Die Aussage by Eugen Loebl (Seewald)
Die Aussage. Hintergründe eines Schauprozesses is the title of the German translation of Eugen Loebl’s book about the Slánský trial from 1952. In this antisemitic show trial against fourteen members of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, Loebl was sentenced to life imprisonment. See also Stalinism in Prague: The Loebl Story.
First issued by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich in 1976, the German edition translated by Ernst Sander was published by Seewald Verlag, Stuttgart, in 1978. For the jacket design, Creativ Shop München used a photo showing empty wooden court benches. The title is hovering above, in big reversed Bernhard Antique. The bold condensed letterforms are spaced so tightly that the overlap each other. This way, the word “Aussage” (“testimony”) not only can be shown as big as possible. It also creates an oppressive atmosphere, appropriate to the subject.
