Johann Friedrich Cotta

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Johann Friedrich Freiherr von Cotta (lithograph, around 1830)
Signature Johann Friedrich Cotta.PNG
JF Cotta's wife Wilhelmine (portrait of Christian Gottlieb Schick , 1802)

Johann Friedrich Cotta , in 1817 Württemberg recognition of the old nobility based on an imperial letter of arms from 1420 as Cotta von Cottendorf , Bavarian baron since 1822 (born April 27, 1764 in Stuttgart ; † December 29, 1832 there ) was a German publisher , industrial pioneer and politician .

Life and publishing

Cotta studied mathematics, history and law. In 1787 he took over the family business founded in Tübingen in 1659 , the Cotta'sche Verlagbuchhandlung . After initial financial difficulties, with perseverance and diligence, personal modesty and generosity towards his authors, he succeeded in expanding the company into the most important publisher of German classical music. In addition to its most important authors Johann Wolfgang Goethe , whose famous edition was last published by Cotta, and Friedrich Schiller also included Hölderlin , Hebel , Uhland , Schwab , Schelling , Fichte , Pestalozzi , Kleist , Annette von Droste-Hülshoff , Alexander von Humboldt , Jean Paul , Hegel , Herder , Christian Schreiber and Johann Gottlieb Friedrich Bohnenberger .

Johann Friedrich Cotta's father was Christoph Friedrich Cotta senior (1724–1807), Württemberg court printer and chancellery printer, publisher of the court newspaper and the weekly economic paper (from 1791). Cotta's mother was Rosalie Cotta, b. Pyrker (1738–1812), daughter of concert master Joseph Franz Pirker and the well-known singer Marianne Pirker (1717–1782), who was imprisoned from 1756–1764 for her loyalty to the Duchess of Württemberg. A brother of Johann Friedrich Cottas was Christoph Friedrich ("Fritz") Cotta iunior (1758-1838), lawyer, editor of the monthly Teutsche Staatslitteratur , as a Jacobin supporter of the French Revolution in Mainz and Strasbourg, publicist. - The theologian Johann Friedrich Cotta, senior , was a great uncle of Johann Friedrich Cotta.

Johann Friedrich Cotta's first wife was Wilhelmine Ernestine Philippine Cotta (since 1817 Cotta von Cottendorf), born on January 11th, 1791 . Haas, * Kilchberg near Tübingen May 17, 1769, died at Dotternhausen Castle , the "Cottaschen Castle", in Dotternhausen on the Zollernalb August 23, 1821. She was the daughter of Johann Conrad Haas, b. Neuhausen ob Eck near Tuttlingen January 18, 1719; † Kilchberg near Tübingen May 4, 1769, and by Maria Elisabeth Haas, b. Schott, *  Waldenbuch September 2, 1731; † Tübingen May 31, 1805. - Cotta's second wife was Elisabeth Cotta Freifrau von Cottendorf, born in Hedelfingen in 1824. Baroness von Gemmingen-Guttenberg (1789–1859), later (since 1835) Baroness von Hügel. She was the daughter of Ludwig Eberhard Freiherrn von Gemmingen-Guttenberg and Luise Auguste Freifrau von Gemmingen-Guttenberg, nee. Baroness of Saint-André . Her second husband was Ernst Eugen Freiherr von Hügel (1774–1844), Württemberg Lieutenant General and Minister of War (1829–1842).

Relationships between the Cotta and Schiller families existed early on. A cousin of the printer Christoph Friedrich senior, Johann Melchior Kapff (1727–1799), worked there as a clergyman during the Schiller family's stay in Lorch (Württemberg) (1764–1766) (deacon there from 1758, pastor there in 1767). Obviously, Pastor Kapff became friends with the poet's family - there was also a sponsorship relationship between the Kapff family and Schiller's siblings - and then possibly brokered the Schiller family, who moved to Ludwigsburg in 1766, their second apartment there (1768–1773) in the Ludwigsburg house of his cousin Christoph Friedrich Cotta senior. Because of the Kapff / Cotta relationship, Schiller's move into this Ludwigsburg apartment via Cotta's printing shop is probably not a “coincidence”, and it was here that the connection to Schiller's famous publisher was established: Schiller played with Cottaschen in the printing shop as a child Letters. Cotta's father was already a publisher for Schiller's father in 1767–1769 and for Schiller himself in 1780, and the source for Schiller's ballad Der Taucher is a children's book printed and published by Cotta's father: prayers and conversations in songs and verses, especially dedicated to the youth. From M [agister]. Christian Gottlieb Göz. Stuttgard, by Christoph Friedrich Cotta, Hof- und Canzlei Buchdruker. 1790 .

In 1793 Cotta met the then famous poet in Tübingen when he was visiting his Swabian homeland through the help of the philosophy professor there, Jakob Friedrich Abel , who was Schiller's former teacher at the Karlsschule . From this acquaintance, not only a close personal connection developed, but also an intensive publishing collaboration: Schiller established contact with the Weimar classics around Goethe and thus laid the foundation for the rise of the Cottas publishing house.

Cotta published, among other things, the newspapers and magazines Die Horen , the Musen-Almanach , the Allgemeine Zeitung , the morning paper for educated estates (1816–1849 with the supplement Kunst-Blatt ) and the literary sheet as well as the women's magazines Amalia's relaxation hours and flora .

On July 19, 1796, his son Johann Georg von Cotta was born in Tübingen .

Memorial plaque on the birthplace
Cotta's house in Tübingen

In 1814 Cotta was a deputy at the Congress of Vienna , where - in view of the censorship measures and protective tariffs introduced by Napoléon Bonaparte - he advocated the independence of the German book trade.

Cotta campaigned for the spread of lithography and based his press power on the use of steam engines . Since 1822, in conjunction with the mechanical engineer John Cockerill (1790-1840) and various donors, he introduced steam navigation in the Rhine, Main and Danube regions, which he regulated with the relevant governments and sought to expand as a European waterway network with an overseas connection. The overall project came to a standstill due to the economic crisis of autumn 1825, while the associated regional projects stagnated.

In 1827 he founded with his son dependance Literary and artistic institution of JG Cotta bookshop for lithographic reproduction and Kuperferdruck, along with books, art and map trading in Munich. The newspapers Das Auslands and Das Inland appeared on this site .

Badischer Hof

From 1807 to 1809 Cotta had an old Capuchin monastery rebuilt in his hometown of Baden-Baden . The Badischer Hof became the first luxury hotel in Baden-Baden and the first palace hotel in Germany.

Lake Constance shipping

In 1824 he led in conjunction with Edward Church , the former consul of the United States of America in Bordeaux, and King Wilhelm I of Württemberg , the steamboat trip on Lake Constance one. For this purpose, he founded the Friedrichshafen steam boat company with Church and d'Hogguer . Church had built the first Swiss steamboat Guillaume Tell for Lake Geneva in May 1823 in Geneva . In the following years Church also received steamboat orders for Lake Biel , Lake Neuchâtel and Lake Zurich .

Von Cotta and Church (the latter was also referred to in a newspaper article as the “director of the steamship yards on Lake Constance”) had tried, in parallel to the preparations in Württemberg, to obtain the privilege of building and operating a steamship for 12 years in Bavaria as well . Two steamships were built simultaneously on the Friedrichshafen ship spar: the Württemberg ship Wilhelm and the Max Joseph intended for the Bavarian location . Both ships were put into service every few weeks in 1824.

Despite his Bavarian shipping patent, von Cotta was never able to gain a foothold with his project in Bavaria because the Royal Bavarian Government did not advocate the steamboat company. The King of Württemberg, on the other hand, had bought the privileges from the long-established boatmen in exchange for a life annuity . Von Cotta could not hold his operating base in Lindau and then tried to move to the shores of Lake Constance in Baden. Here, too, he encountered bitter resistance from the boatmen's guilds.

After barely six years of operation, the vibrations of the steam engine had weakened the wooden structure of the Max Joseph so much that the ship was decommissioned in 1829. Cotta and Church tried in vain to sell it to the Bavarian government at a ridiculous price; then they gave it up for scrapping .

Cotta's letters show that the failure of his Lake Constance project made him very bitter in the last years of his life.

Customs union policy

Cotta was a member of the Estates' Assemblies from 1815 to 1819 and of the Second Chamber of the State Parliament in Stuttgart from 1819 to 1831 . Through his negotiating skills, his connections and his personal commitment, Cotta contributed significantly to the establishment of the Württemberg-Hohenzollersche Zollverein in 1824 and the Bavarian-Württemberg Customs Association in 1828 . In 1829 he was finally active again as an agent. This led to a rapprochement between the South German Customs Union and the Prussian-Hessian Customs Union . The agreement was one of the central requirements for the creation of the German Customs Union .

Namesake

Cotta's grave is in the Hoppenlauffriedhof . The former business school in Stuttgart-Ost has von Cotta as the school name with the Johann-Friedrich-von-Cotta-Schule. In his former residence, Schloss Hohenkammer, there is the Cotta-Saal, an event room for up to 100 people. The Johann Friedrich von Cotta Prize for Literature and Translators of the State Capital Stuttgart is named after him.

literature

  • August Ludwig Reyscher :  Cotta, Johann Friedrich Freiherr von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 4, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1876, pp. 527-533.
  • Albert Schäffle : Cotta (= Geisteshelden . Vol. 18, ZDB -ID 531790-3 ). Hofmann, Berlin 1895.
  • Rudolf Schmidt: Cotta, Johann Friedrich Freiherr von. In: Rudolf Schmidt: German booksellers, German book printers. Contributions to a company history of the German book industry. Volume 1: Abel - Dyck. Weber, Berlin 1902, pp. 147–157.
  • Liselotte Lohrer:  Cotta v. Cottendorf, Johann Friedrich. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 3, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1957, ISBN 3-428-00184-2 , pp. 376-379 ( digitized version ).
  • Liselotte Lohrer : Cotta. History of a publishing house. 1659-1959. Cotta, Stuttgart 1959.
  • Monika Neugebauer-Wölk : Revolution and Constitution. The Cotta brothers. A biographical study on the age of the French Revolution and the Vormärz (= individual publications by the Historical Commission in Berlin, vol. 69). Colloquium, Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-7678-0765-3 (Zugl. Freie Universität Berlin , habilitation paper 1988).
  • Roger Münch: Johann Friedrich Freiherr Cotta von Cottendorf. (1764-1832). A contribution to the professional history of the publishers (= Deutsche Hochschulschriften Vol. 700). Hänsel-Hohenhausen, Egelsbach 1993, ISBN 3-89349-700-5 (Zugl. Universität Mainz , Diss. Phil. 1990).
  • Hans-Joachim Lang : In the foyer of the revolution. When Schiller was to become editor-in-chief in Tübingen: the early days of Cotta's “Allgemeine Zeitung”. Schwäbisches Tagblatt publishing house, Tübingen 1998, ISBN 3-928011-28-6 .
  • Bernhard Fischer: The publishers Johann Friedrich and Georg von Cotta on Dotternhausen. "... departed on his goods ..." (= traces. Vol. 48). German Schiller Society, Marbach am Neckar 2000, ISBN 3-933679-36-2 .
  • Bernhard Fischer: The publisher Johann Friedrich Cotta. Chronological Publishing Bibliography 1787–1832 (= German Literature Archive. Directories, Reports, Information. Vol. 30, 1–3). 3 volumes. KG Saur, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-598-11632-2 .
  • Enrica Yvonne Dilk: “… concern about the art paper…” Wilhelm Hauffs and Ludwig Schorn's letters from the years 1826/27 about the remote editing of the [Johann-Friedrich-] Cottaschen Journal. A contribution to Wilhelm Hauff's 200th birthday. In: Reinhard Breymayer (Ed.): In the mild and happy Swabia and in the New World. Contributions to the time of Goethe. Festschrift for Hartmut Fröschle (= Suevica . Vol. 9, No. 2, 2001 = Stuttgart works on German studies. Vol. 423). Heinz, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-88099-428-5 , pp. 277-293.
  • Bernhard Fischer: Friedrich Schiller and Johann Friedrich Cotta. The listening project (= messages and directories from the library of the Episcopal Seminary in Trier, 22). Paulinus, Trier 2006, ISBN 3-7902-0196-0 .
  • Evamarie Blattner et al. (Ed.): From censorship to world publisher. 350 Years Cotta, University City of Tübingen, Tübingen 2009 (Tübingen Catalogs, Volume 85, on the occasion of an exhibition), ISBN 978-3-910090-95-8 .
  • Ulrike Leitner (ed.): Alexander von Humboldt and Cotta. Correspondence (= contributions to Alexander von Humboldt research, vol. 29). Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-05-004598-6 .
  • Peter Kaeding: The hand over the whole world. Johann Friedrich Cotta, the publisher of German classical music. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2009, ISBN 978-3-7681-9712-0 .
  • Bernhard Fischer: Johann Friedrich Cotta. Publisher - Entrepreneur - Politician. Wallstein, Göttingen 2014, ISBN 978-3-8353-1396-5 .
  • Annika Haß: The publisher Johann Friedrich Cotta as a cultural mediator between Germany and France. References to France, coalitions and translations. (= Civilizations and History - Civilizations et Histoire. Vol. 33). Lang, Bern 2015, ISBN 978-3-631-65646-4 .
  • Helmuth Mojem: The publisher Johann Friedrich Cotta. (1764-1832). Repertory of his letters (= German literature archive. Directories, reports, information. Vol. 24). German Schiller Society, Marbach am Neckar 1998, ISBN 3-929146-87-8 * Helmuth Mojem, Barbara Potthast (ed.): Johann Friedrich Cotta. Publisher - entrepreneur - technology pioneer . Winter, Heidelberg 2017, ISBN 978-3-8253-6422-9 .
  • Helmuth Mojem / Barbara Potthast (eds.): Johann Friedrich Cotta. Publisher - entrepreneur - technology pioneer (= Euphorion. Supplements. Issue 98). Winter, Heidelberg 2017, ISBN 3-929146-87-8 .

Web links

Commons : Johann Friedrich Cotta  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ See Reinhard Breymayer: Freemasons in front of the gates of the Tübingen monastery: Masonic influence on Hölderlin? In: Tubingensia. Impulses for the city and university history . Festschrift for Wilfried Setzler on his 65th birthday. Edited by Sönke Lorenz and Volker Schäfer (= Tübingen building blocks for regional history , 10). Jan Thorbecke Verlag, Ostfildern 2008, pp. 355–395, here p. 362 f. with note 28 f.
  2. ↑ Cf. Reinhard Breymayer: The author, finally found, of a model for Schiller's “Taucher”: Christian Gottlieb Göz (1746–1803), pastor in Plieningen and Hohenheim, friend of Philipp Matthäus Hahn ? In: Blätter für Württembergische Kirchengeschichte , 83/84, 1983/84 [1985], pp. 54–96; Pp. 83–96: “Literature Review”; also Mary Garland: Diver, The . (In: Henry Burnand Garland), Mary Garland: The Oxford Companion to German Literature . Third Edition by Mary Garland. Oxford University Press, Oxford; New York [etc.] 1997, p. 820, col. 2 [Adopts Breymayer's view that the “most likely source” of Schiller's ballad can be found in the children's book by Pastor Christian Gottlieb Göz.]
  3. ↑ Peter Kaeding: The hand over the whole world . 2009, p. 404 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
  4. ^ University of Stuttgart: Exposé on the conference Johann Friedrich Cotta (1764–1832) - publisher, entrepreneur, technology pioneer . (PDF; 133 kB) Retrieved on February 27, 2013 ( Cotta later founded a literary and artistic institute for lithographic reproduction and copperplate printing, which produced art prints and maps and which published the journals Das Auslands and Das Inland ).
personal data
SURNAME Cotta, Johann Friedrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cotta, Johann Friedrich Freiherr von; Cotta von Cottendorf, Johann Friedrich; Cottendorf, Johann Friedrich Cotta from
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German publisher, industrial pioneer and politician
DATE OF BIRTH April 27, 1764
PLACE OF BIRTH Stuttgart
DATE OF DEATH December 29, 1832
Place of death Stuttgart