Education
Born in 1903 to cultured and affluent parents, she eventually studied typography and calligraphy under East.R. Weiss at the Berlin Academy.
Born in 1903 to cultured and affluent parents, she eventually studied typography and calligraphy under East.R. Weiss at the Berlin Academy.
She spent her life producing bookwork, calligraphy, and decorative designs from the 1920s until her death. Her magazine work for Die Dame, published by Ullstein, where she designed headings and lay-outs, attracted the attention of Georg Hartmann of the Bauer Type Foundry in Frankfurt, and he invited her to design a typeface. This was to become their ElisabethAntiqua — Elizabeth in English-speaking countries — although it was originally to have been Friedlander-Antiqua.
Hitler came to power just as the type was ready for casting and Hartmann suggested that the name of the face be changed to Elisabeth, since Friedlander, a recognisably Jewish name, would be inadvisable in the current political conditions.
As a Jew in Germany she suffered from the mounting anti-Semitic laws that were brought in and had to apply for official registration to work, and was refused a permit. In her letter of refusal she was told that, as a "non-Aryan", she " the necessary reliability and fitness to participate in the creation and dissemination of German cultural values." She moved to Italy, where she was permitted to work so long as she was not politically active.
She learnt the language and worked with the publisher Mondadori, but September 1938 brought harsh Italian Antisemitic Laws, threatening her with loss of rights and employment. Unable, as she had hoped, to go to the United States, where the New York office of the Bauer Foundry were eager to employ her, she obtained a Domestic Service permit for Britain and went to London.
In the early 1960s she retired to County Cork,, where with failing eyesight she continued working and took up gardening.
She died in 1984.