In memory of Ingo F. Walther
1940–2007
Recently my dear friend and collaborator, Ingo F.Walther passed away. I’d like to tell you how we met and how we developed a wonderful friendship and equally marvelous cooperation.
It was 22 years ago at the swimming pool of the Hotel Bayerischer Hof in Munich. We were still quite a young publishing house and had just had a streak of luck with two highly successful art books on Magritte and Dalí, for which we had bought the rights abroad and sold in Germany at very competitive prices. This obviously did not escape the attentive eye of a curious bookworm such as Ingo, and one day I found on my desk in Cologne our own Dalí book together with a letter from a certain Mr. Walther from Alling. He had gone to the trouble of marking with a red felt pen over a thousand mistakes in our book.
In his letter he suggested that there was room for improvement with this edition and that he knew the right man to take care of it. You might have guessed that he was referring to himself and, as became apparent later on, he was absolutely right. And even if Ingo, faithful to one of his many previous jobs, revealed himself as a true teacher by marking 950 times the same mistake—a missing accent on the “i” in the name Dalí—it was he who taught our small team how to make books. His first book was on Picasso and retailed for 9.95 DM, as this was a long time before the Euro was introduced.
The book became an instant bestseller and many more followed over the next years, covering van Gogh’s complete paintings, the art of the 20th century and the last book which he wrote and edited, Codices Illustres, presenting the most beautiful manuscripts from around the globe.
I think it is fair to say that without Ingo, the publishing house would have developed in a different direction. Many of his books became pillars of our house and from the beginning we shared an almost anarchistic desire to make sophisticated, intelligible books so accessible that anybody in the whole wide world could afford them. It is difficult to separate the author and editor Ingo from the human being, as he did professionally what he loved as a private person. I was fortunate enough to know and learn to love both sides of Ingo’s personality.We developed a deep friendship that was based on profound respect and sympathy, including a great understanding for each other’s shortcomings.
I am grateful for the privilege of having known Ingo as a friend and mentor. His honesty, sense of humor, and reliability will never be forgotten.
—Benedikt Taschen
Recently my dear friend and collaborator, Ingo F.Walther passed away. I’d like to tell you how we met and how we developed a wonderful friendship and equally marvelous cooperation.
It was 22 years ago at the swimming pool of the Hotel Bayerischer Hof in Munich. We were still quite a young publishing house and had just had a streak of luck with two highly successful art books on Magritte and Dalí, for which we had bought the rights abroad and sold in Germany at very competitive prices. This obviously did not escape the attentive eye of a curious bookworm such as Ingo, and one day I found on my desk in Cologne our own Dalí book together with a letter from a certain Mr. Walther from Alling. He had gone to the trouble of marking with a red felt pen over a thousand mistakes in our book.
In his letter he suggested that there was room for improvement with this edition and that he knew the right man to take care of it. You might have guessed that he was referring to himself and, as became apparent later on, he was absolutely right. And even if Ingo, faithful to one of his many previous jobs, revealed himself as a true teacher by marking 950 times the same mistake—a missing accent on the “i” in the name Dalí—it was he who taught our small team how to make books. His first book was on Picasso and retailed for 9.95 DM, as this was a long time before the Euro was introduced.
The book became an instant bestseller and many more followed over the next years, covering van Gogh’s complete paintings, the art of the 20th century and the last book which he wrote and edited, Codices Illustres, presenting the most beautiful manuscripts from around the globe.
I think it is fair to say that without Ingo, the publishing house would have developed in a different direction. Many of his books became pillars of our house and from the beginning we shared an almost anarchistic desire to make sophisticated, intelligible books so accessible that anybody in the whole wide world could afford them. It is difficult to separate the author and editor Ingo from the human being, as he did professionally what he loved as a private person. I was fortunate enough to know and learn to love both sides of Ingo’s personality.We developed a deep friendship that was based on profound respect and sympathy, including a great understanding for each other’s shortcomings.
I am grateful for the privilege of having known Ingo as a friend and mentor. His honesty, sense of humor, and reliability will never be forgotten.
—Benedikt Taschen
Ingo F. Walther. Photo (c) Peter Horn
Ingo F.Walther and Benedikt Taschen at the Frankfurt Book Fair, 1986.