Martin Hürlimann


Martin Hürlimann was a Swiss publisher, better known in the English speaking world as a photographer.
Following successful completion, at Frauenfeld, of his school career, Hürlimann went on to study History, German literature and Philosophy at Zürich, Leipzig and Berlin universities. His doctoral :de:Dissertation|thesis, submitted and accepted in 1924, was entitled Die Aufklärung in Zürich. Die Entwicklung des Zürcher Protestantismus im 18. Jahrhundert.
In 1929 Hürlimann founded the newspaper "Atlantis", based in Berlin and specialising in international travel and related themes. In 1930 he founded "Atlantis Verlag", a publishing house, taking over from Ernest Wasmuth publication of the "Orbis Terrarum" series of books. In 1933 he married Bettina Kiepenheuer, the oldest daughter of Gustav Kiepenheuer, another publisher. In 1936 he founded a Zürich branch of "Atlantis Verlag", and by 1939, with the outbreak of war, had relocated his head office to Zürich, while retaining German branch across the border at Freiburg im Breisgau.
His wife and co-publisher Bettina Hurlimann, is the author of Three Centuries of Children's Books in Europe, published 1967. They lived in Uerikon, Switzerland.
His photographic work was published in a number of books. Western European cities were a common theme, but he also photographed Ceylon and Southeast Asia.
In the 1930 English edition of his book Burma, Ceylon, Indo-China, Hürlimann wrote "My photographs were chiefly taken with a Sinclair Una camera, Zeiss lens, and Kodak films."

Books