Emil Oprecht
Emil Oprecht (born September 23, 1895 in Zurich ; † October 9, 1952 there ) was a Swiss publisher and bookseller .
Life
After graduating from high school and then studying economics at the University of Zurich , Emil Oprecht completed an apprenticeship in bookselling. In 1925 he opened the bookstore Oprecht & Helbling at Rämistrasse 5 in Zurich, later the bookstore Dr. Oprecht AG, which also had its own publishing house with a mainly literary program. He founded Europa Verlag , which specialized primarily in political literature, in 1933.
Between 1933 and 1945 Oprecht maintained a contact point in his apartment for German emigrants such as Hermann Mathias Görgen and Dora Schindel . During the Second World War , he and his wife Emmie (1899–1990) supported numerous persecuted artists from Germany and Italy with personal and financial commitment. Oprecht is regarded as an important Swiss publisher of exiled authors . Among others, he published Else Lasker-Schüler , Ernst Bloch , Hans Habe , Heinrich Mann , Golo Mann , Ignazio Silone , Bernard von Brentano and Konrad Heiden , who in 1933 wrote "Hitler" a clairvoyant research that was carried out in 1934 in exile at Oprechts Europa Publisher appeared.
In 1938 Oprecht founded Neue Schauspiel AG together with Kurt Hirschfeld and other friends , of which he was Chairman of the Board of Directors until 1952. Emil Oprecht died of cancer and was buried in the Fluntern cemetery. After his death, his wife took over the management of the Oprecht publishing house. In 1992, the Zurich Central Library received parts of the Oprecht and Europa Publishing Archives from the estate of Emmie and Emil Oprecht. The bookstore Oprecht had to cease operations in 2003 for economic reasons, and the publishing house was closed.
While Oprecht's public commitment is comparatively well documented, little is known about him as a private person: he was intent on discretion throughout his life, which also had to do with the fact that he and his wife were actually homosexual. Little is known about his youth either.
The street of the same name in Zurich's Oerlikon district has been a reminder of Emil Oprecht since 2003 .
literature
- Christoph Emanuel Dejung: Emil Oprecht . Publisher of the exiled authors. rüffer & rub, Zurich 2020, ISBN 978-3-906304-37-3 .
- Michael Gautier: Oprecht, Emil. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
- Konrad Heiden: Adolf Hitler. The life of a dictator. The age of irresponsibility. Europa, Zurich 2007, ISBN 3-905811-02-2 (preface to the new edition 2007, about Emil Oprecht as publisher).
- Alexander Hildebrand: Oprecht, Emil Adolf. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 19, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-428-00200-8 , pp. 581 f. ( Digitized version ).
- Fritz Hofer, Sonja Hägeli: Oprecht, Emil. In: Fritz Hofer, Sonja Hägeli: Zürcher Personenlexikon. 800 biographical portraits from two millennia. Artemis, Zurich / Munich 1986, ISBN 3-7608-0648-1 .
- Ute Kröger: Emil Oprecht . In: Andreas Kotte (Ed.): Theater Lexikon der Schweiz . Volume 2, Chronos, Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-0340-0715-9 , p. 1353.
- Manfred Papst: Two Europeans in difficult times: Thomas Mann and his Zurich publisher Emil Oprecht (1895–1952). In: Pages of the Thomas Mann Society Zurich, No. 30. Thomas Mann Society, Zurich 2002.
- Peter Stahlberger: The Zurich publisher Emil Oprecht and German political emigration, 1933–1945. Preface by Jean Rudolf von Salis . Europa-Verlag, Zurich 1970, DNB 458210978 ( dissertation University of Zurich , Philosophical Faculty I).
- Dr. Emil Oprecht. In: Biographical lexicon of deceased Swiss people: in memoriam (8 volumes). Published by the Swiss Industrial Library. Department Lexicon, Agency Zurich 1947–1982, Volume 4. Kirschgarten, Basel 1955, DNB 948899875 .
Web links
- Emil Oprecht's estate in the manuscript department of the Zurich Central Library
- Article publisher with moral courage in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung of September 21, 2002
- Man with moral courage. At swissinfo.ch on October 6, 2002
Individual evidence
- ^ Christoph Emanuel Dejung: Emil Oprecht. Publisher of the exiled authors. Rüffer & Rub, Zurich 2020, ISBN 978-3-906304-37-3 .
- ↑ Emil-Oprecht-Strasse on alt-zueri.ch (accessed on February 13, 2020).
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Oprecht, Emil |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Swiss publisher and bookseller |
DATE OF BIRTH | September 23, 1895 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Zurich |
DATE OF DEATH | October 9, 1952 |
Place of death | Zurich |