Josef Berger (bookseller)

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Josef Berger ( March 15, 1891 in Römerstadt , Rýmařov in Czech , Kingdom of Bohemia , Austria-Hungary - June 10, 1947 in Vienna ) was an Austrian bookseller . From 1931 until his death he ran the J. Berger bookstore on Vienna's Kohlmarkt .

Life

Berger came from a Catholic weaver family from Römerstadt. He learned the book trade from 1904 to 1907 at the Viennese company Stetter and developed a special interest in the antiquarian department. From 1909 to 1912 he was employed by Heinrich Kirsch in Singerstrasse, then by Braumüller . He married Rosa Knell and continuously worked his way up.

After Hans Sachsel (1893–1950) took over the F. Lang bookstore on Vienna's Kohlmarkt , Berger joined the company. His only son, Gottfried, was born on April 21, 1922. On March 4, 1924 he was registered as a collective authorized signatory. Berger was a distinctly bibliophile character, looked after both the classic range and the modern second-hand bookshop and was able to bind a considerable customer base with his competent and authoritative manner. Sachsel, from 1919 also owner of the Wilhelm Braumüller & Sohn assortment bookstore at Graben 21, decided to sell. On July 1, 1931, the open trading company Josef Berger and Heinrich Fischer (A 42 / 35a) was founded. Josef Berger and his partner took over the bookstore that was now called Berger & Fischer, vorm. F. Lang, bookstore and second-hand bookshop . The two booksellers were jointly authorized to represent. From December 1, 1936, J. Berger was the sole owner and namesake of the bookstore. The company name was changed to "J. Berger Buchhandlung und Antiquariat ”.

Josef Berger cultivated friendly contacts with several writers, whereby his ideological neutrality stands out. The spectrum of poets who frequented the bookstore ranged from Theodor Kramer , who used to be a volunteer there, a Jew and founding member of the Association of Socialist Writers , to Bruno Brehm and Josef Weinheber , both anti-Semites, and Weinträger also a member of the NSDAP from 1931 onwards the annexation of Austria to Hitler's Germany, all bookstores had to deliver unwanted literature. In the Berger bookstore, the Gestapo book delivery office confiscated 1,509 volumes, but not the remaining volumes with poetry by Theodor Kramer. These were hidden in the upper window cladding by the then apprentice Viktor Fink on the orders of his boss and survived the Nazi era. Weinifte was the son of a butcher and a seamstress, so he was close to the bookseller, who had come from the provinces, because of his humble origins. After the fall of the Nazi regime, Weinträger took his own life.

In the war years, the owner was mostly alone in the business, as his assistants were called up for military service. The son was seriously wounded in the Battle of Stalingrad and had to recover first. The company's net profit as of December 31, 1945 was 67,759.32. Thanks to the consistently profitable second-hand bookshop, Berger had steered the bookstore with a steady hand through uncertain tides. On January 25, 1947, Josef Berger gave his son sole power of attorney. On June 10, 1947, he died unexpectedly at the age of 56 as a result of a stroke.

The company then passed to the widow.

Berger bookstore in 2011

On July 1, 1955, Gottfried Berger took over the bookstore. In the last years of his life, the company was run by his daughter Astrid Berger.

After Gottfried Berger's death in 2012, the bookstore was closed.

literature

  • Viktor Fink: Encounters of a bookseller , Verlagshaus Hernals 2007, ISBN 978-3-9502577-1-7 , 228 pages
  • Beatrice Weinmann: Gottfried Berger , bookseller and Austrian with passion, Vienna: Molden 2002. ISBN 3-85485-086-7 , 384 pages

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ It was the former Mechitaristen bookstore, owned by Heinrich Kirsch from 1869 (born October 22, 1837 in Leitmeritz, apprenticeship with Schnürlein in Leitmeritz, then assistant in the Calveschen university bookstore in Prague, then in Weiner Neustadt and Vienna ). The owner from July 1, 1980 was Oskar Kirsch (born 1867, apprenticeship with Aug. Grohmann in Aussig, since 1885 in his father Heinrich Kirch's business). See: Heinrich Kirsch in Vienna, fixed number of the Austro-Hungarian bookseller correspondence, J. 1910, p. 60
  2. ↑ Viktor Fink: Encounters of a Bookseller , page 22
personal data
SURNAME Berger, Josef
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian bookseller
DATE OF BIRTH March 15, 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH Roman city , Kingdom of Bohemia , Austria-Hungary
DATE OF DEATH June 10, 1947
Place of death Vienna