Ilse Schüle, The German Typographer who refused the Nazi Regime

 Ilse Schüle was the middle child of six children and had a fondness for the fine arts from an early age. She was an exceptional watercolor artist and later studied at the Stuttgart Kunstgewerbeschule, a prestigious art school founded in 1761, where she changed her course of study from painting to type design and commercial art. 

While World War II broke out, she still managed to make a living as a freelance artist, designing book covers for a German publishing house in Stuttgart. Although she was a freelance artist, she refused to work for the Nazi regime, a dangerous but courageous decision. In fact, the Schüle family had to change their place of residence several times before and during the Second World War in order to avoid political persecution and to gain a foothold in their careers.

Bauhaus opened its doors in Weimar, Germany in 1919 to create art that encompasses existing art forms into one work of perfection. Bauhaus later became the inspiration for the modernist style of design and typography. Ilse was inspired by Bauhaus and developed her interests by spending time in Munich and Paris and working for the Deutsche Verlagsanstalt, Stuttgart. 

Bastarda is the category of medieval-style broken script typefaces. It was a Gothic style script used in France, the Burgundian Netherlands and Germany during the 14th and 15th centuries. In addition to the strict and solemn textural scripts, there were also cursive scripts in the Gothic scripts, the late forms of which are given the name Bastarda. 

Ilse was inspired by these particular scripts from the 15th century and went on to create the aptly coined "bastarda font" Rhapsodie between 1949 – 1951 for the foundry Ludwig & Mayer. The rhapsodie was used relatively frequently by lithographers at the time, but unfortunately went out of use in the late 19th century. However, it was rediscovered in the 20th century and continues to be used today.