Gotthard Laske

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Gotthard Laskes grave in the Jewish cemetery in Berlin-Weißensee
Stumbling block for Laskes wife Nelly, in front of the house, Bleibtreustraße 25, in Berlin-Charlottenburg

Gotthard Laske (born March 3, 1882 in Stargard ; † November 23, 1936 in Berlin) was a German clothing manufacturer , bibliophile and patron .

Life

Laske collected books that were beautifully and lavishly printed and bound. His library contained about 10,000 volumes. In addition, he collected pictures and graphics. He rewarded the artists with suits and other items of clothing that he had made to measure in his company. Laske initiated the printing of many seals at Officina Serpentis and paid the production costs. He also donated many prints to members of the bibliophile societies to which he belonged. He was particularly interested in collecting books, manuscripts and drawings by Paul Scheerbart . On Laske's fiftieth birthday, the Berlin Fontane-Abend had a capriccio printed by Josef Maria Frank , in which Laske's hunt for a Scheerbart manuscript is described. Laske committed suicide in 1936 after his life's work had been destroyed by the National Socialists .

His wife Nelly Laske last lived in Bleibtreustraße in Berlin and was deported to Auschwitz in 1943. The son Ernst Laske was able to emigrate to Israel with some of his father's books and ran an antiquarian bookshop there for many years. Most of Laske's books were sold by the Berlin antiquarian bookshop Albert Zimmermann (formerly Heinrich Rosenberg and Albert Zimmermann). The two catalogs in which Laske's books are listed have only been printed in a few copies and are among the greatest bibliophile rarities. Gotthard Laske was buried in the Jewish cemetery in Berlin-Weißensee .

literature

  • Herrmann Meyer: Private prints by and for Gotthard Laske . Officina Serpentis, Berlin 1932.
  • Julius Rodenberg: German presses . A bibliography. Amalthea-Verlag, Zurich [u. a.]: 1925–1931, main volume, p. 160.
  • Fritz Homeyer: German Jews as Bibliophiles and Antiquaries , 2nd Edition, Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1966 (series of scientific papers by the Leo Baeck Institute; 10), pp. 50–52.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Fritz Homeyer: German Jews as Bibliophiles and Antiquaries . 2nd edition Mohr, Tübingen 1966, pp. 50–51
  2. ^ Josef Maria Frank: Berlin Capriccio . With drawings by George G. Kobbe. Universitas, Berlin 1932
  3. ↑ Friedhilde Krause : In memory of the German-Jewish bibliophiles Gotthard and Ernst Laske . In: Marginalien 2006, Issue 3, No. 183, pp. 11–31
personal data
SURNAME Laske, Gotthard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German clothing manufacturer, bibliophile and patron
DATE OF BIRTH March 3, 1882
PLACE OF BIRTH Stargard
DATE OF DEATH November 23, 1936
Place of death Berlin