Johann Christoph Sauer

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Sauer's first almanac (1739)

Johann Christoph Sauer or Christopher Sower (baptized February 2, 1695 in Ladenburg ; † September 25, 1757 in Germantown (Philadelphia) ) was the first German printer in North America.

Life and meaning

Sauer was born in Ladenburg near Heidelberg in 1695 as the son of the Reformed pastor Johann Christian Sauer. Around 1701 he moved as a child with his widowed mother to Laasphe , where he married the widow Maria Christina (née Gruber) in 1720. Their son Christoph was born in 1721. In 1724 the family emigrated to Pennsylvania and settled in Germantown , a northern suburb of Philadelphia , where Sauer initially pursued his learned trade as a tailor. He was also active as a watchmaker and bookseller for Christian edifying literature.

Since 1735 he has been trying to get the equipment for a German-speaking printer. In 1738 he received Fraktur letters from a type foundry in Frankfurt am Main . From 1739 Sauer printed numerous calendars, books and a newspaper that later appeared weekly as the Germantowner Zeitung (until 1777).

In 1743 he printed a German-language Bible, the Sauer Bible , it had 1,272 printed pages. It is considered to be the second Bible printed in America after John Eliots' mission Bible, which was printed in the Massachusett language , and the first English -language Bible did not appear until 40 years later.

Sauer and his descendants had a decisive influence on German-language book printing in colonial America.

literature

  • Gustav Mori : The book printer Christoph Sauer in Germantown. A contribution to the history of printing in the United States of America. Gutenberg yearbook 1934, pp. 224–230
  • Karl Hartnack : Christoph Sauer, a great Laaspher. In: The beautiful Wittgenstein, Verlag Ernst Schmidt, Laasphe 1938 / No. 5 / S. 35 and no. 6 / p. 44.
  • Wilhelm Hartnack : Christoph Sauer sen. no Wittgensteiner. In: Wittgenstein. Leaves of the Wittgensteiner Heimatverein , Vol. 49 (1961), Vol. 25, Issue 3, pp. 122–123.
  • Werner Wied : On the emigration of Johann Christoph Sauer the Elder. Ä. in 1724. In: Wittgenstein, Vol. 52 (1964), Vol. 28, Issue 1, pp. 21-28.
  • Eberhard Bauer: Christoph Sauer's job as a printer in Germantown. W ittgenstein, Vol. 81 (1993), Vol. 57, Issue 2, pp. 62-76.
  • Kerstin Fischbach: Christoph Sauer - the first German printer in America. In: Thomas A. Bartolosch, Cornelius Neutsch, Karl Jürgen Roth (eds.): Siegerländer and Wittgensteiner in the new world. Emigration in the 18th and 19th centuries. University of Siegen 1999 ISBN 3-9805760-2-7 pp. 61-66.
  • Mark Häberlein:  Sauer, Johann Christoph. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 22, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-428-11203-2 , p. 453 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Rainer Hempel: Christopher Sauer: Loyalist Printer and Postmaster, in German-Canadian Yearbook 17, 2002. Ed. Lothar Zimmermann, Hartmut Froeschle , M. Burke, Historical Society of Mecklenburg, Upper Canada ISSN  0316-8603 Chapter 4
  • Thomas Parschik: The word of the Lord in the new world: on the trail of a rare edition with an interesting provenance history. In: Buch und Bibliothek , 2019, issue 5, page 257
  • Ulf Lückel: Johann Christoph Sauer (1695-1757) in the new world. From Wittgenstein to North America. In: Yearbook Westphalia 2017, Westfälischer Heimatkalender - New Series 71st year, pp. 52–57.
  • Ulf Lückel: Johann Christoph Sauer, a German printer and publisher in America - his first years in America and his network in Germany. In: Christian Soboth and Pia Schmid (eds.), “Writing should be legible”. Pietism and the media. Contributions to the 4th International Congress for Pietism Research 2013, (Hallesche Forschungen 44 / I), Halle 2016, pp. 351–361.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Frederick Adolphus Packard: The Union Bible dictionary . American Sunday-School Union, 1837, p. 552 (Retrieved November 16, 2010).
personal data
SURNAME Sauer, Johann Christoph
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sower, Christopher
BRIEF DESCRIPTION first German book printer in North America
DATE OF BIRTH baptized February 2, 1695
PLACE OF BIRTH Ladenburg
DATE OF DEATH September 25, 1757
Place of death Germantown