Friedrich Weidling

Friedrich Weidling, portrait and signature

August Friedrich Wilhelm Weidling (born April 6, 1821 in Brandenburg an der Havel , † February 22, 1902 in Berlin ) was a German publisher .

Life

Weidling was the son of a poor craftsman and was only able to attend the Kölln High School in Berlin after his mother's second marriage, thanks to the support of his stepfather. However, the stepfather's funds were insufficient to allow Weidling to graduate from high school. Therefore he had to leave the grammar school prematurely and did an apprenticeship as a typesetter from 1837. In 1844 he emigrated from Berlin to Strasbourg and Paris , where he worked in a book printer. In 1846 he moved on to London , where he worked in a book printing company until 1849. From 1850 he worked in various book printers and bookshops in Berlin, Posen and Stuttgart . In 1854 he passed the state book printer examination, later also the state bookseller examination. After he was the technical manager in the printing works of the “Volkszeitung” from 1854 to 1859, he bought the bookstore Haude und Spener in August 1859 , whose name he changed to “Haude & Spener”. In 1864, Weidling heard a lecture by the Berlin senior teacher Georg Büchmann on “popular quotations”. He was able to persuade Büchmann to expand the text of the lecture and publish it as a book. The first edition of " Winged Words " appeared in 1864 and was a great success, as was the volume "The Staircase Joke of World History" by William Lewis Hertslet .

Weidling had been with Caroline Charlotte, b. Schulze married. Their son, Konrad , became a partner in the company in 1888 and took it over completely in 1890.

literature

• Died: Friedrich Weidling . In: Börsenblatt für den Deutschen Buchhandel , February 25, 1902, p. 1730.
• Proud past, living present. 325 years of Haude & Spenersche bookstore in Berlin; 1614–1939 , Berlin: Haude & Spener 1939, pp. 76–82.