Deutsche Werbegeschichte
Am Beispiel Günther Wagner – Pelikan
by Heinz Rings
Görres-Druckerei und Verlag GmbH, Neuwied, 2015, 292 pages
A great new book about Pelikan has become available and I wanted to highlight it now that I’ve completed my first read through. Published last year, the title of this book roughly translates to “History of German Advertising by the Example of Günther Wagner – Pelikan.” This tome is 292 pages with 600 sensational illustrations of Pelikan ephemera taken from Mr. Rings’ collection as well as Pelikan’s own archives. You learn in the first few pages that Mr. Rings is an expert in the advertising history of Germany and has been collecting ephemera for decades. Deutsche Werbegeschichte takes a look at how Pelikan’s advertising evolved from 1880 through the year 2000. The book is available in an unassuming plain blue hard cover and is written in both German and English with translation provided by Tamara E. Koch. Work on this volume began in 1997 and has taken many years to come to fruition. This is perhaps the most extensive catalogue of the brand’s advertising across a wide variety of mediums that one could hope to find available today.