Felix Dietrich

Friedrich Felix Dietrich (born January 27, 1874 in Leipzig , † April 25, 1938 in Gautzsch near Leipzig) was a German publisher of bibliographies and books.

Life

Dietrich attended the municipal secondary school in Leipzig and began an apprenticeship as a bookseller after graduating in 1890 . After working as a bookseller's assistant in Paris and London from 1893 to 1897, in 1897 he became an independent publisher as well as the founder and editor of an international bibliography of journal articles, a directory of authors' contributions in scientific journals, organized under keywords from A to Z, appearing periodically. After this tool for scientific work was expanded to include non-German-language periodicals , this scientifically edited bibliography was distributed worldwide.

In addition, Dietrich published a series of publications that sought to arouse understanding of the state constitutional rights of the citizen of his time.

plant

With the help of the university libraries in Leipzig and Halle, Felix Dietrich began in December 1897 with the publication of the bibliography of German journal literature, reporting year 1896, initially evaluating around 275 monthly journals from all fields of knowledge. The survey of the author names with the article headings and the journal data on index cards was carried out by freelance, appropriately qualified employees.

From the beginning, sales were directed to academic libraries all over the world. In 1911, Dietrich's complete works were recognized.

The bibliography of reviews followed in 1901 (reporting year 1900) and in 1912 the bibliography of foreign-language literature. Year after year, the number of journals evaluated grew in order to make almost the entire spectrum of published scientific work accessible to researchers and students. Specific keywords from the individual disciplines were used as search terms.

These bibliographies appeared as deliveries and were accumulated in half-yearly registers (A – Z). For a while Dietrich also published a directory of articles from German newspapers from 1909 to 1944. The short-lived newspaper articles did not achieve the expected distribution.

Despite numerous electronic databases for different scientific areas in the WorldWideWeb , these bibliographies are still printed on paper today.

From 1904 to 1920 Dietrich published the series Culture and Progress with a total of 560 titles for the fourth stand at a low retail price, with which he tried to convey information and education to the readers. 175 authors, doctors, historians and social politicians, women's rights activists, led by Werner Sombart , head of economics, found a forum here in which they thematically advocate the rights of women workers. The low price of the brochures enabled them to be widely used. 200,000 units were sold in the first four years. Many titles reached 10,000 buyers each, one 50,000. The workers' and people's education associations contributed to spreading these ideas . A total of half a million issues were sold from 1904 to 1915.

Publications

Bibliographies

• Series A. Bibliography of German magazine literature for the years 1896–1964 (Vol. 1–128). Editors: Felix Dietrich (until 1938), Reinhard Dietrich (until 1965). Supplements for the publication periods 1861–1896 (supplementary volumes 1–20).
• ANF ​​series , since then as IBZ International bibliography of journal literature from all areas of knowledge . 1965 ff. (Vol. 1 ff.). Editors: Otto and Wolfram Zeller.
• Series B. Bibliography of foreign language journal literature. 1911-1925 (vols. 1-22). NF 1925 / 26-1964 (Vol. 1-51). From vol. 52 (1965) editors: Otto and Wolfram Zeller.
• Series C. Bibliography of German reviews including papers and voluntary reports. 1900–1911 (Vol. 1–13), then new title: Bibliography of Reviews . 1911-1943 (vols. 14-77). Later as an International Bibliography of Reviews of Scientific Literature . 1971-1996 (vols. 1-26). Editor: Otto Zeller.
• Series D. Monthly index of articles from German newspapers. 1908–1944 (Vol. 1–31), at times as a bi-monthly or weekly directory.

Series Culture and Progress

• Founded and published by Felix Dietrich in 1904 under the title Social Progress. Booklets and pamphlets for economics and social policy . From issue 101 (1907) to issue 560 (1920) continued under a new title: Culture and Progress. New episode of the Social Progress Collection. Booklets for economics, social policy, women's issues, administration of justice and cultural interests. (Each issue 15 Pfg. or 25 Pfg. No. 1–560 (1904–1920). Delivery of the issues without a cardboard cover as pamphlet: 50 items for 3 marks and 100 items for 5 marks).

literature

• Nestler, Friedrich: Handbuch der Bibliographie . 6th edition Stuttgart 1999, p. 126f.
• Totok, W. and R. Weitzel: Handbook of the bibliographical reference works . 6th edition Frankfurt am Main. Vol. 1, 1984, pp. 211f.
• Fleischhack, Curt: Bibliographical basic knowledge . 6th edition edited by Gottfried Rost. Leipzig 1968, pp. 74f.
• Wolfgang Reuter: The social act of the publisher Felix Dietrich. A contribution to the book history of Leipzig around 1900 . 119 p. With num. Fig., Tables and registers. Taurus Verlag Leipzig 2004. ISBN 3-980-77535-6 .
• Lexicon of the entire book industry . Vol. II: Buck - Foster. 2., completely reworked. Stuttgart, 1989, p. 310

Web links

• Literature by and about Felix Dietrich in the catalog of the German National Library
• http://www.dietrich.uni-trier.de/ Dietrich online (digitization of the copyright-free volumes from series A and series D of the bibliography of German-language magazine literature by the University Library of Trier )