Gustav Fischer (publisher)

Grave of the Fischer family in the north cemetery in Jena

Gustav Fischer (born December 23, 1845 in Altona , † July 22, 1910 in Jena ; completely Gustav Paul Dankert Fischer ) was a German bookseller and publisher , founder of Gustav Fischer Verlag with a focus on medicine and natural sciences in Jena.

Life

Gustav Fischer was born in Altona on December 23, 1845 as the son of the Swabian Nuertingen merchant Benjamin Gottlob Fischer (1805-1859) and his wife Helene Dankert (1818-1901), daughter of a Hamburg merchant .

In the Frommann bookstore in Jena, Fischer learned the trade as a bookseller. After years of traveling in Munich and Breslau , he became an assistant in the bookstore " W. Mauke und Söhne" in Hamburg in 1869 , which was founded in 1796 as the first pure range in Germany by Friedrich Christoph Perthes .

In 1870 Gustav Fischer received power of attorney and in 1871, after the death of Carl Wilhelm Alfred Mauke, acquired the company together with Heinrich Wichern (1842–1917), the son of the well-known theologian and founder of the “ Rauhen Haus ” Johann Hinrich Wichern . In 1875 Gustav Fischer married Minna, Mauke's widow, née Des Arts (1839–1910).

In 1877 Gustav Fischer acquired the “Hermann Duft” publishing house in Jena and continued it under his own name from January 1, 1878, initially with the addition of “formerly Friedrich Mauke”. In a short time the Gustav Fischer Verlag developed into one of the leading companies in the fields of medicine , natural sciences , law and social sciences .

Gustav Fischer was a member of the historical commission of the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels and deputy chairman of the German Publishers' Association founded in 1886 . Fischer was offered the office of head of the German Book Trade Association several times, but he refused it for reasons of age and due to excessive workload. He was an honorary doctor of the universities of Jena and Freiburg / Breisgau and an honorary citizen of Jena. The publishing business was continued by his nephew and adoptive son Gustav Adolf Fischer .

literature

• Gustav Fischer Verlag (Ed.): Hundred Years of Gustav Fischer Verlag. 1878, 1948, 1978. Publishing history, list of books and magazines published in Stuttgart since 1948. Gustav Fischer, Stuttgart 1978, ISBN 3-437-50227-1
• Friedrich Lütge : The publishing house Gustav Fischer in Jena. Its history and prehistory. On the occasion of the company anniversary. Gustav Fischer, Jena 1928.
• Ernst Metelmann:  Fischer, Gustav. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 5, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1961, ISBN 3-428-00186-9 , p. 186 ( digitized version ).

Web links

• Literature by and about Gustav Fischer in the catalog of the German National Library