Carl Bertelsmann

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Carl Heinrich Bertelsmann (born October 11, 1791 in Gütersloh ; † December 17, 1850 there ) was a German printer and publisher .

Life

Bertelsmann was born the third of four sons and grew up as a half-orphan because his father died early . In 1811 he became secretary to the mayor of Gütersloh. In order to avoid a possible conscription into the Napoleonic army , he left the administrative service after a short time and went on a journey. So he learned the bookbinding trade in Vlotho . In 1815 he returned to his hometown. From 1821 he worked there as a bookbinder and at the same time took over the office of tax collector. In 1822 he became rendant of the Gütersloh municipal treasury. In that year he married Frederike Helling from Borgholzhausen , with whom he raised five children.

Carl Bertelsmann's grave in the old town cemetery in Gütersloh shows the original company logo of the C. Bertelsmann Verlag in the middle .

His 1824 established Steindruckerei produced mainly song books for schools. In 1833 he published the first Gütersloh newspaper, the weekly “Public Gazette for the District of Wiedenbrück ”, which he discontinued after six months due to lack of economic success.

The Bertelsmann media group developed from his C. Bertelsmann Verlag , founded on July 1, 1835 , which initially published ecclesiastical writings, evangelical missionary and edification literature and songbooks .

Bertelsmann was involved in the church as church master and presbyter and, from 1847, was also politically active as a city councilor and magistrate in Gütersloh. He published the first poor order of the city of Gütersloh and donated a considerable sum from his private fortune for the construction of the Cologne-Minden railway line through Gütersloh. Bertelsmann was regarded as Prussian-conservative and Protestant- pietist . As a supporter of the Ravensberg awakening movement , he initiated the construction of a new rectory and played a key role in founding the Evangelical Collegiate High School in Gütersloh.

A year before his death, his son Heinrich (1827–1887) took over the company, which at that time employed 14 people. His daughter Friederike (1856–1946) married the bookseller Johannes Mohn . Carl Bertelsmann's eldest daughter Anna Friederike Luise married the elementary school principal Friedrich Eickhoff , publisher of successful Christian song books at Bertelsmann Verlag. Bertelsmann's daughter Anna married the physician and later honorary citizen of Gütersloh Carl Zumwinkel in 1850 .

Carl Bertelsmann's grave in the Old City Cemetery was entered in the list of architectural monuments in Gütersloh in 1994 under monument number A 208 .

In 1960, on the 125th anniversary of the publishing house, the city of Gütersloh honored Bertelsmann by renaming the previous Wilhelmstrasse to Carl-Bertelsmann-Strasse, where the Bertelsmann Corporate Center , the Bertelsmann Foundation and many other group companies are based today. The Bertelsmann Foundation awarded the Carl Bertelsmann Prize (now the Reinhard Mohn Prize) annually from 1988 to 2008 , which honored innovative and exemplary approaches to solving political and social problems.

literature

personal data
SURNAME Bertelsmann, Carl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bertelsmann, Carl Heinrich (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German printer and publisher
DATE OF BIRTH October 11, 1791
PLACE OF BIRTH Gutersloh
DATE OF DEATH December 17, 1850
Place of death Gutersloh