Der Große Brockhaus, 15th edition

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Volume 10 (KAT – KZ) in half leather trim

The big Brockhaus. Handbuch des Wissens in twenty volumes is a multi-volume general encyclopedia published in its 15th, completely revised edition from 1928 to 1935 by FA Brockhaus Verlag in Leipzig . Because of the time it was created, this edition is sometimes referred to as the “Weimar Brockhaus”. A Nazi-tinged second edition, started in 1939, did not go beyond the first volume due to the events of the war.

description

The publication of the last volume of the 14th edition in 1897 and the beginning of the 15th edition of Brockhaus' Konversations-Lexikon in 1928 separate a good 30 years, due to the First World War . Concrete preparations for the development of the 15th edition could only begin in 1925 due to the extremely difficult economic inflationary period that followed the war .

Issues and binding

expenditure

  • Basic work

The 15th edition was published in 20 volumes with approx. 800 pages each (a total of approx. 15,800 pages) in two-column format and metal type . The retail price for the complete work, which contains almost 200,000 keywords , was 380 Reichsmarks (linen binding). Full-page maps and picture panels, some of which can be folded out, were added to the volumes. They were illustrated in a smaller format using black and white photos , drawings and glued-in color images (similar to cigarette images ). The running text was almost exclusively set in Fraktur , only foreign words have an Antiqua font.

  • Supplementary volumes

In 1935 a “supplementary volume A – Z” with 768 pages was published. This was followed in 1937 by an atlas volume "The Brockhaus Atlas: The World in Pictures and Maps", which is now quite rare , the content of which is identical to that for the edition "The New Brockhaus. Allbuch in four volumes " supplemented by" Atlas ". However, the individual volumes of the 15th edition already contained quite extensive map and picture material, so that the demand for the volume, which is expensive in linen 20 RM and in half leather 25 RM, may not have been too great among the owners of the basic work of the lexicon.

The 2nd Supplementary Volume No. 22, announced for 1939, no longer appeared.

  • 2nd edition

The plans for a second, fully NS-compliant edition, which again included 20 volumes and an atlas volume, were still being implemented by the publisher. However, only the first volume (A – Ast) with 778 pages appeared in 1939 of the encyclopedia presented as a “ large German edition”. Production and editorial work had to be canceled in 1940 due to the war.

cover

The following types of bindings were supplied by the publisher for the first edition: The thread-sewn half-leather edition with top gold cut, dark blue canvas and black leather corners, a wire-stitched all-linen edition with dark green canvas covers and a wire-stitched dark green material edition that was thread-stitched from 1931 onwards.

The volume of the 2nd edition was published in half leather with dark blue canvas and in green all linen, both with thread stitching. The spine differs from the first edition in that it has more discreet gold elements (fewer decorative lines).

content

The first edition of the 20-volume basic work was finished in 1935. In geopolitical and economic policy as well as demographically, the lexicon describes the new situation with changed national borders and changed political structures that resulted from the Versailles Treaty after the First World War, especially for Europe and Germany. After the demise of centuries-old monarchies , new, mostly parliamentary-ruled states could be found on the maps, alongside Germany and Austria , also Poland , Czechoslovakia , the Baltic republics and the Soviet Union .

Extensive articles on the already well developed motor vehicle , ship and aircraft construction , railways and radio , which was still in its infancy, provided the reader with comprehensive information about the considerable state of the art in science and technology. The multi-page treatise with a large number of illustrations on civil aviation , which was at its height in the late 1920s and early 1930s, can not be found in any earlier or later Brockhaus edition. And finally, the u. a. Detailed city ​​maps available for all major cities in Germany and Europe , often supplemented with street directories, a state of development that was to become obsolete only a few years later in the bombings and battles of the Second World War .

Nazi influences are limited in the basic work of this edition. For a long time, the editorial team successfully resisted any outside interference. Slight National Socialist influences only become noticeable in the last two volumes ( Tou-Wam and Wan-Zz ) that appeared after the Nazis came to power . However, compromises also had to be made: Unpopular keywords were not generally suppressed, but alongside surprisingly liberal, even positive entries ( Rahel Varnhagen , Zionism ) there are also derogatory, politically tinged statements: Kurt Weill , for example, says he prefers a primitive song form, or Arnold Zweig is characterized as "corrosive".

The supplementary volume (volume 21) published in autumn 1935 ensured that the previous lexicon content was corrected "true to line". The newly created structures and institutions of the NS state and the NSDAP as the sole ruling party are described in detail, as is the National Socialist ideology and its exponents. The so-called Nuremberg Laws to discriminate against the Jewish population , enacted as a result of the Nazi Party Rally in 1935, are reflected in a large number of keywords (e.g. Aryan paragraph , “Jews”, racial hygiene ). The volume also reflects the rigorous cultural policy of the Nazis, when, for example, Heinrich and Klaus Mann mention their expatriation - as is the case with Franz Pfemfert - and their writing activities directed against the Nazi regime, whereas Thomas Mann mentions his at the time most recent work Joseph and his brothers was only given his new Swiss place of residence in Küsnacht . The rulers were still hoping for his return to Germany and therefore left the expatriation process on hold until 1936.

Even though the majority of the supplementary volume is permeated by the National Socialist spirit, it also contains valuable résumés on the Weimar Republic, such as the detailed article on the " Bubikopf ", and updates based on developments that have occurred since a keyword was first included ( television , Airplane ) or that were completely new ( electron microscope , Reichsautobahn ).

Reception in the present

The future press spokeswoman for the Bibliographical Institute, Anja zum Hingst, rated the 15th edition overall as positive in her master's thesis. The editors sought to distance themselves from the institutions of the Third Reich and were reluctant to respond to the demands of the Party Official Examination Commission (PPK) .

More texts

Promotional materials for the 15th edition

  • "The big Brockhaus new from A – Z" (1928)
  • "The Divining Rod" (1929)
  • "My friend Abiszet" (1930)
  • "Famous and Unfamous People and Brockhaus' Konversationslexikon" (1933)
  • "The big Brockhaus in the hands of the teacher" (1933)
  • This is how users judge their Brockhaus (1934)
  • Time does not stand still (1935)
  • 188 heads and one opinion (1936)
  • GB book stand (FABrockhaus Leipzig, undated)

See also

literature

  • Thomas Keiderling: FA Brockhaus 1905-2005 , ISBN 3-7653-0284-8 , p. 100, 102-107.
  • Ines Prodöhl: The Politics of Knowledge. General German encyclopedias between 1928 and 1956. Deutscher Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 2011, ISBN 9783050046617
  • Otmar Seemann (Martin Peche [ arrangement ], Hugo Wetscherek [ed.]): Bibliotheca Lexicorum. Annotated directory of the Otmar Seemann collection . Antiquariat Inlibris, Vienna 2001
  • Gert A. Zischka: Index lexicorum. Bibliography of Lexical Reference Works . Hollinek Brothers Publishing House, Vienna 1959

Web links