In 1946, Ulm was marked by war. Germany had emerged from twelve years of National Socialism, its cities destroyed and its democratic institutions in need of rebuilding. For Otl Aicher and Inge Scholl, the Zero Hour was also deeply personal. Aicher had met the Scholl family in Ulm in 1939. Hans and Sophie Scholl would later become members of the White Rose resistance group, distributing leaflets against the National Socialist regime. They were arrested at Munich University in 1943 and executed four days later.

Otl Aicher had made his own refusal early on, he did not join the Hitler Youth and was consequently denied his Abitur in 1941, the German school-leaving qualification required for university admission. He was later drafted into military service, but in 1945 he deserted and hid with the Scholls until the end of the war. Inge Scholl, the elder sister of Hans and Sophie and later Aicher’s wife, survived. The experience of dictatorship and the murder of her siblings would shape what she and Aicher set out to do after 1945.

In 1946, Inge Scholl founded the Ulmer Volkshochschule. Otl Aicher became closely involved from the beginning, both as a member of its board and in shaping its programme and visual identity. Its ambitions went far beyond conventional adult education: the vh ulm aimed to create a place where people could encounter different positions, discuss them and form their own judgement. The Thursday lectures formed the core of the programme, with each month devoted to a particular subject and different speakers contributing their perspectives.

What seems crucial to us is that the inspiration people gain at the adult education centre is so vibrant that it sparks both a desire and a sense of responsibility to take matters into their own hands.

Inge Aicher-Scholl, 1951

Hans Werner Richter teaching “The Writers of Our Time and Politics” at the vh ulm, 1950. He was also involved with Inge Scholl and Otl Aicher in the early plans for a “New School” © Museum Ulm/HfG-Archiv & Hannes and Ike Rosenberg.

Design itself also became a subject of education. The vh addressed the practical design of everyday objects, following ideas that had been promoted by the Deutscher Werkbund since the beginning of the century. In 1949, Max Bill presented his exhibition Die gute Form (Good Form) at the Basel Mustermesse. It subsequently travelled through the young Federal Republic and was also shown at the Ulm Museum.

Course with Inge Scholl at the vh ulm, 1949 © Museum Ulm/HfG-Archiv & Hannes and Ike Rosenberg

In the photograph, Inge Scholl demonstrates the principle with tableware: the simple, unadorned example represents “good form”, while decoration, floral patterns and a gold rim stand for its opposite. Questions of design were thus connected to everyday life rather than treated simply as matters of style.

Largely self-taught as a graphic designer, Aicher briefly studied sculpture in Munich after the war, but abandoned his studies when the work awaiting him in Ulm seemed more meaningful. The new vh provided exactly the kind of problems that interested him: information had to be organised and events announced, while a new institution needed a visible presence in the city.

Otl Aicher and his posters, 1949 © Museum Ulm/HfG-Archiv & Hannes und Ike Rosenberg.

His involvement was not limited to graphics. At the vh, he taught urban planning and also worked on interiors and stage sets. Design was already becoming less a specialised artistic activity than a practical way of dealing with real problems and situations.

After the war, Aicher also encountered the work of modern artists such as Picasso, Matisse and HAP Grieshaber. Gradually, colour and pictorial forms entered the posters more strongly. The result was not a single fixed style. Many designs use simple geometric forms – circles, squares and triangles – reduced to a few essential elements, while others are built around a striking visual idea. Seen together, they show Aicher testing how a topic might be translated into a visual idea rather than applying one graphic formula to everything.

The scale of this work is remarkable. In 2000, designer and semiotician Martin Krampen published a comprehensive catalogue documenting 328 posters Aicher created for the vh ulm. The number makes clear how extensively Aicher was able to experiment within a single institution.

At the same time, the posters were all part of a larger system. Their formats corresponded to the structure of the programme. The Thursday lectures were announced on tall posters measuring approximately 40 × 80 cm. Square posters of around 40 × 40 cm advertised individual courses and events, while typographic programme sheets occupied another format. From 1951 on, these different elements came together on poster steles designed for the streets of Ulm. Around 2.60 metres high, they gave the vh its own unmistakable presence in the city. At the top was the vh sign, below it the long poster for the Thursday lectures and the programme, with two square course posters at the bottom.

The vh ulm programme presented in public space, 1957. © HfG-Archiv Ulm

Their appearance in the city was unconventional in more than one sense. The first poster steles were installed before the necessary municipal approval had been obtained. City councillor Kurt Fried noticed them immediately, calling them the admonishing totem poles of the vh and concluding: “Not to be overlooked. Highly original!” The city subsequently approved a total of 40 steles. What had already been developed as a system of formats now became visible as a visual information system in the city.

Looking at the posters today, it is tempting to read them through Aicher’s later work. But these early designs are often freer and more experimental than the systematic identities for which he would become known. They show a designer still exploring while responding directly to the needs of a new institution.

The vh also became the starting point for something larger. Inge Scholl and Otl Aicher were already considering how its educational ideas might be extended into a new kind of school. Writer Hans Werner Richter, who taught at the vh, became involved in these early plans. In 1953, the Hochschule für Gestaltung Ulm began teaching. Aicher’s work there would lead into another phase of his development and eventually to some of the most influential visual communication systems of postwar Germany.

But this is another story. More to follow.

Poster announcing the lecture break, 1954/1960