Our street view shows a short block of buildings on Dresdner Strasse directly east of the centre of Leipzig. In addition to a Gründerzeit building, the building of the Oscar Brandstetter publishing and printing house stands out here.
Brandstetter Publishing House
The Oscar Brandstetter printing and publishing house was founded as early as the middle of the 19th century and by 1939 had grown through acquisitions, expansions and technical developments into a large enterprise with around 2,000 employees. The five-storey reinforced concrete building as the new company headquarters and modern printing house was built in 1906-07 according to plans by the Leipzig architect Curt Nebel. The impressive building with its concrete block façade is decorated with representations of the printing and book trade and is today regarded as an architectural highlight of the Graphisches Viertel and its tradition in the book trade and book printing.
House of Crafts | HWK Leipzig
After Brandstetter’s expropriation and World War II damage, various printing companies moved in again during GDR times – most recently the “Graphische Großbetrieb Interdruck”. After the political turnaround in 1990, the building was renovated in 1996 for the Leipzig Chamber of Crafts (Handwerkskammer). Since then, the Chamber has been using today’s “Haus des Handwerks” as its headquarters.