Christian Döring (publisher)

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Christian Döring (also: Kersten Goldschmied, Döhring, Aurifaber etc .; * around 1490 in Frankfurt (Oder) ; † after December 14, 1533 in Wittenberg ) was a German publisher during the Reformation .

Life

Memorial plaque on the house at Schloßstraße 26, in Lutherstadt Wittenberg

Christian Döring was born the son of an Odrian citizen of Frankfurt. In 1508 he had acquired citizenship in Berlin and was with Lucas Cranach the Elder from 15. – 18. Traveled to Altenburg in June. In Wittenberg, he acquired the house at Schlossstrasse 4 from Christoph Balzer, which had been owned by a Martin Münzer before him. In 1519 he appeared in the Wittenberg files, already as a wealthy man, and owned a stately home with cattle stalls and other farm buildings. There he employed a master servant as a goldsmith (which is why he appears in the files as an aurifaber ). Busy in raising money, he intensified great energy in trading.

In 1521 he lent Martin Luther “his little cart” so that he would not have to walk the arduous journey to the Reichstag in Worms .

Together with Lucas Cranach the Elder , he founded a printing company and published Martin Luther's New Testament as the first copy in September 1522, and successor copies were soon out of print and made considerable profits. After Cranach and Döring had acquired the electoral printing privilege in 1523, Cranach withdrew from the business and Döring took over its shares. Nevertheless, business went from bad to worse, so that in 1533 he faced bankruptcy.

Thereupon he sold his privileges to the Wittenberg printing consistory on May 22, 1533 for a sum of 800 guilders and disappears from the Wittenberg files after April 1534.

As city treasurer, Döring had also committed himself to the common good. He corresponded with many famous personalities of his time, for example with Thomas Müntzer . He was friends with Martin Luther and Philipp Melanchthon and connected to Johannes Bugenhagen through a sponsorship.

On Luther's mediation, he married Barbara Blankenfelde († May 18, 1564), a daughter of Paul Heinrich von Blankenfelde and granddaughter of the Berlin merchant and mayor Thomas von Blankenfelde († 1504). From this marriage a daughter Anna Döring († October 21, 1572) is known, who married Johann Schneidewein , who took over his household after Christian's death. The daughter Magarethe (?) Is said to have married Georg Reich, who was a victim of Hans Kohlhase in 1538 and died on March 21 or 22, 1560 in Wittenberg. The daughter Martha married Martin Luther's nephew of the same name. Her second marriage was with the Zwickau musician Jodocus Schalreuter († September 22, 1550 in Magdeburg).

Although Bugenhagen had also supported him financially, Döring kept taking on new debts. After his speeches at the table, Luther said that such people as Master Döring “couldn't be helped” because despite all the help they got into more and more debts.

literature

  • Heinrich Kühne : lived here ..., memorial plaques tell the history of Wittenberg. (= Series of publications by the Wittenberg City History Museum. Vol. 4). Stadtgeschichtliches Museum, Wittenberg 1980, p. 34, DNB 208953515 .
  • Lucas Cranach the Elder Ä. and the Cranachhöfe in Wittenberg. Edited by the Cranach Foundation. Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle / Saale 1998, ISBN 3-932776-09-7 .
  • Heinrich Kühne: The Wittenberg goldsmith Christian Döring - a friend of Luther. In: Heimatkalender 2000. Lutherstadt Wittenberg and District Wittenberg, ISBN 3-933028-26-4 .
  • Josef Benzing : The book printers of the 16th and 17th centuries in the German-speaking area. 2nd Edition. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1982, ISBN 3-447-02175-6 .
  • Nikolaus Müller: The Wittenberg Movement 1521 and 1522. 2nd edition. Heinsius, Leipzig 1911.
  • Heinz Scheible: Melanchthon's correspondence. Persons 11. Frommann-Holzboog, Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt 2003, ISBN 3-7728-2257-6 .
  • Annemarie Seeberg-Elverfeldt: Our ancestors during the Reformation. In: Archive for Family Research , Issue 91/92, December 1983, p. 153 f., P. 186, reference number 11.494.
  • Ulrich Bubenheimer: Thomas Müntzer: Origin and Education. Brill, Leiden 1989, ISBN 90-04-08850-4 , p. 173.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Otto Vogt: Dr. Johannes Bugenhagen's correspondence. Georg Olms Verlagbuchhandlung, Hildesheim 1966, pp. 673–674.
  2. ↑ Andrew Pettegree: The Luther brand. How an unknown monk made a small German town the center of the printing industry and himself the most famous man in Europe - and kicked off the Protestant Reformation. Insel, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-458-17691-6 , p. 172.
personal data
SURNAME Döring, Christian
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Döhring, Christian; Aurifaber, Christian; Goldsmith, Kersten
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German publisher during the Reformation in Wittenberg
DATE OF BIRTH around 1490
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankfurt (Oder)
DATE OF DEATH after December 14, 1533
Place of death Wittenberg