Adam Kraft (publisher)

Adam Kraft (born March 8, 1898 in Wildstein , Austria-Hungary ; † January 11, 1976 in Augsburg ) was a Sudeten German publisher , painter and graphic artist.

Life

Power was in Egerland son of a postal clerk and was even first official at the post office . In 1927 he founded the Adam-Kraft-Verlag and the "Sudetendeutschen Bücherbund" in the Drahowitz district of Karlsbad , which promoted the publication of aesthetic literature, history, popular collections and pictorial works in Czechoslovakia and published around 3 million books by 1945. The authors included Gustav Leutelt , Hans Watzlik , Emil Merker , Karl Franz Leppa , Franz Spunda and Bruno Brehm . Published in magazines: "Der Ackermann von Böhmen" (1933–1938) and "Das deutsche Erbe" (1937–1943). The publisher's editor was the military historian Josef Franz Leppa (1901–1980), a writer and journalist under the pseudonym "Konrad Leppa". Adam Kraft also published works of art from his own hand in his publishing house, for example a series of postcards with original woodcuts by Elbogen ( Loket in Czech ). The writer and later National Socialist functionary Ernst Frank was probably co-owner of the publishing house in Karlsbad from 1934. According to Frank, Adam Kraft is said to have sold the publishing house to the German Labor Front in 1938 after the Sudeten crisis and the occupation of the Sudetenland by German troops , but he remained the publisher's director.

After the end of the Second World War in May 1945, the publishing house was confiscated by the authorities in Czechoslovakia, Adam Kraft imprisoned and held in the internment camp Neurohlau (Nova Role) near Karlsbad. From there he fled to the town of Zellsee near Wessobrunn in Upper Bavaria, where he ran a small art shop and painted. In 1950 he founded a new publishing house under his name in Augsburg , which he ran until 1973. In 1966 he was honored with the "Johann Hofmann Plaque" for special publishing achievements. From 1970 he worked again as a publisher for Johann Schneider in Mannheim at Adam-Kraft-Verlag GmbH & Co KG Mannheim, in 1976 Adam Kraft died in Augsburg.

Publications

Woodcuts, watercolors and oil paintings
Adalbert Stifter edition in 9 volumes (Ed.)
Pictorial works of German cities and countries
with Bruno Brehm : Homeland Sudetenland. A souvenir picture with 500 pictures. introduced by Bruno Brehm, picture credits by Josef Preußler (Bohemia) and Reinhard Pozorny (Moravia, Silesia). 3. Edition. Kraft, Mannheim 1977, ISBN 3-8083-1030-8 .

literature

Josef Weinmann: Egerländer Biographical Lexicon with selected people from the former government district of Eger. Volume 1, Männedorf / ZH 1985, ISBN 3-922808-12-3 , p. 282.
Carlsbad bath sheet. July 30, 1939.
Heribert Sturm : Biographical lexicon on the history of the Bohemian countries. Published on behalf of the Collegium Carolinum (Institute) . Volume II, R. Oldenbourg Verlag , Munich 1984, ISBN 3-486-52551-4 , p. 272.
Helmut Preussler: Sudeten German publishers and publishing works: Adam Kraft. In: Sudetenland. Volume 2, 1960, p. 300.
Literature by and about Adam Kraft in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

^ Ernst Frank: Heimreiter-Verlag. In: Ernst Frank (Ed.): Almanach 1952/1977 of the Orion-Heimreiter-Verlag. Orion Heimreiter Verlag, Heusenstamm 1978, ISBN 3-87588-104-4 , p. 13.

personal data
SURNAME	Strength, Adam
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German publisher, painter and graphic artist
DATE OF BIRTH	March 8, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH	Wildstein
DATE OF DEATH	January 11, 1976
Place of death	augsburg

[1] Ernst Frank: Heimreiter-Verlag. In: Ernst Frank (Ed.): Almanach 1952/1977 of the Orion-Heimreiter-Verlag. Orion Heimreiter Verlag, Heusenstamm 1978, ISBN 3-87588-104-4 , p. 13.