Hans Widmann (book scholar)

Hans Widmann (born March 28, 1908 in Urach , † December 19, 1975 in Mainz ) was a German book scholar and librarian . He dealt with the history of the book industry from ancient times to modern times.

life and work

Hans Widmann, the son of the senior teacher Johannes Widmann, passed the state examination in 1922 and then attended the Protestant theological seminars in Urach and Schöntal . From 1926 he studied classical philology , archeology and German at the University of Tübingen . He also spent a semester at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Berlin . In 1930 he received the Karl Faber Prize of the University of Tübingen for a work on terminology and language use by the philosopher Epicurus , with which he was awarded the title summa cum laude for Dr. phil. received his doctorate .

After the first (1931) and second state examination (1932), Widmann initially worked as a high school teacher. In 1938 he switched to library service and was employed at the University Library of Tübingen . Since 1943 Widmann took part in the Second World War as a soldier . He was taken prisoner by the French, from which he was released on December 31, 1945.

From 1946 Widmann worked again at the University Library of Tübingen, where he was appointed senior library councilor and deputy library director. In addition to his work in the library service, Widmann also taught the specialist book trade at the library school of the Württemberg State Library in Stuttgart . The University of Tübingen appointed him honorary professor for books and library studies in 1960. He also participated in various commissions of the Association of German Librarians , the German Bibliographical Board of Trustees and the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels , in whose Börsenblatt für den Deutschen Buchhandel - Frankfurt edition he also published. Widmann was editor of Der deutsche Buchhandel in documents and sources with the help of Horst Kliemann and Bernhard Wendt .

In 1969, Widmann was appointed full professor of books, writing and printing at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz , where he succeeded Aloys Ruppel . Here he represented the history of the book industry from ancient times to the present and also included the history of technology in research and teaching.

Hans Widmann was one of the most productive book scholars of his time. He dealt with numerous aspects of the history of book printing: with its beginnings, its distribution and importance in Württemberg, with its impact on the development of the German language and with its importance for the Reformation. His main work is the two-volume handbook History of the Book Trade from Antiquity to the Present , which was first published in 1952 and in a heavily revised form in 1975.

His extensive estate is in the Tübingen University Library (manuscript department, call number : Mn 28).

Publications (selection)

• Contributions to the syntax of Epicurus. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1935 (= Tübingen Contributions to Classical Studies. Volume 24).
• Bibliographies on German literature from the years nineteen thirty-nine to nineteen hundred and fifty. Niemeyer, Tübingen 1951.
• Swabian Alb. Story of a name. Publishing house of the Swabian Alb Association, Stuttgart 1957.
• The German book trade in documents and sources. 2 volumes, Hauswedell, Hamburg 1965.
• with Robert Holder: The Swabian Alb - seen and hiked. Holder, Urach 1966; 5th edition ibid 1981.
• Production and distribution of the book in the Greco-Roman world. In: Archives for the history of the book industry. Volume 8, 1967, Col. 545-639.
• From the book system of the old imperial city of Reutlingen. In: Reutlinger Geschichtsblätter. Volume 67 (New Series 4), 1967, pp. 7-42.
• Tübingen as a publishing city. Mohr, Tübingen 1981 (= Contubernium. Volume 1), ISBN 3-16-933022-5 .
• as editor: The current status of Gutenberg research. Hiersemann, Stuttgart 1972 (= Library of the Book Industry. Volume 1), ISBN 3-7772-7225-6 .
• History of the book trade from antiquity to the present. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1975, ISBN 3-447-01654-X .

literature

• Konrad Fuchs :  Widmann, Hans (Jakob). In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 27, Bautz, Nordhausen 2007, ISBN 978-3-88309-393-2 , Sp. 1536-1541.
• Alfred Swierk (Ed.): Contributions to the history of the book and its function in society. Festschrift for Hans Widmann on his 65th birthday on March 28, 1973 , Hiersemann, Stuttgart 1974, ISBN 3-7772-7412-7 (with bibliography Hans Widmann, pp. 308-324).

Web links

• Literature by Hans Widmann in the catalog of the German National Library