West German Conceptual Film & Culture Poster (Hillmann and Rambow)

• Reduce the film or play to one sign drawn from its content rather than its stars: a black figure in a top hat for Crime et châtiment (1962), a black falcon whose head is a revolver aimed at the viewer for Der Malteser Falke (1972), two black gun barrels slanting down across a white field above a solid black lower half for Panzerkreuzer Potemkin (1967), a figure whose body is a giant T for Traumulus (1969).
• Print with as few inks as possible: black and white alone, black and one flat colour, or two flat colours, such as black and yellow for Außer Atem and Traumulus (1969), red and black for Die Einsamkeit des Langstreckenläufers (1966) and red and blue for Eine Frau ist eine Frau (1970), on offset or screenprint, and leave the ground plain. Rambow's staged objects are the exception: photographed and printed in full colour on a pale ground (the potato of Egoißt, the bloodied fly of It's time, the pencils of P.E.N. im Exil), with only the type in a single flat ink.
• Treat the photograph as raw material: crop it to a fragment, push it to grainy high contrast, posterise it, lay another image over it or join it to a line drawing, like the dead leaves over a face for Das Irrlicht (1966), the coarse close-ups of Anna Magnani for Amore (1962) or the photographed hands tied to drawn lines for Archibaldo de la Cruz.
• Set the type rather than paint it and choose it anew for each film: a condensed or neo-grotesque sans for the title, the credits in a small flush or stacked block, and now and then let a letter or a block of names become part of the picture, as the T of Traumulus repeats the figure and the stacked names of Außer Atem fill the space between a hat brim and a cigarette.
• Stage the paradox in front of the camera and let the photograph vouch for the impossible: a potato with a window cut into it that shows a smaller potato (Rambow, Egoißt, 1967), a torn poster of a face hanging on a wire fence (Othello, 1978), a man's portrait torn away at the head to reveal the brick wall behind it (Die Hamletmaschine, 1980).
• Use the same quiet means for politics: one photographed object and one line of type, like the squashed fly under 'It's time' and the small line 'to fly to Hanoi' against the Vietnam War (1968), or broken pencils laid into a swastika over a typed 1938 members' list of the German PEN in exile (P.E.N. im Exil, 1983).

Göttingen, Kassel and Frankfurt am Main. Walter Kirchner founded the art-film distributor Neue Filmkunst in Göttingen in 1953 and asked Hans Leistikow, who had run the municipal graphics office of the Neues Frankfurt from 1925 to 1930 and led the graphics class at the Kassel academy from 1948 to 1959, for advice; Leistikow held a competition among his students and Hans Hillmann (1925–2014) won it. Hillmann designed more than 150 film posters for Neue Filmkunst Walter Kirchner and Atlas Film up to 1974, ran a team that included Isolde Baumgart and Wolfgang Schmidt, built some designs on photographs by Abisag Tüllmann, and taught at Kassel from about 1960 to 1989; the Museum Folkwang dates his first film posters to 1952, graphic and illustrative at first, with photographs from 1960. His student Gunter Rambow (b. 1938) worked with Gerhard Lienemeyer as Rambow + Lienemeyer in Kassel (1960–64), Stuttgart (1964–67) and Frankfurt (from 1967), and with Michael van de Sand as Rambow Lienemeyer van de Sand (1973–86), and carried the method into staged photographic posters for the Schauspiel Frankfurt, the publisher S. Fischer and political causes. Both belonged to the Kasseler Schule. The start year is the founding of Neue Filmkunst; the end year marks the end of West Germany rather than of the work itself: Hillmann's film posters stop in 1974 and the partnership with van de Sand in 1986, while Rambow's work continues

1. Hans Hillmann, German Wikipedia: born 1925 in Nieder Mois, Silesia, died 2014 in Frankfurt; Werkakademie Kassel under Hans Leistikow 1949–52; professor in Kassel from 1959; more than 150 film posters for Neue Filmkunst Walter Kirchner and Atlas Film up to 1974; 'drastisch reduzierter Stil' against star portraits, with photomontage, distortion, changing typefaces and few colours or black and white; photographs by Abisag Tüllmann; Toulouse-Lautrec Prize, Paris 1962; documenta III 1964; Fliegenpapier 1982, https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Hillmann
2. Gunter Rambow, German Wikipedia: born 1938 in Neustrelitz; studied under Hillmann in Kassel until 1964; Rambow + Lienemeyer in Kassel 1960–64, Stuttgart 1964–67, Frankfurt from 1967; Michael van de Sand from 1973, partnership to 1986; Kohlkunstverlag 1967; the photo poster 'It's time' against the Vietnam War; AGI member from 1974; Kasseler Schule, https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunter_Rambow
3. Hans Leistikow, German Wikipedia: head of the Frankfurt city graphics office under Ernst May 1925–1930 in the style of the Neue Sachlichkeit, layout of das neue frankfurt from 1926, co-founder of the Kasseler Schule and head of the Kassel graphics class 1948–1959, https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Leistikow
4. Museum Folkwang (Deutsches Plakat Museum), exhibition 'The Title Is Continued in the Picture', 11 May–1 September 2013: about 90 Hillmann film posters 1952–1974 for Neue Filmkunst Walter Kirchner and Atlas Filmverleih; graphic and illustrative from 1952, photography from 1960 first as backgrounds and then in photomontage; drew on the 1920s and avoided Nazi-era forms and Wirtschaftswunder loudness; films named include Storm over Asia (1961), Seven Samurai (1962), To Be or Not to Be (1964), The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1966), Battleship Potemkin (1967), A Woman Is a Woman (1970), https://museum-folkwang.de/en/exhibition/title-continued-picture
5. Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, via museum-digital: Hillmann posters with printer, technique and inks, e.g. Außer Atem 1969 (14059970, offset black and yellow), https://smb.museum-digital.de/object/69332; Eine Frau ist eine Frau 1970 (14059971, offset red and blue), https://smb.museum-digital.de/object/69320; Traumulus 1969 (14059973), https://smb.museum-digital.de/object/69304; Abend der Gaukler 1958 (14059974, linocut and letterpress), https://smb.museum-digital.de/object/69397; Die Einsamkeit des Langstreckenläufers 1966 (14020551, screenprint red and black), https://smb.museum-digital.de/object/70957; Das verbrecherische Leben des Archibaldo de la Cruz 1960 (14020294), https://smb.museum-digital.de/object/71130; Amore 1962 (14020483), https://smb.museum-digital.de/object/71176; Crime et châtiment 1962 (14020550), https://smb.museum-digital.de/object/70922; Der Malteser Falke 1972 (14020304), https://smb.museum-digital.de/object/71134; Panzerkreuzer Potemkin 1967 (14055037, screenprint, WMG Siebdruck, Frankfurt), https://smb.museum-digital.de/object/71212; Mr. Pickwick oder: Die Abenteuer eines Junggesellen 1958 (14059972, offset red, blue-violet and black, Göttinger Druckerei- und Verlagsgesellschaft), https://smb.museum-digital.de/object/69400
6. Alliance Graphique Internationale, Hans Hillmann (member from 1961): studied in Kassel 1948–53, freelance from 1953, professor in Kassel 1961–89; posters Sturm über Asien (1964), Sein oder Nichtsein (1964), Das verbrecherische Leben des Archibaldo de la Cruz (1964), Das Irrlicht (1966), Masculin – Feminin (1966), Die Einsamkeit des Langstreckenläufers, https://a-g-i.org/user/hanshillmann/view/projects/ ; Sein oder Nichtsein image, https://a-g-i.org/design/seinodernichstein
7. Alliance Graphique Internationale, Gunter Rambow: Egoisst (1967, client 'Egoisst Magazine, Adam Seide'), It's time (1968), Othello, Schauspiel Frankfurt (1978), Die Hamletmaschine (1980), PEN im Exil (1983, client Deutsche Bibliothek Frankfurt); the images show Egoißt, It's time and PEN im Exil as full-colour photographs and Othello as a black-and-white photograph, https://a-g-i.org/user/gunterrambow@web.de/view/projects/ ; https://a-g-i.org/design/egoisst ; https://a-g-i.org/design/its-time-1 ; https://a-g-i.org/design/pen-in-exile ; https://a-g-i.org/design/othello-theatre-poster-schauspiel-frankfurt
8. Adam Seide, German Wikipedia: published the magazines Yardbird, Der Egoist and Der neue Egoist, Hannover and Frankfurt, 1958–1976, https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Seide
9. Walker Art Center, Minneapolis: Gunter Rambow, Posters for S. Fischer Publishing House, 1976–1979 (Das Turbuch, 1976, offset, 1986.36; Image of book and hand in book, 1976, screenprint, 1986.34; Image of Wall with Window, 1979, offset, 1986.29; Das Fensterbuch, Das Schreibende Buch), gift of Rambow, Lienemeyer and van de Sand, 1986, https://www.walkerart.org/collections/artist/gunter-rambow/
10. AIGA Eye on Design, 'The Unexpected Mid-century Cinema Posters of Germany's Isolde Monson-Baumgart': Neue Filmkunst founded 1953 by Walter Kirchner; Leistikow's student competition won by Hillmann, who became design director; Baumgart and Wolfgang Schmidt among his designers; free rein after a brief and no house style, https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/the-unexpected-mid-century-cinema-posters-of-germanys-isolde-monson-baumgart/
11. Niedersächsische Bibliographie, person record Walter Kirchner (1923–2009): founder and owner of the distributor Neue Filmkunst in Göttingen and head of the university film club, https://personen.niedersaechsische-bibliographie.de/person/export/1949994538
12. René Grohnert, 'Die "Neue Filmkunst" und Walter Kirchner: Avantgarde-Filme und -Plakate für die junge Bundesrepublik', in Hollywood an der Leine – Film in Göttingen, Marburg: Schüren, 2026, pp. 133–137 (cited as the biographical source in the Niedersächsische Bibliographie record for Walter Kirchner; not consulted directly)
13. Design Reviewed: Rambow + Lienemeyer, Jean Cocteau, Die kleine Filmkunstreihe 19, film programme for Neue Filmkunst Walter Kirchner, Göttingen, 1961, https://designreviewed.com/artefacts/jean-cocteau-die-kleine-filmkunstreihe-19/
14. Heinrich Klotz and Alain Weill (eds.), Gunter Rambow 1960–1996, Hatje Cantz, 1996 (publisher's description: more than 150 works, mostly posters), https://www.hatjecantz.de/en/products/28362-gunter-rambow-19601996

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