An anthology for reading and browsing with the best articles selected from the FSB Edition, compiled and commented by Jürgen W. Braun,
edited by FSB and published in 2006 by Verlag Herrmann Schmidt, Mainz.
ISBN 3-87439-695-9

Although the FSB Edition is readily available in many libraries, FSB has received many enquiries for various volumes. In most cases, we have been able to assist the enquirers with copies from the reserve stocks kept in our archives. However, these last stocks are now exhausted. This sparked off the idea to select an anthology for reading and browsing from the bountiful material in the articles most frequently requested and praised.

The originator of this splendid idea has a name: Diethelm Gieffers, marketing manager at FSB. He asked his former superior Jürgen W. Braun to implement the project. Together with his friend and reliable editor Robert Kuhn, Braun retired to Brittany for a long week, to select the best parts from the ample material and put them into logical order. Six months later, he returned to Brakel, bringing along his comments and his essay about the language of the hands. This also provided the book with its title.

The purpose of this book, which has been dedicated to Otl Aicher, is to encourage people to follow the master’s basic recommendation, that one should put aside the everyday stress every now and again to reflect on what one is really doing. We followed Aicher’s wise advice and discovered that our company, as a manufacturer of door handles, is part of the proud tradition of all those who, from the dawn of humanity, have created artefacts – products to assist the hand. This commonplace insight raises us in some small way from ordinary manufacturing to the higher plane of philosophy. Please browse through this book at your leisure.

By the way, “The Language of the Hands” is a two-fold birthday present. In 2006, FSB celebrates its 125th anniversary, and simultaneously the 20th anniversary of its legendary design workshop.