After completing his studies in 1923, Hell became an assistant to Max Dieckmann. But he was never exclusively interested in pure theory; he also constantly looked for ways to apply and improve existing technology. While with Dieckmann, Hell worked on radio direction finding and television technology. In 1925 the two of them invented the scanning tube, the first step toward developing the basic idea which was to shape Hell’s subsequent work, which involved breaking down a picture into dots for transmission. That same year, Dieckmann and Hell presented a radio-based television transmission and reception station at the Transport Exposition in Munich.

In 1927 Hell received a doctoral degree for a dissertation on a directly indicating radio position-finding device for aviation. The instrument he developed was, in fact, far ahead of its time. Pilots could use it to find their way to a destination under poor visibility conditions by homing in on a radio beacon. At that time, aircraft were not normally flown when the pilots couldn’t see where they were headed. One of his professors therefore scoffed, “It’s very nice, but what is it good for? No one flies in the fog anyway, and when the weather is clear you don’t need it.”

Hell didn’t want to live the life of an ivory tower scientist. So he ended his time as assistant—“I have to go into business for myself”—and founded his first company in Neubabelsberg near Berlin in May 1929.

It was during that time that he developed the Hell writing telegraph system, a “device for electrically transmitting written characters” that was to subsequently become world famous. The basic idea: originals are broken down into dots, electronically transmitted, and then reassembled. He raised the capital for his new company by selling the patent for his invention to Siemens, investing a small inheritance from his deceased mother, and selling a car.

The fact that he started a business during a time of economic decline and political turmoil attests to his initiative and courage as a young entrepreneur. He initially began to develop the Hell writing telegraph system further so that it could be produced and sold by Siemens as the “Siemens-Hell Recorder” starting in 1931.

Soon more space was needed to accommodate the steadily growing company. From 1931 on, things really began bustling in an idyllically located house on the edge of the Grunewald forest in Berlin-Dahlem. The ground floor held the mechanical workshops, and the upper story held the design offices, the laboratory and the circuitry workshop. Dr. Hell’s own workroom was right in the entrance hall. His employees—about 12 at the time—formed a capable team that worked with boundless enthusiasm and commitment to achieve his goals.

During those years, extensive tests were carried out to determine the suitability of the Hell recorder for radio communications. In 1934 this version began to be used by news agencies. More than 50,000 units were supplied by the end of World War II. Its biggest strength was that it was not sensitive to transmission disturbances, which made it particularly suitable for use in wartime, when so many phone lines were destroyed.

In 1937 a large new building was inaugurated in Kronprinzen-Allee, which is called the Clayallee today. During the years that followed it was enlarged several times. In 1939/40 a production facility in Teltow was added, where radio position-finding equipment, radio compasses, and encryption devices for the Hell recorder were developed and built.

During the last days of the war, most of the production facilities was destroyed by bombing raids—and what was left was then taken apart and carted off by the Soviets. Rudolf Hell’s fortunes had run out. But declining a tempting offer to turn his back on devastated Germany and accept a position in the United Kingdom, where his expertise was much in demand, he instead ventured a fresh start in Kiel, demonstrating the toughness and persistence of an entrepreneur who simply doesn’t know the word “impossible”.

The new start in Kiel after the war was modest and hard. It was modest because all he could afford were a few small rooms in a rented building. And hard, because it was necessary to scrounge around for the materials and tools he urgently needed to begin work.

On January 1, 1947 Rudolf Hell began in Kiel with initially just one employee, Christian Sütel, who brought tools to work from home each day. He commented: “The aim wasn’t to make a profit—it was to make contacts. I began by building five radio receivers for Dr. Hell. We gave them away to manual tradesmen who supported us while we were getting started.” Electrical scrap from the surrounding area and machines from the nearby Howaldt shipyard provided the basis for the fresh start. “Once”, Sütel recalls “we went to pick up a bunch of electrical parts from the old navy arsenal. Because it was paid for by weight, on the way out I didn’t ride in the car as it passed over the scales. No one noticed, but Dr. Hell called me a rascal.”

After the end of the war, interest in transmitting images was even greater than prior to 1945. Hell took over the phototelegraphy business of Siemens + Halske, and was soon supplying the first equipment to the German Post Office and news offices. The name of Hell began reattaining its former reputation, especially among clients who needed current pictures from around the world quickly.

Gutenberg’s invention had once been attacked by his contemporaries as the work of the devil, and the fact that the Digiset was referred to in English as the “Hell machine” was not entirely free of allusions either. This revolutionary invention was typical of Hell’s achievements: it took the simple but ingenious approach of breaking down letters and characters into digital elements.

The Digiset marked the beginning of electronic reproduction of written characters. For the first time in the roughly 560-year history of printing with movable type, three-dimensional letters—like those in typecases—had become immaterial symbols. Letterforms were broken down into dots and stored in a computer for retrieval as needed. The Digiset represented a completely novel type of setting machine, giving rise to electronic composition with digital reproduction of text and images.

At TPG in Paris in July 1956, Hell created a sensation by presenting the new process. He explained how the characters were assembled from digital elements and depicted on a cathode ray tube. The text of his presentation was imaged with Digiset and handed out to the audience in printed form. Soon thereafter, Hell began developing composition programs and digitized typefaces.

In the field of color scanners, Hell confronted a competitor in London, John Crosfield. But as scanner technology evolved, their rivalry gave way to mutual liking. When Crosfield saw himself in danger of losing out as a result of a Hell patent applied for in 1967, the two of them arrived at a gentlemen’s agreement in Kiel: that they would refrain from obstructing each other’s business with patents.

At the 1972 Olympics in Munich and Kiel, Hell enabled a feat on an Olympic scale: in addition to daily reports, within just a few hours after the games ended all of the results were set using Digiset, printed in book form, and distributed at the final event.

After the 1960s, the 1970s also brought major awards and honors for Rudolf Hell. For instance, in 1973 the Munich Technical University bestowed an honorary doctorate on him. At the ceremony he stated: “I think it is quite normal for any engineer working in research and development to seek new solutions that could lead to patents.” This shows how he considered himself to be both an inventor and a businessman.

In the speech he gave when receiving the Werner von Siemens Ring in 1978, he once again described the theme that was central to his life story. The entrepreneur is responsible for leading a company, he said—on his own account and at his own risk. He should, according to Rudolf Hell, lead the inventors and assign tasks to them, in addition to making sure that their inventions are profitably sold. “If someone has the ability to be both an inventor and an entrepreneur, their business success is ensured.”

In 1977 he received the Gutenberg Award in recognition of his outstanding achievements for advancing the art of printing. Until then, this award had exclusively been given to artists and typographers; Hell was the very first scientist and engineer to be honored in this way.

The first newspaper page to be completely set using a Hell Digiset system with pictures and text appeared in the Flensburger Zeitung in 1982. Then, in 1984, the next generation became available: the Digiset LS 210 laser setter defined entirely new quality standards for photocomposition equipment. For the first time, it became possible to image newspaper and magazine pages in color with very high quality.

At the same time, process integration continued to advance. Imaging systems are dependent on the availability of equally high-performance prepress systems, a fact that provided the motivation to develop the system combination NewsPlan, which permitted pictures to be imported online from color image systems.

In 1990 Hell, who had been admitted to the inventors’ gallery of the German Patent Office in Munich three years before, ceased being actively involved in his company’s business activities. That same year, his company merged with Linotype AG in Eschborn to form Linotype-Hell AG.

Development work has continued beneath this joint umbrella. The future belongs to open systems that integrated desktop publishing. Complete workflow solutions are growing in importance.

In the 1980s as well, Rudolf Hell received numerous awards and honors. In 1980, for example, he received the Grand Cross for Distinguished Service with Star of the Federal Republic of Germany; and in 1981 he was made an honorary citizen of the city of Kiel and presented with the FDI (Association of Printing Industry Managers) Medal.

The company headquarters has been at the former Factory III in Kiel-Suchsdorf since 1990—initially as Dr.-Ing. Rudolf Hell GmbH, then becoming Linotype-Hell AG that same year. Since 1997, the Kiel-based company has been the Prepress Business Unit of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG.

Prepress equipment and systems are developed and manufactured there, being sold and supported in over 170 countries by Heidelberg’s global sales and service organization. By linking together the entire production chain from prepress across press to post-press, Heidelberg has gained the ability to act as a solution provider offering its customers long-term prospects.

New trends associated with new challenges are also appearing. For instance, the worldwide advent of the Internet platform has given rise to new areas such as e-business and e-learning.

As a result of the digitization and networking of processes, workflows—on a consistently digital basis— have become even more thoroughly integrated. Today’s high-speed data networks permit local production of print media with virtually simultaneous printing of them at different locations around the globe. The print media industry, which was decisively shaped by Rudolf Hell and his life’s work, is destined to remain an important force in our information society.

Dr.-Ing. Rudolf Hell died March, 11 2002 in Kiel.

 

Text: © Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG