Printer dynasty Landerer
The Landerer family, originally from Germany , is one of the most important book printer families in the Kingdom of Hungary in the 18th and 19th centuries.
History of the Landerer printer family
Origin and beginnings
The founder of the Landerer printer dynasty was Johann Sebastian Landerer , who immigrated from Bavaria to what was then the Kingdom of Hungary at the beginning of the 18th century and settled in Ofen . As early as 1724 he made an attempt to publish a German-language newspaper under the name Mercurius , but this attempt was unsuccessful. In the period that followed , shops opened in four Hungarian cities ( Pressburg , Kaschau , Ofen and Pest ) . When Johann Sebastian Landerer died in 1726, the Offizin in Ofen was initially continued by his widow, as the sons were still minors. In 1728 Johann Sebastian's widow married Johann Georg Nottenstein, with whom she continued the printing business. Nottenstein managed to obtain a privilege to print German-language school books, catechisms and gospels ( Catalogus librorum in typographia Budensi apud Joannem Georgium Nottenstein reperibilium of April 28, 1728). This privilege was initially limited to ten years.
In 1752 the printing house in Ofen was continued by the founder's eldest son, Leopold Franz Landerer . Leopold Franz tried to obtain further privileges for the Offizin in Ofen. However, there was no success, he only managed to extend the existing privileges for a further ten years. At the end of 1755 he managed to acquire the rights to publish a calendar. After the death of Leopold Franz in 1764, the printing company was continued by his widow, Katharina Landerer . The open print shop reached its heyday under its rigidity . Most of all, German and Hungarian texts were printed; At that time the print shop had 49 different types of script , which also made it possible to print Latin and Greek texts.
Michael Landerer was the only son and heir of Leopold Franz and Katharina Landerer, along with four sisters. However, since Leopold Franz did not leave a clear will (in favor of his children), but left the office to his extremely capable wife Katharina, after his death there were disagreements and arguments between the siblings. The son led an unsteady life and began to politicize behind his mother's back. He got involved in the Jacobin conspiracy under Ignaz Joseph Martinovics and was arrested in front of his unsuspecting mother. He was sentenced to death by an Austrian court , but thanks to the great influence of Katharina Landerer, who was highly regarded in Hungary, the sentence was converted into a ten-year prison sentence, which Michael Landerer had to serve first in Kufstein and later on the Spielberg in Brno . Michael Landerer returned to his hometown a broken man and died shortly afterwards.
After the death of Katharina Landerer in 1802, the office was continued by her daughter Anna Landerer . There is little information from this period. After Anna's death in 1833, the printing company was sold to "Gyurián and Bagó", who they continued to run in the water town of Ofen until around 1847.
Johann Michael Landerer
Johann Sebastian's younger son, Johann Michael Landerer (* 1725 in Ofen, † 1795 in Pressburg) bought (with the inherited money from his father) in 1750 the book printing company in Pressburg from Johann Paul Royer, who came from Salzburg . By purchasing further printing works (in 1774 he bought the Academic Jesuit Printing House in Kaschau , in 1784 the Royer Printing House in Pest) he became one of the most important book printers in Hungary. From the book printing works founded in Hungary, the printing works in Pressburg (next to that in Ofen) developed into one of the most important. From 1764 he published the first German-language daily newspaper in the Kingdom of Hungary, the Preßburger Zeitung . He participated in Pressburg's cultural life and published valuable first musical prints . By 1770 it was unrivaled on the book market. At that time, Pressburg was the seat of the Hungarian Court Chamber and the governor, and the Hungarian Diets were also held here. There was therefore a great need for books and pamphlets in Pressburg, which had very positive effects on Landerer's business. In 1765 the Pressburger Offizin received a five-year privilege to print the legal texts passed by the state parliament. With this work by Johann Michael Landerer, Emperor Joseph II also seemed . to have been very satisfied, since he raised him to the nobility in 1784 .
After Johann Michael's death, the Pressburg printing company was taken over by his son Michael Johann Landerer (* 1760, † April 16, 1810). It was the heyday of the Pressburg printing house. The growth of the printing company could also be measured by the rapidly increasing demand for paper. The need could proprietary paper mill of Altturn not cover. Paper from other manufacturers had to be bought in. At that time, eight printing presses were already working in the printing house . Michel Johann Landerer was very popular in old Hungary, and his death was mourned nationwide. Since his son and successor Ludwig Landerer was only ten years old when he died, the shop was managed by a consortium of companies until he came of age.
Ludwig Landerer
Michel Johann's successor was his son Ludwig Landerer (born May 1, 1800 in Preßburg, † February 1, 1854 in Pest). He was the most important, but also the last representative of this printing dynasty. Originally he wanted to do military service as an officer and studied philosophy . In 1824, however, he took over both printing works; those of Pressburg and those of Pest. This changed his original professional intentions fundamentally and he devoted himself to printing. Landerer went to Vienna to learn the printing trade. As a book printer, he introduced significant innovations in the company, ordered new printing machines and introduced color book printing.
Ludwig Landerer recognized the pulse of the time at an early stage: at the beginning of the 19th century, the state administration and the leading central authorities were gradually relocated from Pressburg to the economically up-and-coming Pest, which became more and more politically important. Of the eight printing presses that were in the Pressburg printing works at the time of his father, only two remained, which mainly printed bills from the Hungarian Reichstag. When the Reichstag moved from Preßburg to Pest in 1848, it sold the Pressburg printing company to its authorized signatory Stephan Schreiber.
The printing works in Pest became the focus of his business activities. In the Peter Offizin, a separate department for color printing was set up in 1833, which produced the “Congrève guilloches”, which was extremely popular at the time.
The printing company experienced a particular boom after Ludwig Landerer founded the Landerer & Heckenast company on January 21, 1841 together with the publisher Gustav Heckenast . This collaboration with Heckenast was very fruitful, as Heckenast (who was not a printer but a publisher) offered Landerer the opportunity to print important works of Hungarian literature. In the 1840s it was possible to print works by the following authors, among others: Miklós Jósika , Sándor Kiisfaludy , Ferenc Kölcsey , Jozsef Eötvös . The activities of Landerer & Heckenast also promoted mutual understanding between Germans and Hungarians, as the company printed and published German translations by important Hungarian authors such as Sándor Petőfi , János Arany and Sándor Kisfaludy , as well as historical and intellectual works about Hungary brought. The first works by Adalbert Stifter were also printed by Landerer & Heckenast .
The beginning of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 had its beginning in the printing house of Landerer & Heckenast, because here on March 15, 1848 the "Twelve Points", demands of the revolutionary Hungarian youth and the "National Song" written by Sándor Petőfi (Hungarian Nemzeti dal ) were printed. This event marked the beginning of the Hungarian Revolution (and the struggle for freedom) of 1848/49. Later, at Lajos Kossuth 's instigation, the banknotes of “revolutionary money” were printed here. After the revolution was put down on August 11, 1849, the printing plant was closed for the time being. Many employees of the printing company had to answer in court. Ludwig Landerer was forced to hide from the authorities - as the printer of the banknotes. He died on his estate in 1854. He was the last well-known representative of the printer dynasty, which had a major influence on the printing industry in the Kingdom of Hungary for 150 years.
After the suppression of the Hungarian Revolution, the company was continued by Gustav Heckenast (in consultation with Landerer's heirs). In 1873 he sold his publishing house to the Hungarian Franklin-Társulat (Franklin Association) in Budapest and moved to Pressburg, where he died in 1878.
literature
- Maria Büky-Horváth: A Landerer-Család és nyodászati vállalkozásai ("The Landerer family and their printing companies") - Hungarian. In the Hungarian National Library Széchenyi (accessed online: www.epa.oszk.hu on October 6, 2017).
- P. Rainer Rudolf, Eduard Ulreich: Karpatendeutsches Biographisches Lexikon. Working group of Carpathian Germans from Slovakia, Stuttgart 1988, ISBN 3-927096-00-8 , p. 185.
- Budapest Lexicon, Budapest 1993, ISBN 963-05-6411-4 , vol. 2, p. 21 (Hungarian)
Individual evidence
- ↑ When Empress Maria Theresia dissolved the Jesuit order in 1773 , Johann Michael Landerer bought the printing works in Kaschau in 1774 for 7,600 guilders . It became the fourth printing house of the Landerer family in old Hungary.
- ↑ As early as 1840, Heckenast became aware of Stifter's first publications in magazines. The publisher visited Stifter in Vienna in early summer 1841 and offered him a collaboration. From this encounter a long-term collaboration between author and publisher developed. (quoted from A. Hudak - L. Guszak: Gustav Heckenast in Karpatendeutsche Lebensbilder, Erlangen 1971, p. 85)
- ↑ In the "twelve-point program", among other things, freedom of the press, the abolition of censorship and forced labor were called for.