Frank Wagner (publisher)

Frank Joachim Wagner (born April 23, 1929 in Hamburg ; † May 14, 1997 in Wesselburen ) was a German bookseller , publisher and author .

Live and act

Frank Wagner was a son of Richard Wagner and his wife Olga, née Bernhardt. The father first worked as a commercial clerk and later as an authorized signatory for Hagenbeck's zoo . The mother worked in a commercial profession until her first pregnancy. The family lived on Klosterstieg in Harvestehude . Frank Wagner attended elementary school and from 1940 to 1948 the Wilhelm-Gymnasium . During the Second World War , he lived with his class in 1944 as part of the children's area in the Fahrbühl hunting lodge . Towards the end of the war he had to do military service from March 1945.

From 1948 to 1951 he trained as a bookseller. Two years of apprenticeship spent in Otto Meißner's bookstore, another in the bookstore of Falk Verlag , which published maps. In addition, he attended evening courses at Ruth Stuhlmann's journalism school. Upon completing his professional training, he received the rating “with praise”. In 1953, Wagner started his own publishing bookstore. He also worked as a publishing representative, journalist and for the advertising department of Falk Verlag. He also offered “hiking tours for everyone”, during which he provided information on the history of home and art. In 1959 he married Erika Hahn. Since it was not possible for him to buy or start a bookstore in downtown Hamburg, Wagner moved to Wesselburen with his wife in 1961. Here he took over a book and stationery shop. He moved the place of business of the publishing house to Wesselburen .

Wagner belonged to the hiking movement in Northern Germany and the association of born Hamburgers . In 1989 he joined the Patriotic Society of 1765 . In society, he was involved in the urban development working group and suggested creating memorial plaques for Johan van Valckenburgh and Elise Lensing . From 1961 he worked in the Hebbel Society , of which he was a member of the extended board from 1970 to 1984. From 1978 to 1990 he sat on the church council in Wesselburen. From 1968 to 1977 he wrote several articles for the advertising leaflet of the Wesselburener Verkehrsverein. Further contributions from the years 1986 to 1996 can be found in the newsletter of the association of former middle and high school students in Wesselburen .

Works

Frank Wagner had been concerned with Hamburg and the surrounding area since he was nine years old , when he had read Alt-Hamburg in words and pictures by Hans Förster. As an author and publisher, he published numerous Hamburg publications and hiking guides.

As a publisher

Travel and hiking guides as well as non-fiction books were published in the Wagner publishing house. This included a book about windmills in Schleswig-Holstein by Hans-Peter Petersen, a treatise on Lauenburg steamships and passenger ships in and around Berlin by Heinz Trost or a description of the Elbe dredger "Gigant" by Hans Hentschel. The publishing program also included Low German literature from the Wendland by the author Magda Hartwig-Koosmann.

After Frank Wagner's death, his wife ran the publishing bookstore. On January 1, 2003, the Husum publishing group took over the company from her.

As an author

• Guide through Hamburg . This work first appeared in 1953 on the occasion of the International Horticultural Exhibition and was published for the fourth time in 1958. From 1955 to 1957 it was published in English as the Guide to Hamburg in three editions.
• In 1958/59 Wagner's publishing house published the Hamburger Wanderbuch , which he wrote together with Alfons Lukner and comprised two volumes. In the following years it also contained several hiking maps and hiking guides. The book was later published by C. Boysen Verlag .
• The original version of the guide through Göhrde and Wendland dates from 1973 . The authors were Wagner and Lukner. The fifth edition of the book was published in 1994 as a leisure guide through Göhrde and Wendland with Salzwedel and Arendsee .
• In 1991 Wagner gave the Lüneburg-Uelzen leisure guide. Experience the heath on foot and by bike. Wagner had previously covered the tours contained therein himself.
• In 1964 and 1970 Wagner wrote two books on passenger shipping on the Elbe, in which he treated the Lower and Upper Elbe. Wagner researched the texts for this and provided the works with numerous pictures.
• The volume Ländliches Hamburg from 1967 contained pen drawings by Alfred Grobe. Grobe dedicated it to “contemporary rural Hamburg”.
• The book Pictures from the Wendland comes from 1981 , again illustrated by Grobe.
• In 1985 Wagner wrote about Hamburg. Yesterday still present. Already in the past today . It dealt with historically significant buildings that had been demolished after the Second World War or were threatened with demolition. He worked historical photographs into the book, most of which he had taken himself. He also dealt with historical means of transport such as Alster steamers, steam locomotives, paddle steamers and trams.
• In his book Wesselburen - Forays through a thousand-year history with a chapter 150 years of Marschsparkasse Wesselburen from 1988, the author dealt with his adopted home.
• In Das Schwarze Lager , Wagner reported on the time when the Kinderland was sent. The work remained unpublished, as did the lead, stone and rubber blanket fragment . Hamburg's printing industry from its beginnings to 1990. A historical overview.

literature

• Franklin Kopitzsch : Wagner, Frank . In: Franklin Kopitzsch, Dirk Brietzke (Hrsg.): Hamburgische Biographie . tape 4 . Wallstein, Göttingen 2008, ISBN 978-3-8353-0229-7 , pp. 365-366 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Frank Wagner in the catalog of the German National Library