Hermann Herder (publisher, 1864)

Hermann Herder senior (Born January 14, 1864 in Freiburg im Breisgau ; † October 19, 1937 ibid) was a German publisher and from 1888 to 1937 manager of the Herder publishing group , which also includes the Herder publishing house in Freiburg im Breisgau.

Entrepreneurial activity

Hermann Herder senior took over the management of the publishing house in the third generation after the death of his father Benjamin Herder . At that time the publishing house had 180 employees. In 1901 the number of employees had risen to 468. In 1910 the foundation stone of the new publishing house was laid in the Freiburg district of Neuburg . The so-called Red House was inaugurated in 1912 - at that time still in Johanniterstraße, which is now called Hermann-Herder-Straße. In 1919, Herder and his co-partner Philipp Dorneich converted the publishing company into a GmbH in the hope that this would ensure the continued existence of the Herder publishing house. Hermann Herder attributed the survival of the publishing group during the times of hyperinflation during the Weimar Republic exclusively to sales abroad. In the mid-1930s, his publishing work in Germany was increasingly hampered by the NSDAP. When Hermann Herder sen. dies on October 19, 1937, his son-in-law Theophil Herder-Dorneich succeeds him.

During Hermann Herder's leadership, bookshops and companies were opened or taken over in numerous German cities such as Tauberbischofsheim , Berlin , Frankfurt , Cologne , Münster or Saarbrücken as well as abroad in Wroclaw , Braniewo , Barcelona , Rome and Tokyo . The vast majority of them were lost again through the two world wars and later economic difficulties of the publishing group or were legally and economically separated from it by being divided between the Herder family.

Under his direction, the state lexicon , the conversation lexicon Der Große Herder and other specialist lexica , the Schott missal and books by Heinrich Hansjakob , Joseph Spillmann and Romano Guardini were published. The publishing program at that time mainly comprised church books, Catholic textbooks, travel literature, educational guides, social and political non-fiction books. In addition, numerous books by the publisher in Romance languages and a Catholic encyclopedia in Japanese appeared during this period .

In addition to managing the Herder publishing group, Hermann Herder sen. a varied entrepreneurial life. He was also chairman of the health, retirement and death benefit fund of the Freiburg factory workers , managing director of the Collegium Sapianetiae , the Freiburg student house for priests , member of the board and co-founder of the Association of Catholic Booksellers , advisory board member of the Freiburg Chamber of Commerce , senator of the German Academy in Munich and Tipografi Editori Pontifici by Pope Benedict XV. From 1900 to 1918 he was a city councilor in Freiburg. He was also a holder of the Order of St. Pius , the Order of Isabellas the Catholic , the honor of Privy Councilor of Commerce and an honorary doctorate from the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Freiburg . During his studies, Herder was a member of the KDSt.V. Arminia Freiburg im Breisgau in the CV , in 1908 Herder became an honorary member of the Catholic student association K.St.V. Brisgovia Freiburg im KV and in 1911 honorary member of the KDStV Hercynia Freiburg im Breisgau .

Private life

In the 1890s, Hermann Herder sen. A lot of time on trips to Austria , Italy , the Orient , North Africa and Southeast Europe, England , Mexico , Cuba and the USA . On February 22, 1900, in Prague , he married Charlotte Willmann (born March 24, 1872), the daughter of the teacher and philosopher Otto Willmann . Their only child Elisabeth was born on December 7th. She later married the son of his co-partner Philipp Dorneich, who then took the name Theophil Herder-Dorneich. When the First World War broke out , Hermann Herder headed a recruit depot in Sigmaringen as captain dR , while his wife Charlotte set up a hospital in the Freiburg publishing house. In 1915 he served in the Ardennes as a company commander. Until he was promoted to major and awarded the Iron Cross First Class , further stations were the Champagne and Donaueschingen .

literature

• Julius Dorneich :  Herder, Hermann. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 8, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1969, ISBN 3-428-00189-3 , p. 605 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Karl-Theo Humbach et al. (Editor): Der Verlag Herder: 1801–2001. Chronological outline of its history with synchronopses on intellectual and world events (200 years of Herder) . Herder Verlag, Freiburg, ISBN 3-451-20550-5
• Wolfgang Hug: Benjamin Herder and Hermann Herder the Elder. Double transformation of the Herder publishing house in the 19th century . In: Journal of the Breisgau history association Schau-ins-Land, 122nd year 2003, pp. 121-137
• R. van de Weyer in Siegfried Koß, Wolfgang Löhr (Hrsg.): Biographical Lexicon of KV. 4th part (= Revocatio historiae. Volume 5). SH-Verlag, Schernfeld 1996, ISBN 3-89498-032-X , p. 53 ff.

Web links

• Hermann Herder at www.herder.de