Fritz Kahn

The Völklingen Ironworks flooded in red light
Copyright: Weltkulturerbe Völklinger Hütte | Oliver Dietze

Arthur and Fritz Kahn Collection 1889 1932 20314498926

Arthur and Fritz Kahn Collection 1889 1932 20314498926
Copyright: Arthur and Fritz Kahn Collection | FlickR Commons

Born in 1888 in Halle an der Saale
Died in 1968 in Locarno, Switzerland

Works

Kahn 2

In: Das Leben des Menschen
Copyright: Edward Roth / Alamy

Between 1922 and 1931, the German-Jewish physician Fritz Kahn published his five-volume magnum opus The Life of Man, which included a poster designed by Fritz Schüler entitled Man as an Industrial Palace. It is exemplary of Kahn's work, which is considered a pioneering achievement in information design. The illustration reveals the interior of the body as a large machine, making its functioning universally understandable. Kahn reached an audience of millions with his popular science writings before they were banned and burned under National Socialism.

 

Analogien von Architektur mit dem menschlichen Knochengerüst | Analogies between architecture and the human skeleton

Firtz Kahn Knochengeruest

In: Fritz Kahn, lnfographics Pioneer

 

As early as the 1st century BC, the Roman architect Vitruvius demanded that buildings should be as harmoniously structured as the human body. German-Jewish physician and author Fritz Kahn explains how such ideas have found their way into built reality. Using these infographics from the early 1930s, he shows how architecture and technology take natural body structures as their model. In doing so, he combines scientific accuracy with a love of visual experimentation, thus managing to make complex principles understandable to a broad audience.