Franz Xaver Gabelsberger

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Franz Xaver Gabelsberger

Franz Xaver Gabelsberger (born  February 9, 1789 in Munich ; †  January 4, 1849 there ) was a German stenographer. With the Gabelsberger shorthand he was the inventor of an italic (graphic) shorthand system and thus a forerunner of the German unified shorthand (DEK) used today .

Life

Autograph Franz-Xaver Gabelsberger: "On the purpose and use of the sciences"

Franz Xaver Gabelsberger was the son of a wind instrument manufacturer from Munich. His paternal grandfather came from Mainburg . After the early death of his father, he went to a convent school and completed his studies in 1807 at the old grammar school in Munich. He was unable to start studying because he lacked the necessary funds and his health was impaired. For this reason, he entered the Bavarian civil service and became a chancellery at the age of 21. Gabelsberger's superiors had noticed his extremely beautiful handwriting and his skills in calligraphy and lithography . Gabelsberger soon noticed that there was a lack of a writing system with which one could write quickly and thus make one's work easier.

He started developing his system at the age of 28. The establishment of parliaments in the southern German monarchies, more precisely since the Bavarian constitutional reform of May 26, 1818, made a shorthand necessary. England and France had already had shorthand systems in widespread use for a long time, but these proved unsuitable for the German language, which was rich in sounds. The Gabelsberger system quickly established itself in this area and subsequently also in the administration. In addition to the Horstig / Heim geometric shorthand system, it was also used during the Frankfurt National Assembly in 1848/49. Gabelsberger became the first parliamentary stenographer in the Bavarian state parliament. Its system has also been introduced in most of the other parliaments where it is used alongside other systems, e.g. B. Stolze-Schrey unification system , applied well into the 20th century, until it was replaced by the German unity shorthand.

Gabelsberger, meanwhile promoted to Ministerial Secretary, was certified by the Academy of Sciences in Munich that his system was "thoroughly original and, given sufficient brevity, more familiar, reliable and readable than any previous shorthand ".

The Bavarian Chamber of Deputies subsequently granted Gabelsberger a thousand guilders a year , half of which he had to use for himself and the other half to support his steno students. In 1834 he published his shorthand system. He kept improving his system, issuing teaching materials and teaching his students. In 1840 he designed an abbreviated font . Another font followed in 1843. The syllable lexicon recorded in the list of works can no longer be found in libraries.

In 1849 he suffered a stroke on a street in Munich, from the consequences of which he died. Gabelsberger's grave is located in the Old Southern Cemetery in the Glockenbachviertel in Munich. (Grabfeld 7-10-54. ( Location ))

Act

Monument to Franz Xaver Gabelsberger (Munich)

Gabelsberger's system was reformed several times by followers of his school in the decades that followed; so in 1857 by the "Dresden Decisions", in 1895 by the "Vienna Decisions" and finally in 1902 by the "Berlin Decisions". There is extensive literature on books and magazines as well as a three-digit number of textbooks.

His shorthand was by far the most successful shorthand system in Germany and Austria and was translated into numerous foreign languages. The number of systematic stenographers was estimated at around four million citizens at the turn of the century. The users were predominantly male and mostly belonged to the middle or upper class, following Gabelsberger's principle that the shorthand should be handwriting for all educated people . Even today, manuscripts by scientists from that time often appear, which were recorded in Gabelsberger's shorthand and in some cases are still awaiting transmission. The use of shorthand in the office area came later.

Gabelsberger's shorthand became the basis for most of the italic stenography systems used today, both in German-speaking countries and in large parts of Eastern and Northern Europe.

family

The Gabelsberger family home in Munich (Gabelsbergerstrasse)

Gabelsberger was married to Franziska (Fanny), née von Schweller, and the wedding took place on June 20, 1816. From this marriage a son Georg (1817-1840) and a daughter Mathilde (1824-1900) were born. Georg Gabelsberger died of tuberculosis at the age of 23 . Mathilde Gabelsberger married First Lieutenant Kurt Westermayer, b. on June 1, 1814 in Neumarkt. He was the first military stenographer in Germany.

After Franz Xaver Gabelsberger's death, his wife had to live with great hardship. It was not until 1859 that she received support from the royal family. In addition, the Kgl granted her. Saxon State Ministry of the Interior, in recognition of Gabelsberger's great services to German shorthand, an annual honorary gift of 100 guilders from 1865. Furthermore, bookseller Georg Franz in Munich had to pay them a certain fee for every edition of the price publication and every new reprint of an edition. After the death of her husband, she moved from Gabelsbergerstrasse to an apartment at Barer Strasse 11 for a few years, before moving to Neumarkt in the Upper Palatinate region around 1865 to live with her son-in-law and daughter, the Westermayer family. Franziska Gabelsberger died after pneumonia on November 20, 1872. Her body was brought to Munich and buried in the shared grave of her husband and son.

Honors

Gabelsberger on the medal of merit of the Stenographers Association from 1863 in Hanover

Streets in numerous German and Austrian cities are named after Gabelsberger (e.g. in Munich ). In his honor there are monuments in Munich , Traunstein and Vienna , next to the parliament on Schmerlingplatz . In Mainburg , where the Gabelsberger family had been based since 1636, the grammar school there was named after him. A municipal elementary school in Graz bears his name. The Medal of Merit of German Stenographers' Associations shows his portrait.

Works

  • Instructions for German speech-drawing art or shorthand. Munich 1834 (1831), 2nd edition, 1850 online in the Google book search
  • New improvements in German speech drawing or shorthand . Ge. Franz, Munich 1843, 2nd edition 1849
  • About the Silbenlexikon 1823. Reprinted from the estate in Münchener Blätter , 1880, pp. 67–71

literature

See also

Web links

Commons : Franz Xaver Gabelsberger  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Beginner's information booklet Gabelsberger Gymnasium Mainburg [1] , (PDF; 2 MB)
  2. ^ Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm: Stadtgeschicht (en) Issue No. 17 (2016) , In: issuu.com , January 20, 2016
  3. ↑ Max Leitschuh: The matriculations of the upper classes of the Wilhelmsgymnasium in Munich , 4 volumes. Munich 1970–1976., Volume 3, p. 228.
  4. ↑ Number based on statistical yearbooks that the course participants identified throughout the Reich
  5. ^ History of the school "Gabelsberger": with special consideration of its development history and the history of the German stenographers' association "Gabelsberger", Volume 2.
  6. ↑ Photo of the monument in Vienna
  7. ↑ VS Gabelsberger - Home. Retrieved October 28, 2019 .
  8. ^ FW Kaeding: Frequency dictionary of the German language. Self-published, Steglitz 1897, p. 38.
personal data
SURNAME Gabelsberger, Franz Xaver
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Inventor of the forerunner of the German shorthand
DATE OF BIRTH February 9, 1789
PLACE OF BIRTH Munich
DATE OF DEATH January 4, 1849
Place of death Munich