Helmut Küpper

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Helmut Küpper (born May 1, 1904 in Duisburg , † April 10, 1956 in Munich ) was a German publisher .

Life

Helmut Küpper was born in Duisburg in 1904. After the father Wilhelm Küpper died in 1908, the mother married Hanna, geb. Manger, the steel magnate Peter Klöckner in 1911 . Instead of working in the stepfather's company, Helmut Küpper studied law, German studies, philosophy, art and cultural history at the University of Heidelberg , the LMU Munich and the Friedrichs University Halle-Wittenberg since 1923 . In Heidelberg he was influenced by Friedrich Gundolf , an important member of the George Circle , in Munich by Heinrich Wölfflin . Even Ernst Kantorowicz introduced him to poetry and thought of Stefan George known. In 1928 Küpper received his doctorate in Halle with a literary-historical appreciation of Jean Paul based on his idyllic life of the cheerful schoolmaster Maria Wutz in Auenthal . He then aimed for his habilitation and prepared a book about the life and work of August von Platen , but because of the political situation after 1933 he waived both.

On April 1, 1935, he joined the Georg Bondi publishing house in Berlin as a partner , the in-house publishing house Stefan Georges and his followers. After the death of the publisher Georg Bondi and the departure of other shareholders, he continued to run the publishing house as sole owner. The publisher name chosen in 1938, Helmut Küpper, formerly Georg Bondi, had to be shortened to Verlag Helmut Küpper in 1941, when Jewish company names were no longer tolerated . Küpper continued the editions of works by Max Halbe , Stefan Georges and members of the George Circle, but also tried, without great success, entertainment novels such as A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh . From 1939 he was in charge of Ernesto Grassi's book series Writings for the Spiritual Tradition and Sources of Spiritual Tradition and his yearbook Spiritual Tradition . From 1940 to 1945 Küpper was assigned to the research office of the Aviation Ministry.

With the permission of the British military authorities, he was able to reopen the Helmut Küpper publishing house, formerly Georg Bondi , in Bad Godesberg in May 1946 . In addition to new editions of his earlier productions, Küpper continued to support the work of Stefan Georges and the George Circle. Several important works of George memorial literature such as Robert Boehringer's Mein Bild von Stefan George and Edgar Salins Um Stefan George have been published by Küpper in several editions. By working with Walter Eucken and Wilhelm Flitner , he also created an economic and educational publishing focus. After the publisher's death in 1956, his life's work was carried out by his second wife Ursula, nee. Wendel, who he married in 1950. Like the first marriage to Paraskewe Bereskine in 1927, the second remained childless.

Fonts

  • Jean Paul's "Wuz". A contribution to the literary historical appreciation of the poet . Ostdeutsche Druckerei und Verlagsanstalt, Halle (Saale) 1928 (here also a curriculum vitae from my own hand); Nachdr. Niemeyer, Halle (Saale) 1928; Sendet, Walluf near Wiesbaden 1972.

literature

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personal data
SURNAME Küpper, Helmut
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German publisher
DATE OF BIRTH May 1, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Duisburg
DATE OF DEATH April 10, 1956
Place of death Munich