Compass publishing house

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Compass-Verlag GmbH
legal form GmbH
founding 1867
Seat Vienna
Branch Economic information
Website www.compass.at

The Compass-Verlag is a 1867 established business information publisher based in Vienna .

The Compass-Verlag was named after the Compass - a yearbook that appeared in print from 1868 to 2003. It contained information on balance sheets, executives, products and holdings, initially the most important, later all Austrian companies.

history

In 1867 Gustav Leonhardt (1838–1891) founded Compass-Verlag. Five years later, the business journal Der Tresor (1872-1919) was launched as a supplement to the Compass - Yearbook for Economics and Finance . Leonhardt's dual role - on the one hand, his leading position in the National Bank and, on the other hand, the ownership and editing of two economic periodicals that obtained statistical data from the bank - was soon discussed in the press. The conflict of interest finally culminated in a declaration of honor by Leonhardt in 1874, whereupon he handed over the management of the vault a few weeks later . When Gustav Leonhardt was appointed General Secretary of the Austro-Hungarian Bank in 1878, he finally withdrew completely from Compass.

Gustav von Leonhardt's successor in both Compass and Tresor was Samuel Heller (1839–1906). Heller came from Gilschowitz near Troppau . In 1874 he became editor and director of Tresor and editor of Compass . It was not until 1880 that he also became the sole editor of this publication, until “he was seriously suffering and almost deprived of his eyesight due to the laborious work”, who gave up this position in 1902. After his death, his son Victor Heller became the owner of the safe .

Samuel Heller's successor in Compass was Rudolf Hanel (1874–1941). In 1901 he appears for the first time as the editor of the Kleiner Compass . At the same time, Siegfried Rosenbaum (1872–1922) acquired the ownership, publishing and copyrights to the Financial Yearbook for Austria-Hungary from the publisher Gustav J. Wischniowsky in 1902 . In 1903 he transferred to Rudolf Hanel and Samuel Heller the right to enforce property, publishing and copyright law against third parties in his own name, whereby he remained in the background as their owners. It can be assumed that this trust structure was chosen so that the conflict of interest could not become public as with Leonhardt, because Rosenbaum was a manager in the Anglo-Austrian Bank .

At the beginning of the 20th century there were a number of independent financial yearbooks that had the name Compass in their title. It was not until 1910 that the Compass brand was finally registered under Rudolf Hanel. Since the Compass-Verlag has not found any commercial or company files before 1912, it can be assumed that the publisher was listed as a non-recorded company. In 1912 Compass-Verlag was registered as a GmbH. In 1913, Rudolf Hanel and Siegfried Rosenbaum were named as joint owners of Compass-Verlag. In the same year, the Johann N. Vernay Druckerei- und Verlagsaktiengesellschaft was founded by five Viennese families under the leadership of the Anglo-Österreichische Bank, into which the Comanditgesellschaft for book printing, lithography, type foundry and stereotype Johann N. Vernay as well as all publishing rights of the Compass Verlag were introduced.

From 1913 to 1936 Compass-Verlag was part of Vernay AG - one of the largest media groups in Austria in the interwar period.

In 1936 the Vernay company was split up by the two largest groups of shareholders: Rudolf Hanel took over Compass-Verlag, in return he transferred his Vernay shares to Particité SA. The printing of the Compass remained with the Vernay, including the necessary standing sentence .

Compass-Verlag remained in the possession of the Hanel family. At the end of the 1930s, because of his poor health, Rudolf Hanel gave up the sole management of the company to the previous sole proprietor of the company, his son Rudolf Otto Hanel. At that time, the company shares were held by Hanel's wife Marie and her daughter-in-law Wilhelmine - a sister of Ernst Kirchweger . The collective power of attorney went to Hans Pieringer and Ernst Kirchweger, who rose to head of administration at Compass-Verlag in 1937, where he was to remain employed until his retirement in 1963. From 1945 to 1947 he was also the public administrator of the Compass together with Section Head Josef C. Wirth . In 1940 the open trading company Rudolf Hanel & Son was registered with Rudolf Hanel and Rudolf Otto Hanel as partners, into which the operation of Compass-Verlagsgesellschaft mbH was also incorporated. In 1941 - after the death of Rudolf Hanel - Ernst Kirchweger, Kurt Selka and Josef Carl Wirth were given full power of attorney. Whether and how third parties were involved in the company between 1941 and 1947 cannot be found in the commercial register, as Rudolf Hanel's departure from the company was not recorded until 1950. However, it is possible that Reich German interests in the publishing house existed, as Compass 1940 also represented the Hoppenstedt publishing house in Berlin. At the beginning of 1947 the company was again 100% owned by Rudolf Otto Hanel. Frederike Hanel, Rudolf Hanel's second wife, received power of attorney in 1959. After Rudolf Otto Hanel died childless, the Compass passed to her in 1965. At the end of 1977 she sold the company to the Futter family. Compass-Verlag is still in their possession today.

The .wien top-level domain has been managed by punkt.wien GmbH , a wholly-owned subsidiary of Compass Gruppe GmbH, since 2014 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Der Tresor , No. 105, April 13, 1874, p. 246.
  2. ↑ Compass . Financial yearbook for Austria-Hungary 40 (1907), vol. I, p. III.
  3. ↑ WStLA, District Court Waehring A4 / 3, legacy treatises: 3A, 1898/1925 Samuel Heller.
  4. ↑ See The Little Compass . Financial yearbook for Austria-Hungary 1903.
  5. ↑ See Financial Yearbook for Austria-Hungary 1901. 4th vol. Ed. By Gustav J. Wischniowsky. Vienna: On commission from Carl Konegen, 1900.
  6. ^ Agreement of May 15, 1903 between Siegfried Rosenbaum, Samuel Heller and Rudolf Hanel, Compass archive.
  7. ↑ Exemplary: Josef Thalberg: Der kleine Compass. Commentary on the official cours sheet of the Vienna Stock Exchange . Vienna: Engel, 1894.
  8. ↑ See Handelsgericht Wien, file “Compass” -Verlags GmbH, HR A 6148 = Fn. 5852g with reference to the Central Trademarks Anzeiger No. 5 from 1910, p. 662.
  9. ↑ See statutes of Vernay AG 1913, Compass archive.
  10. ↑ See work book Ernst Kirchweger, Compass archive.
  11. ↑ On August 13, 1945 both were appointed by the State Office for Public Enlightenment, Instruction and Education and Religious Affairs. See Vienna Commercial Court, file “Compass” Verlags GmbH, HR A 6148 = fn. 5852g.
  12. ↑ Commercial register. In:  Völkischer Beobachter. Battle sheet of the national (-) socialist movement of Greater Germany. Vienna edition / Vienna observer. Daily supplement to the “Völkischer Beobachter” , November 19, 1941, p. 5 (online at ANNO ).Template: ANNO / Maintenance / vob
  13. ↑ The edition of the Compass - Financial Yearbook for 1938, which was printed before the "Anschluss" in 1937, leads a publishing association between Compass-Verlag, Vienna and Verlag Hoppenstedt & Co., Berlin, which gives the edition for 1942 only the Compass-Verlag as publisher.
  14. ↑ See status report on January 27, 1947, Akt Compass-Verlags GmbH, Commercial Court Vienna HR A 6148 = Fn. 5852g.
  15. ^ Project .wien ( Memento from July 27, 2016 in the Internet Archive ). Retrieved July 28, 2016.
  16. ↑ Wirtschaftsblatt: Growth with the “.wien” domain ( Memento from April 10, 2014 in the Internet Archive ). Article dated April 7, 2014, accessed July 28, 2016.

literature

  • Peter Eigner, Andreas Resch: Steyrermühl and Vernay: The two largest Viennese newspaper groups of the interwar period ; in: Herbert Matis, Andreas Resch, Dieter Stiefel (Hrsg.): Entrepreneurship in the field of tension between politics and society. LIT-Verlag, Vienna 2010, page 143 ff.
  • Tano Bojankin: The History of Compass Publishing-An Interim State ; in: Sylvia Mattl-Wurm / Alfred Pfoser (ed.): Die Vermessung Wiens, Lehmann address books 1859–1942. Metroverlag, Vienna 2011, p. 339 ff.
  • Katharina Bergmann-Pfleger, Tano Bojankin: From print to online media. The Compass publishing house and its publications (1867-2011) ; in: Peter R. Frank and Murray G. Hall (eds.): Communications from the Society for Book Research in Austria 2011-2. Praesens Verlag, Vienna 2011, page 13 ff.

Web links