Rudolf Koch began drawing the Offenbach typeface in 1928, the first size was cut in 1931, and Koch made final corrections on his deathbed in 1934. The type was published from 6 to 60 pt posthumously by Gebr. Klingspor foundry in 1935. Stylistically, Offenbach is a hybrid, pairing wide roman capitals with narrow gothic minuscules, a mixture Koch had experienced in several of his typefaces like Jessen or Wallau. His student Hans Kühne had added to the Klingspor release the ‘German’ gothic capitals as alternative to the roman capitals. He also developed two heavier weights, Halbfett and Fett, which were released in 1937 and 1938. Even more, Kühne drew roman minuscules to fit with the roman capitals, which ended up in the typeface Stahl published by Gebr. Klingspor in 1939.

In 2025, Poem publishes a faithful revival of Offenbach Mager, the initial thin weight, based on a one-week workshop in 2022 under the direction of Jérôme Knebusch. The students of the HfG Offenbach studied the archive material in the Klingspor Museum and lead type in the nearby printing workshop in the Bernardbau. After analysing the forms in detail and practising calligraphy with a broad nib pen, Offenbach Mager was revived from an original 1931 Klingspor proof in 48 pt completed by forms found in the published specimens.

Workshop participants: Yile Cho, Quirin Fürbeck, Simon Gerstner, Paula Janser, Emerson Martus, Ekaterina Sacharova, Ngoc Anh Tran, Chiara Wißler, Edvinas Žukauskas (Hochschule für Gestaltung, Marc Schütz).

The Offenbach typeface is freely usable by anyone, privately or professionally, under the Creative Commons CC BY-ND 4.0 license. This licence allows free use of the font, provided that the type and author are mentioned when using it (Offenbach by Rudolf Koch) and that no modification is made to its design. The font is equipped with a basic Latin glyph set.