Walter Neurath

[2] After four years working in the family firm, acquiring routine business skills, in 1929 Neurath turned to full-time publishing, with a strong interest in printing and typography.

The rise to power in Germany of the Nazi Party effectively closed the main German language market for this Jewish firm which therefore decided to cease trading in 1935.

[2] Because of his anti-Nazi publishing activities, Neurath was soon on the Gestapo lists and, after several near misses and a period in hiding, managed to escape to England on 1 June 1938, taking with him his second wife, Marianne.

[2] Neurath was not yet a naturalised British citizen and was dispatched to an internment camp on the Isle of Man, alongside musicians later to become the Amadeus Quartet and other distinguished and blameless European artists and intellectuals viewed as enemy aliens.

Happily, aware that the Britain in Pictures series had considerable propaganda value, a friendly civil servant, Richard Cowell, managed to get Neurath released rapidly and he was soon back at work, with eventual naturalization as a British subject to follow.

[2] After World War II Neurath stayed with Adprint until September 1949 when he founded Thames and Hudson, contributing his life savings of £3000 to the new company's total capital of £7,000.

After his death, Thames and Hudson endowed an annual Walter Neurath memorial lecture, first at Birkbeck College, University of London and then at the National Gallery.