Fritz Borstell
Johannes Hermann Friedrich Borstell (mostly Fritz Borstell ; born May 27, 1843 in Berlin ; † February 2, 1896 ) was a German bookseller and librarian . Fritz Borstell's Reading Circle was the largest lending library in Germany in its time.
Life
Fritz Borstell trained as a bookseller in Gropius' book and art shop in Berlin. He then worked as an assistant to Victor von Zabern in Mainz , Friedrich Klincksieck in Paris and Wilhelm Webel in Berlin. In 1857 he and others founded the "Krebs" association of younger booksellers .
In 1863 Borstell and his friend Friedrich Wreden bought the traditional Nicolaische bookstore from M. Jagielski at Brüderstraße 13 in Berlin. The following year they set up a lending library based on the model of Charles Edward Mudie . From 1866 to 1868 there was a branch of the bookstore in Wriezen .
After Friedrich Wreden left the company, Fritz Birstell led the company alone from 1869 and took his nephew Hans Reimarus as a partner in 1872 . He was mainly responsible for the bookstore area, while Borstell took care of the loan transactions. In 1883 they opened a branch at Potsdamer Straße 123a. In 1892 a new building was opened at Dorotheenstrasse 75, which was built entirely according to their ideas. Books could be exchanged on the ground floor, books and magazines were laid out with seating on the first and second floors, and the administrative and storage rooms were on the third and fourth floors.
In 1898 Fritz Borstell's reading circle had over 300,000 volumes and 107 scientific and fiction journals on offer. Its users included scientists and well-known personalities such as Otto von Bismarck and Theodor Mommsen .
After his death in 1896, Hans Reimarus continued to run the business alone. In 1901 the son Reinhold Borstell (1874–1946) became the new owner. In the following years he expanded the loan range to over 600,000 titles.
literature
- Rudolf Schmidt : German bookseller. German book printer. Volume 1. Berlin, Eberswalde 1902. pp. 80f.
- Karl Friedrich Pfau: Borstell, Fritz . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 47, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1903, p. 135.
- Directory ... , Berlin 1875 digitized
Web links
- Literature by Fritz Borstell at WorldCat
- Literature by and about Fritz Borstell in the catalog of the German National Library
- Publications by Nicolaische Buchhandlung Borstell and Reimarus in the Deutsche Digutalen Bibliothek
Individual evidence
- ^ DNB indicates W. Weber & Co in Berlin
- ^ Georg Jäger : History of the German book trade in the 19th and 20th centuries. Volume 1. The Empire 1871–1918. Part 3. De Gruyter Berlin 2010. pp. 143–145 , with photos, also p. 297
- ^ Georg Jäger: The German Lending Library in the 19th Century. Distribution - Organization - Decay In: International Archive for Social History of German Literature . Volume 2. Nax Niemeyer Verlag Tübingen 1977. pp. 96-134, here p. 112 f. PDF
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Borstell, Fritz |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Borstell, Johannes Hermann Friedrich |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German bookseller and librarian |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 27, 1843 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Berlin |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 2, 1896 |