king in Kingdom of ...

. In 1881, he became a teacher at the Museum. In 1888, he designed the coat-of-arms for the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels, featuring '' Habent sua fata libelli'' (books have their destiny), the motto of the German publishing industry. He was promoted to Professor in 1889. He also designed advertising materials, signs, and

trading card A trading card (or collectible card) is a small card, usually made out of paperboard or thick paper, which usually contains an image of a certain person, place or thing (fictional or real) and a short description of the picture, along with other t ...

pictures for the Stollwerck chocolate company. In 1898, he headed the “Committee for the Procurement and Monitoring of Artistic Stollwerck Pictures” (Komité zur Beschaffung und Ueberwachung künstlerischer Stollwerck-Bilder), founded by . Other committee members included Woldemar Friedrich,

Bruno Schmitz Bruno Schmitz (21 November 1858 – 27 April 1916) was a German architect best known for his monuments in the early 20th century. He worked closely with sculptors such as Emil Hundrieser, Nikolaus Geiger and Franz Metzner for integrated architect ...

and Franz Skarbina. They also acted as judges for competitions. This was intended to give the cards a higher artistic value. In 1899, he designed several variations of the company name, in an

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau ( ; ; ), Jugendstil and Sezessionstil in German, is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and ...

font. Later, one of his students, , combined the lettering with a three-point crown, to create the company's

logo A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name that it represents, as in ...

. He married Hirsch in 1909. They had no children. In November 1919,

Friedrich Ebert Friedrich Ebert (; 4 February 187128 February 1925) was a German politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, Social Democratic Party (SPD) who served as the first President of Germany (1919–1945), president of Germany from 1919 until ...

, President of the Weimar Republic, declared one of Doepler's designs to be Germany's official coat-of-arms.Jana Leichsenring, "Staatssymbole: Der Bundesadler", in: ''Aktueller Begriff'',

Deutscher Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the lower house of the German federal parliament. It is the only constitutional body of the federation directly elected by the German people. The Bundestag was established by Title III of the Basic Law fo ...

– Wissenschaftliche Dienste (ed.), No. 83/08 (12 December 2008), p. 1. It served in that function until 1928. After that, it became an escutcheon; used for certain specific ceremonial purposes, such as a

pennon A pennon, also known as a pennant or pendant, is a long narrow flag which is larger at the Hoist (flag), hoist than at the Fly (flag), fly, i.e., the flag narrows as it moves away from the flagpole. It can have several shapes, such as triangular ...

for official vehicles. In 1949,

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

began employing it for the same purposes. His designs also serve as the coats-of-arms for the cities of

Essen Essen () is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and Dortmund, as well as ...

and

Bochum Bochum (, ; ; ; ) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia. With a population of 372,348 (April 2023), it is the sixth-largest city (after Cologne, Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Essen and Duisburg) in North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous German federa ...

References

External links

Illustrations from ''Walhall: Die Götterwelt der Germanen''
by Wilhelm Ranisch, 1905 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Doepler, Emil German illustrators 1855 births 1922 deaths Art Nouveau illustrators Artists from Munich German artists People from the Kingdom of Bavaria

Life and work

References

Further reading

External links