John Martin XVII.

John Martin XVII. (* April 15, 1883 in Viernheim ; † April 9, 1944 in Neuhammer / Spessart) was a newspaper publisher, printer and printer in Viernheim / Bergstrasse in southern Hesse.

Life

His parents were Adam Martin V. (1849–1918) and Margarete Martin, b. Filbeck (1854-1915). Johannes Martin married Theresia Bachmann (1886–1928) on July 24, 1909. The marriage resulted in two daughters and four sons: Maria Margarete, married Bachmann (1910–1983), and Franziska, married Reutlinger (1912–2001), as well as Hans Nikolaus (1914–2010), Franz Josef (1916–1943), Richard Wilhelm Leo (1918–1998) and Willy Jakob (1921–2015).

Before the First World War, Johannes Martin founded the local newspaper “ Viernheimer Anzeiger ” and also took over the first Viernheimer Heimatzeitung, founded in 1883, which he continued in his publishing house. For many years the “Viernheimer Anzeiger” was the only daily newspaper in Viernheim: it represented a social and democratic point of view journalistically.

Due to his dissident attitude towards National Socialism, the publisher had to officially discontinue his newspaper and his publishing house in 1936. This ended the publication of the "Viernheimer Anzeiger".

The surviving sons of the old publisher, who died in 1944, continued the publishing tradition after the end of the Second World War by founding the publishing house "Johannes Martin Söhne OHG", which has been publishing the local daily newspaper " Viernheimer Tageblatt " since 1949 . From 1946 to 1949 the publishing house published the “Viernheimer Mitteilungen” as the official official proclamation organ. After the licensing requirement was discontinued when the Basic Law came into force in 1949, they were replaced by the “Viernheimer Tageblatt” as an independent newspaper. The relevant sons of Johannes Martin 17th were: Hans Nikolaus Martin, Richard Martin and Willy J. Martin. They ran the publishing house "Johannes Martin Söhne OHG" together until 1997, when Richard and Willy Martin left by way of real division. From then on, the publishing house was run solely by Hans Nikolaus Martin, who later passed it on to his son Wolfgang J. Martin.