George Westermann

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George Westermann

George Westermann (born February 23, 1810 in Leipzig as Georg Westermann ; † September 7, 1879 in Wiesbaden ) was a German publisher and founder of the publishing house named after him in Braunschweig , which is now part of the Westermann Group .

The program of Westermann-Verlag was determined by geographical discoveries and the technical and scientific developments of the 19th century. Personal contacts with English authors such as Charles Dickens also made the publishing house an important cultural mediator. The company got its profile by specializing in dictionaries , travel literature and cartographic titles . The school atlas, begun in 1853 as a school atlas for teaching geography and continued as the Diercke world atlas from 1883, is the most successful publishing product initiated by Westermann to this day. Theodor Fontane , Hermann Hesse and Wilhelm Raabe were among the most successful authors in the publisher's cultural program .

Life

George Westermann before 1838

Early years, education, and wandering

Georg Westermann was born in Leipzig as the son of master goldsmith Heinrich Christoph Carl Westermann (1777–1835) and his wife, the goldsmith's daughter Josepha Karoline Westermann née Schönkopf (1783–1868). His older brother Anton Westermann (1805–1869) later became professor of philology , other siblings were Emil (1805–1835), who died early, Carl (1807–1809; thus died when Georg was born), Sophie Helene (1812–1866) and Bernhard (1814-1889). Georg completed his school education at the Albertina Humanistic High School in Freiberg . In 1827 he traveled to Braunschweig on the advice of the Leipzig publisher and friend of his father Wilhelm Ambrosius Barth and was employed by Friedrich Vieweg as an apprentice at the local school bookshop shortly after the later Reclam publisher Anton Philipp Reclam had finished his training at Vieweg. Vieweg himself had founded a publishing bookstore in Berlin in 1786 and came to Braunschweig in 1799, where he married the daughter of Johann Heinrich Campes , Lotte, and took over his bookstore. Westermann was also accepted into the family as an apprentice and thus met Vieweg's daughter Blanca, whom he later married. He had already fallen in love with the young girl during his stay, but only admitted this to her parents after he had left the house. In accordance with the customs of the time, his teacher resisted the apologies and broke off contact with Westermann, who from then on only spoke to Westermann through his wife Charlotte Vieweg and, after her death, through Luise Vieweg, the wife of Eduard Vieweg and thus Vieweg's daughter-in-law with the family related.

After four years of training and one year as an assistant, Westermann went on a journey with a first-class certificate in order to gain further experience in the book trade. His first recommendation took him in 1832 via Leipzig, where he visited his parents, to Königsberg in the bookstore of the Bornträger brothers. In 1834 he went to Leipzig and worked for Wilhelm Ambrosius Barth, also in the hope of starting his own business here and marrying Blanca Vieweg. In 1835 he applied to Hamburg for an assistant position, but was thrown back from a life-threatening illness. Georg's father died on August 18, 1835; shortly afterwards Westermann went to Altona on the Elbe and started a job in the bookstore “Perthes und Besser”. After Friedrich Vieweg's death on December 25, 1835, his son Eduard Vieweg took over the bookshop. Westermann visited the family and was welcomed with satisfaction, which led to the long-awaited reconciliation between him and the Vieweg family. However, Westermann was not allowed to marry Blanca Vieweg as long as he had not become self-employed.

Westermann visited England in 1837 , attracted by its leadership position in the fields of business and technology. He visited trading offices, ports and cotton mills as well as railway facilities and changed his first name to "George" because of his enthusiasm for English culture.

Foundation and development of the Westermann publishing house

Westermann-Verlag concession from May 21, 1838
George & Bernhard Westermann Brothers : Announcement of the opening of the US branch in New York on June 15, 1849.

After the end of his wandering years, George Westermann founded his own publishing bookstore in Braunschweig in a part of the Vieweg's publishing house on Burgplatz and married Blanca Vieweg on November 29, 1838. The founding of the publishing house was favored by the establishment of the German Customs Association in 1834 and the associated elimination of the inner German borders of the German Confederation . In addition, the interest of the bourgeoisie in writings of all kinds grew, and the lively research work and the discoveries of the time pushed authors to publish their findings.

The restored Vieweg house now houses the Braunschweigisches Landesmuseum

On May 21, 1838, Westermann was granted the concession by the ducal district administration in Braunschweig, and on June 1 he published a corresponding advertisement in the Börsenblatt for the German book trade . He received his references from the established publishers Vieweg and Justus Perthes . With start-up capital of 5,000 Reichstalers, he began building his publishing house in the offices of the Vieweg publishing house. Among his first publications was the work Life and Adventure of Nicolaus Nickleby by Charles Dickens under the pseudonym Boz . Westermann had met Dickens on his trip to England and published his translated works together with other English authors such as Jonathan Swift and Henry Fielding in his successful Classical Library of England's older novelists with 30 volumes between 1839 and 1842 and in twelve volumes in the New Roman Library of Foreign Countries .

Westermann printing works, around 1890

In 1845 Westermann expanded the publishing house with his own printing works, in which he could also have copperplate prints made for maps. The company was supplemented with a lithographic printing press for the later atlas by Henry Lange . The printing shop was increasingly enlarged and equipped with 14 steam-powered high-speed letterpress presses , and a bookbinding shop was later added .

The developments in the division program

The publisher established itself in the German publishing landscape in particular through a broad and sophisticated range of categories in which many titles were considered standard works in their discipline. In particular, the titles of geography and history as well as the published dictionaries formed the basis for the publishing house, which is still successful in these areas today.

In 1841 Westermann took over the rights to the German-French dictionary from A. Molé, edited by Ferdinand A. Weber, from Leipziger Verlag Tauchnitz, and in 1846 the rights to the standard work Complete Dictionary of French and German from M. A. Thibaut, edited by Johann G. Haas Melzer Verlag , both of which were economically successful and founded the dictionary division in the publishing program, which has continued since then. By 1908 the Thibaut had appeared in 150, the Molé in 77 editions. In addition to these two important dictionaries, the collaboration with the teacher Ludwig Herrig in particular led to success in the language sector. Together with Heinrich Viehoff, Herrig founded the archive for the study of modern languages ​​and literatures at Baedecker Verlag in 1846 , from which it was taken over by Westermann in 1849, and shortly afterwards published The British Classical Authors, a successful presentation of British literary history. This was followed by a presentation of French literature, La France Littéraire, and Herrig also published a number of English and French text collections for teaching, which laid the foundation for the teaching collections in English, French and later also in Latin, which were published much later by Westermann Verlag Language.

Diercke World Atlas : Cover of the 10th edition, 1887

The successful two-volume book Philosophy of Geography by Ernst Kapp was published in 1845. It was supplemented in a scientific presentation in 1868 with the first systematic presentation of geography, which quickly became the standard work of geography . Encouraged by the success, Westermann got in touch with Theodor von Liechtenstern in order to create a comprehensive atlas for school education at grammar schools . Liechtenstern died before he could complete this work and, on the recommendation of Carl Ritter , Westermann commissioned the cartographer Henry Lange to continue working on the atlas. The first Westermann atlas appeared in 1853 under the title School Atlas for Teaching Geography . In 1875 George Westermann first met the school councilor Carl Diercke , who had recommended Westermann's World Atlas to the Prussian Ministry of Culture as a teaching basis. Diercke had several ideas with which he wanted to further expand and update the atlas and became an employee of the Westermann publishing house. His Diercke World Atlas was first published in 1883, four years after the founder of the publisher's death, and has since become one of the publisher's most successful products.

North America in geographic and historical outlines

In addition to these standard works, Westermann also published many scientific travel reports and geographical representations by various authors. In 1854 he published the work North America in geographical and historical outlines by the geographer and publicist Karl Andree, who later became controversial because of his racist views . The diaries of Emin Pascha (actually Eduard Schnitzer ), which were published as a double volume by Westermann, are described as particularly adventurous and at the same time scientific . For example, titles such as The Nile Tributaries in Abyssinia (1868) by Sir Samuel White Baker , the three-volume Journey around the World (1861) by the zoologist Ludwig Karl Schmarda or Journeys to the Arctic Ocean by Theodor von Heuglin became financially less successful .

In the area of ​​history, Westermann offered a comprehensive program shortly after the publishing house was founded in order to serve the diverse interests of the newly developing educated middle class. One of the most important steps in this direction was the adoption of the title Allgemeine Weltgeschichte from the beginnings of historical knowledge to our time by the author Karl von Rotteck from the Herder publishing house in 1839. Karl von Rotteck died in the year of the takeover, the extensive work was written by Karl Heinrich Hermes and illustrated with elaborate steel engravings by the painter and graphic artist Alfred Rethel . Another important author of the publishing house in the field of history was Johann Sporschil , who had a total of twelve historical works published by Westermann, including The Thirty Years War and History of the Hohenstaufen . British history was also represented in the publishing program with the complete 25-volume works of the British historian Thomas Macaulay .

The scientific program of the publishing house was sparse from the beginning compared to the fields of history and geography. The work Die Sonne 1872 by the astronomer Angelo Secchi is particularly worth mentioning , in which a photo of the sun with sunspots was included for the first time , photographed on September 22, 1870 in New York City .

Westermann's illustrated German monthly magazine

Westermann's illustrated German monthly books for the entire intellectual life of the present , No. 1, October 1856

In 1856 Westermann started publishing the richly illustrated cultural magazine “Westermann's illustrated German monthly books. A family book for the entire intellectual life of the present ” , with which he wanted to establish a monthly magazine in the style of the American Harper's Monthly or Illustrated London News , which he knew. In a letter dated July 5, 1856, he wrote:

“I want to start a journal that is primarily dedicated to cultural and historical interests. [...] Note that we are not concerned with the strict technical sciences, not with the apparatus and tools of the learned, but with the results of science, insofar as they can pass into the life of the people. "

The concept of the monthly issue was developed by the Brunswick journalist Heinrich Boegekamp, ​​and Adolf Glaser took over the editorial management from the first issue until 1907. During this time Glaser gained a number of important authors for the magazine and also for the book publisher, including Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach and Friedrich Hebbel , Theodor Storm , Wilhelm Raabe , Theodor Fontane , Alfred Brehm , Paul Heyse and Justus von Liebig . The core of the magazine was made up of short literary stories and novellas, as well as travel stories and articles on technical topics such as railway construction , steamship travel and the telephone . The high-quality and richly illustrated articles led to the magazine's economic success. In the first year, the monthly issues had 3,000 subscribers , the peak was reached in 1960 with 105,000 subscribers. In 1987 the last edition of a monthly issue appeared.

Westermann's efforts were not limited to the German-speaking markets. As early as 1851, he commissioned Henry Lange to design an atlas for the United States of America . In addition, he regularly published articles on opening up the " Wild West " in his monthly newspapers . He sent his younger brother Bernhard Westermann to New York City to set up a branch of the publishing house there and offer German-language books and magazines to German-speaking immigrants. This branch was named B. Westermann & Co. on Broadway No. Founded in 289, it separated from the parent company in 1852 and was continued by Bernhard Westermann alone.

Death and succession

Grave in the Magnifriedhof .
Friedrich Westermann

George Westermann died on September 7, 1879, six months after his wife Blanca, and was buried in the Braunschweig Magnifriedhof . He was followed in the management of the company by his then 39-year-old son Friedrich Westermann , who only founded an open trading company (OHG) together with the other heirs and under the leadership of the authorized signatory Robert Brandt . Friedrich Westermann had a scientific and commercial education in the book industry and in 1889 became the sole owner of the publishing house. Under his direction and later under the leadership of his son Georg Westermann and his successors, the publishing house became one of the most successful school book publishers based on the Diercke World Atlas and other successful textbooks. In addition to Friedrich, George and Blanca Westermann had three other children: Stephanie (1842–1930), Charlotte (1844–1919) and Carl (1848–1909).

literature

  • Everhard Westermann (ed.): The publisher George Westermann 1810–1879. A picture of life in letters and diaries. Georg Westermann, Braunschweig 1965
  • 150 years of Westermann 1838–1988… and I have the honor to report it to you. A company history spanning a century and a half. Westermann Verlag, Braunschweig 1988; ISBN 3-07-500000-0
  • Rudolf Schmidt : German bookseller. German book printer. Contributions to a company history of the German book trade , Verlag der Buchdruckerei Franz Weber (later: Verlag von Rudolf Schmidt, Eberswalde), Berlin 1902–1908; Pp. 1042-1043. ( Full text )
  • Paul ZimmermannWestermann, George . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 42, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1897, pp. 184-186.

Web links

Commons : Category: Westermann  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files
Commons : Category: Diercke  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. From a letter of July 5, 1856; quoted here after 150 years of Westermann 1838–1988, Braunschweig 1988.
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on June 10, 2007 .