Johann Heinrich Besser

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Johann Heinrich Besser (born November 1, 1775 in Quedlinburg , † October 16, 1826 in Hamburg ) was a German bookseller and publisher .

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Besser was born as the son of pastor Wilhelm Christoph Besser in Quedlinburg, but went to Hamburg and learned the trade of bookseller in Carl Ernst Bohn's shop . The fact that Besser took over the management of the Kiel branch during his apprenticeship speaks for his rapidly growing knowledge . The acquaintance of Friedrich Christoph Perthes , who came to Hamburg as an assistant in 1793 and whom he had already met at the Leipzig Book Fair and now in the circle of Johannes Michael Speckter , Friedrich August Hülsenbeck (1766–1834), was of decisive importance for his further life. and introduced Daniel Runge .

Besser was involved in the Perthes'sche Buchhandlung founded in 1796 from the start. With the aim of setting up a reading cabinet for the further dissemination of English literature , he went to the University of Göttingen in 1797 , studied literary history there for a year and made contacts with the local scholars and librarians. The premature departure of Perthes' previous companions ruined the planned trip to England : better was now needed more urgently in the Hamburg bookstore. In 1799 he was accepted as a new partner, in 1803 he married Perthes' half-sister Wilhelmine Charlotte Christiane Schilling (March 19, 1785 - October 16, 1872) and was thus integrated into the family. Besser's diverse linguistic, literary and geographical knowledge was an essential prerequisite for the intensive business contacts to Western and Northern Europe that soon began - a decisive competitive advantage over the other Hamburg bookshops. The business quickly grew to become the largest in the city and survived the severe crises of 1799 and 1806; Finally, the incorporation into the Empire (1811) and thus into the French free trade zone brought about a special boost. Besser immediately recognized the associated opportunities and contributed significantly to the upturn in business with various projects: u. a. with the establishment of a reading cabinet for French administration / justice (1812), the publication of the "Yearbook for the Hanseatic Departments" (1812) - half of which he wrote himself - and the establishment of a map warehouse in collaboration with the publisher Friedrich Justin Bertuch .

As co-initiators of the Hamburg Civil Guard and the expulsion of the French, Besser and Perthes had to flee Hamburg at the end of May 1813. While the latter went to Mecklenburg as a staff officer of the Citizens Guard and co-founded the “Hamburg Directory” there as a kind of government in exile, Besser took care of his family and the maintenance of business operations from Kiel . After the end of the war, Besser traveled to London for a few months in 1814 to re-establish the earlier contacts. Since no significant progress could be made here, Besser returned to Hamburg early and helped rebuild business operations. The renaming of the bookstore to "Perthes & Besser" indirectly confirms the great trust that Perthes placed in his partner .

Gravestone plaque Althamburg Memorial Cemetery Ohlsdorf

When Perthes left for Gotha in March 1822 and founded his own publishing house, Besser assumed sole responsibility for the Perthes & Besser bookstore, even if Perthes remained a (silent) partner. Besser gained an important support in his assistant Johann Wilhelm Mauke , who married Besser's daughter Auguste Wilhelmine in 1823 and was accepted as a partner. The business benefited from the early boom in the book market and remained one of the largest in Germany. Besser's unexpected death (late 1826) hit his friend Perthes hard, but thanks to his and Mauke's commitment, the bookstore was able to continue operating without any losses. The sons Wilhelm (1808–1848) and Rudolf Besser (1811–1883), who were still underage at that time, joined as partners in 1836. Perthes finally withdrew; the business was now called "Perthes, Besser and Mauke" and still exists today - albeit no longer independently, but as a subsidiary of the Schweitzer Fachinformationen group - as "W. Mauke Sons ”.

In the area of ​​the Althamburg Memorial Cemetery of the Ohlsdorf Cemetery , the publisher and printer commemorates Johann Heinrich Besser on the collective grave (together with Benjamin Gottlob Hoffmann , August Campe , Johann Wilhelm Mauke, among others ).

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personal data
SURNAME Better, Johann Heinrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German publisher
DATE OF BIRTH November 1, 1775
PLACE OF BIRTH Quedlinburg
DATE OF DEATH October 16, 1826
Place of death Hamburg