Steiner-Prag, Hugo, 1880-1945

Biographical Sketch.

Steiner-Prag had recently visited Werfel and Alma Mahler in California, and apparently he and Werfel had discussed the possibility of collaborating on a work about Prague.

Prague-born artist.

Hugo Steiner-Prag was born Hugo Steiner in Prague (at that time part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire) on December 12, 1880. His parents were Hermann Steiner, a bookseller and Berta Steiner (neé Knina), who claimed to be a descendent of the famous Rabbi Judah Loew (1529-1609). Hugo Steiner was the youngest of four brothers.

Upon leaving secondary school, Hugo Steiner joined Jung-Prag, a group of young artists who tended strongly toward mysticism and the occult. He took private art lessons and finally entered the Prager Kunstakademie (Prague Academy of the Arts) in 1897.

In 1900, Steiner moved to Munich to enroll at the Königliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste (Royal Academy of Fine Arts). Concomitantly, he added the name of his native city Prag (using the German spelling) to his last name in order to distinguish himself from other artists bearing the same name. Steiner-Prag soon transferred to the Lehr- und Versuchsstätten in Munich and later became a teacher there. One of his students was Paula Bergmann, whom he married in 1905. The couple moved to Barmen in the Rhineland where Steiner-Prag had been offered a position as a professor for the local Kunstgewerbeschule (School of Applied Arts). They had two children, Detlev and Helga, who were born in 1906 and 1908, respectively.

One of Steiner-Prag's major projects during this time was the illustration of E.T.A. Hoffmann's Die Elixiere des Teufels . The sketches were successfully exhibited in the Buchgewerbemuseum in Leipzig. This cemented Steiner-Prag's reputation as an illustrator and book designer. In 1907 he was offered a position as professor at Leipzig's Königliche Akademie für Graphische Künste und Buchgewerbe (Royal Academy of Graphic Arts and Book Trade). This was followed by a very productive period in which Steiner-Prag illustrated books for well-known publishing houses as well as created stage decorations. He also wrote several articles for newspapers and magazines, and in 1913 he designed his own typeface, the Hugo-Steiner-Prag-Schrift . In 1916, Steiner-Prag created twenty-five lithographs for Gustav Meyrink's novel, Der Golem, which would become his masterpiece. Many other drawings originated during study trips to Spain, Portugal and the Balearic Islands in the years between 1909 and 1925. In addition to his work as a professor in Leipzig, Steiner-Prag became art director of the Propylaeen publishing house in Berlin and organized several book exhibits, including the first international book exhibit in Leipzig in 1927. He was also an active member of various organizations dedicated to book arts and design.

In 1933, on his return from Paris, Steiner-Prag discovered that the Nazis had terminated his position as professor. He had just spent the summer with Eleanor Feisenberg, with whom he had an affair with since 1930. She was the daughter of Germany's former attorney general. Since her father was Jewish, she had lost her job as a librarian and decided to flee to Paris.

Hugo Steiner-Prag decided to leave Germany. He returned to Prague and established a private school for book arts and graphic design, called the Officina Pragensis . In 1937, the publishing house of the Officina Pragensis released fifty stone drawings done by Steiner-Prag of the Jewish Ghetto and cemetery. He was then given the opportunity, in 1938, to establish a school based on the model of the Officina Pragensis in Stockholm. Since the political situation in Prague had grown more severe, Steiner-Prag decided to accept this offer and immigrated to Sweden with Eleanor Feisenberg.

In Stockholm, Steiner-Prag became director of the Skolan foer Bok- och Reklamkonst and taught book design, advertising and stage design. Eleanor Feisenberg did not want to remain in Sweden and immigrated to the United States. Steiner-Prag hoped to follow her as soon as possible, but had to wait since his visa application was rejected at first. After divorcing his first wife, Paula and finally receiving his visa, Steiner-Prag left Stockholm on May 15, 1941 for San Francisco via Finland, Russia, Japan and Honolulu.

He arrived in the United States at the end of June 1941. Prior to his emigration, Steiner-Prag had been offered a position as professor at the Division of Graphic Arts at New York University, so he settled a respectable commuter distance away in New Haven, Connecticut. He lectured once a week in New York and spent the remainder of his time writing his autobiography and several articles. On January 3, 1942, Hugo Steiner-Prag married Eleanor Feisenberg and the couple moved to New York City. Large publishing houses, such as Random House, began commissioning his work. Steiner-Prag illustrated a volume of Hoffman's tales and worked for Random House, Roy Publishers, and the Book of the Month Club, while his wife Eleanor worked at the Office of War Information. In 1943, he mounted a successful exhibition at the New York Public Library.

Throughout 1945, Steiner-Prag's health began to deteriorate and he eventually suffered a heart attack from which he did not recover. Hugo Steiner-Prag died on September 10, 1945 in New York City. Several of his projects remained unfinished, such as a book on the Prague Ghetto and the suffering of the Jews that he wanted to publish together with his friend Franz Werfel (1890-1945) who had died only a few weeks before.