In the 1960s Hatje’s publications were strongly influenced by his friendships with countless avant-garde artists, architects, and art historians working around the world — fruitful relationships that resulted in the great monographs on Art Nouveau, Dada, Surrealism, Cubism, and architecture, as well as the Hatje classics on (and with) such innovators as Le Corbusier, Alberto Giacometti, and Henri Matisse.

Collaborations with other publishers, such as Harry N. Abrams in New York or Thames & Hudson in London, underscored the international direction of the extremely active art and architectural book publishers in Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt.

On a parallel track, the Dr. Cantz’sche Druckerei, founded in 1933 by Dr. Hugo Cantz, and headed by son, Walter, after the war, had become the printer of choice for artists in the region. Together with Fritz Hartmann, who became vice-president of the firm in the 1970s, Walter Cantz was able to further expand his dream of having a first-class art book printing company.

Cantz and Hartmann were a good team, and their success was aptly summed up by the Stuttgarter Zeitung in a 1981 article: “When Joseph Beuys wants to make a catalogue, he goes to Cantz.”

Eventually, the artists’ desire to find their books produced by the Dr. Cantz’schen Druckerei in bookstores spurred the printers to found the edition cantz. Thanks to the booming market for art and art catalogues in the 1980s, a new and promising field opened up.