News

Hans Peter Hoch 1924–2011

27 October 2011

Hans Peter Hoch died October 16, 2011 at the age of 87 in Baltmannsweiler-Hohengehren, near Stuttgart, Germany. Born 1924 in Aarau (Switzerland), he studied in apprenticeship as repro photographer at the "Höhere Fachschule für das Grafische Gewerbe" (Higher University for Applied Sciences for the Graphic Industry) in Stuttgart and at the "Bernsteinschule Sulz am Neckar", working group for visual arts. In 1950 he started his own "Bureau for Visual Communication" and in addition he worked in free painting, photography and graphics. In 1974 he became member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale. He was a member of the well-known "Deutscher Werkbund" and the "Verband Bildender Künstler" (Association of Visual Artists). In 1985 he was appointment as professor by the state Baden-Wuerttemberg (one of the 16 states of Germany), and in 1988 he was laureate of the Stankowski foundation “Kunst und Design”.

Since 1964 he designed many publications, catalogs, posters, as well as exhibitions for the Stuttgart Institute for Foreign Affairs on behalf of the Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany. Since 1983 he was responsible for the concept and realization of the memorial "Deutscher Widerstand Berlin" (a permanent exhibition about the resistance to National Socialism) as well as topical updates, special exhibits and publications. He worked his life long for many museums among others: the Hegel-House in Stuttgart, the Georg Elser memorial in Koenigsbronn, the Bert-Brecht-House in Augsburg and the Martin-Heidegger-Museum in Messkirch.

His work correlated to his high demands of himself. In 1988 Peter von Kornatzki described the work of Hans Peter Hoch, as follows: "Wether stamp or exhibition, poster or signage system, signet or brochure – none of his visual concepts appears to be unsubstantial or glutted, formalistic or compliant in any way. On the contrary: all of his sketches are unusually balanced with regard to semantics, syntax and pragmatism, and seem coherent. This is also the source of their high intensity and aesthetic quality."

Few months ago I talked with Hans Peter about his work on the occasion of a book about the German AGI-members. So I am sad at heart, that he won't be able to see it. We will miss him.

 – Uwe Loesch, president of the German AGI-members