Carl Christian Horvath

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Carl Christian Horvath
Memorial plaque on the house at Jüdenstrasse 37, in Lutherstadt Wittenberg

Carl Christian Horvath (born February 6, 1752 in Wittenberg ; † June 18, 1837 in Potsdam ) bookseller and founder of the German stock exchange association of booksellers in Leipzig .

Life

Carl Christian Horvath was born in the house at Kirchplatz 9 in Wittenberg. After attending the city school, he started an apprenticeship as a bookseller in his hometown at the age of 14. At the age of 16 his teacher sent him to the trade fair in Leipzig for the first time , which he attended regularly from then until he was old. In Leipzig, the bookseller Joachim Pauli from Berlin noticed him and hired him as an assistant.

After marrying his principal's stepdaughter, Horvath set up in Potsdam in 1778. From his father-in-law he took over a publishing house that had not flourished until then and founded the Horvath book art and music collection with a lending library in Potsdam, which soon developed successfully and to which he incorporated an extensive range of products. He began his business activity in the no longer preserved Knobelsdorff corner house Am Markt and later he managed at Wilhelmsplatz (today Platz der Einheit, building destroyed in 1945) that Horvath with his 140 published articles concentrated on specialist and popular scientific literature and treated fiction for a long time .

The now very old Carl Christian Horvath ran his business in Potsdam until 1835. Through persistent work he was shown a lot of respect, so that in 1809 he was elected as the first head of the city council of Potsdam and in 1811 he was elected as city councilor in the magistrate of Potsdam until 1817. Because of his commitment he was called " the baron von Stein Potsdam" .

Horvath's particular merit, which closely links his name to the history of the German book trade, is the founding of the Leipzig Booksellers' Exchange. His experience in Potsdam with the competition in Berlin prompted him to take an active part in the attempts at reforming booksellers in Leipzig. That is why in 1797, after the failure of an attempt by Gotthelf Kummer, he rented a room in the Paulinum from the University of Leipzig in association with Kaffke from Stettin , in which he gave foreign booksellers the opportunity to do their accounts during the fair for an entrance fee. This "bookseller exchange" very soon became a commonly used and indispensable facility for the booksellers' fair.

This accounting institute, later continued by Horvath alone, existed until 1824, when, for reasons of age, he left it to the “Election Committee of German Booksellers”, the then representative of the German book trade, for joint continuation. That was the impetus for founding the German Booksellers Association. At the Easter fair in 1825, a board member was elected for the first time and Horvath was appointed honorary chairman .

literature

personal data
SURNAME Horvath, Carl Christian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Bookseller, founder of the German Booksellers Association in Leipzig
DATE OF BIRTH February 6, 1752
PLACE OF BIRTH Wittenberg
DATE OF DEATH June 18, 1837
Place of death Potsdam