Fritz Freund (publisher)

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Fritz Freund (born April 7, 1879 in Vienna ; † May 8, 1950 ibid) was an Austrian poet and publisher.

Life

Arthur Schnitzler's letter to Fritz Freund from Wiener Verlag, Vienna, April 21, 1905

He was the publisher of Oskar Friedmann , with whom he had been in contact since 1902 at the latest. Investigations into the distribution of pornographic works did not lead to a conviction. In 1903 he bought Friedmann's publishing house in Vienna for 20,000 crowns that his mother had lent him . At a meeting of the corporation of Viennese book, art and music dealers on April 7, 1904, Freund received his license as a publisher and on April 26, 1904, the Viennese publisher Fritz Freund was entered in the register for sole proprietorships at the Vienna Commercial Court.

In May 1903 he began the book series Library of Famous Authors (translations mostly by Scandinavian, French, Polish, Russian or English authors, of which 50 volumes appeared in the first two years) and in October 1904 the Library of Modern German Authors .

Under his leadership, the publishing house experienced a strong upswing, for which, however, he also had to take out considerable loans. To ease the financial burden, he decided to convert the publishing house into a limited liability company, had it deleted from the commercial register on October 12, 1906 and on the same day as a Viennese publishing house. Register the publishing house and book printing company Ges.mbH (Wienstraße 89a) with Willi Handl as the second managing director.

As one of the first books he published Arthur Schnitzler's Reigen in 1903 . From May 1903 the book series Library of Famous Authors, expanded to 50 volumes by mid-June 1905, was published . Around 1907 the publisher published 230–240 titles.

Some of his books, which were unopposed in Austria, were confiscated in various German cities. This free negative advertising increased the circulation to over 100,000 copies.

As a result of the publication of a novel critical of the church , a five-hour house search of his office and private apartment took place in 1905, and some fiction books with sexual content were found. The charge for disseminating lewd writings became statute-barred, and the right-wing press cursed him as a porn Jew . In 1906 he published the novel Josefine Mutzenbacher without naming the author.

On May 7, 1908, he had to answer for self-inflicted Krida and thwarting execution before a Viennese investigation . Given the level of debt, he had to admit the impossibility to continue the business. The conversion of the publishing house into a limited liability company was his undoing and he was sentenced to three weeks of strict arrest. When he was asked by the commercial court in 1910 to liquidate and dissolve his company, it failed because the shares were seized. The resumption of business on April 1, 1911 did not occur, so that the company remained a file group until 1929.

When he traveled to Budapest in 1911 to visit his wife, a dancer, he was arrested while peddling "pornographic books" at some Budapest booksellers. He was charged with offenses against morality and detained. After his return, he was followed by the police on suspicion of owning a large porn store in Vienna.

1927–1938 he published the Austrian Film Newspaper . After his expropriation and the annexation of Austria , he emigrated to England in 1939. It is possible that from 1945 onwards he published the Illustrierte Filmkurier again in Vienna .

Authors, titles (selection)

literature

  • Murray G. Hall : Austrian Publishing History 1918–1938. Volume 1: History of the Austrian publishing industry (= literature and life. NF Vol. 28, 1). Böhlau, Vienna et al. 1985, ISBN 3-412-05585-9 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Austrian National Library: ÖNB / ANNO AustriaN Newspaper Online . In: onb.ac.at .
  2. ↑ The golden Edelweiss (1949) - Literature . In: IMDb .
  3. ↑ Wolfgang Siska, Roman Balla: Illustrierter Filmkurier 1945 - . In: wolfgang-siska.at .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Friend, fritz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian poet and publisher
DATE OF BIRTH April 7, 1879
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH May 8, 1950
Place of death Vienna