Josef Habbel

Kommerzienrat Josef Habbel

Josef Habbel (born January 8, 1846 in Soest ; † December 20, 1916 in Regensburg ) was a Catholic newspaper and book publisher, founder and owner of the Habbel publishing house with a print shop in Regensburg, Royal Bavarian Council of Commerce .

life and work

Origin and early work

Art Nouveau book from the Josef Habbel publishing house, Regensburg; a story by Luis Coloma

Death picture of Josef Habbel, 1916

The bookseller Josef Habbel was born in Soest in Westphalia and initially completed an apprenticeship in Paderborn at the Junfermann publishing house and from 1865 at the Giani bookshop in Mainz . In 1868 Josef Habbel, who was already a family and then strongly Catholic in Mainz, went to Regensburg to apply to the Friedrich Pustet publishing house , one of the world's most renowned Catholic publishing houses in Germany at that time. According to his own admission, he wanted to get involved in the Catholic cause with regard to the cultural war that was just beginning . Pustet hired the young man, who soon got a managerial position and from 1869 took over the Amberg branch of the company, as well as the editing of the associated "Amberger Volkszeitung". In Amberg, Habbel helped organize a Catholic party, which then managed to send representatives to the community bodies. Josef Habbel married Margaretha Kölbl (1853–1885).

The publisher and its founder

Formerly publishing house Habbel, Fröhliche Türken-Str. No. 1, 3

As early as 1870, Habbel von Pustet was able to buy the newspaper publisher and bookstore in Amberg , expand the company with its own book publisher for Catholic literature and gain a foothold in Regensburg. In 1883 he also bought the “Regensburger Morgenblatt” and the “Regensburger Anzeiger” from Pustet and moved with the Habbel publishing house and printing company from Amberg to the more important Regensburg. In 1889 he sold the “ Amberger Volkszeitung ” and from then on was only active in business in Regensburg. In the property Fröhliche Türkenstrasse No. 1, 3 and in the Wilhelminian style palace building Königsstrasse No. 2, 4 built in 1893/5 , he set up a publishing house and a printing shop with the first use of typesetting machines . Until 1973, the “Regensburger Anzeiger” was printed in the palace building, which was designed according to models in Paris, with a four-story corner bay window, bell roof and lantern. In addition to expanding his operations, Habbel also devoted himself to political life in Regensburg during the tenure of Mayor Oskar von Stobäus (1869–1903). As a prominent figure in the Catholic-conservative movement in Regensburg, he was a member of the Bavarian Center Party on the local council and fought with his newspapers against the liberal “Regensburger Tagblatt” and the “Regensburger Neuesten Nachrichten” of the Bavarian Social Democrats . Together with Karl Pustet, a brother of Friedrich Pustet, Habbel founded the “St. Wolfgang's Association for the Construction of Workers' Apartments ”, which succeeded in building 19 multi-storey terraced houses with 138 small apartments in the Kumpfühl district from 1896 to 1914 . In 1910 the publishing house celebrated its fortieth anniversary. On this occasion, Josef Habbel was awarded the title of royal councilor of commerce. Habbel had already handed over the newspaper publisher in 1906 to his sons Josef (II.) Habbel (1877-1936) and Martin Habbel (1878-1937). Josef Habbel senior ran the book publisher until his death in 1916.

The newspaper publisher

Formerly publishing house Habbel, Königsstrasse Nr. 2/4 Eckbau Fröhliche Türken-Str.

The aforementioned “Regensburger Morgenblatt” flourished during the years of the Kulturkampf and, together with the supplement “Regensburger Anzeiger”, formed the central organ of Regensburg's Catholicism. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the “Regensburger Anzeiger” developed into the region's largest circulation newspaper and the organ of the German Center Party . In 1899, Habbel transferred the newspaper editorship to the journalistically experienced Heinrich Held - his son-in-law from 1901 and later Prime Minister of Bavaria. Under Held's leadership, the “Regensburger Anzeiger” developed into one of the leading political daily newspapers in Bavaria. At the beginning of 1911, the lower-circulation “Regensburger Morgenblatt” was added to its former supplement. In 1918, Habbel's son-in-law Heinrich Held was one of the founders of the Bavarian People's Party (BVP) and the “Regensburger Anzeiger” served as a party organ. After Held's election as Bavarian Prime Minister (June 1924), the paper was given a special semi-public position. Before 1933, the paper waged a fierce fight against National Socialism and the incipient regulations and harmonization that were imposed on the press. The Anzeiger became a popular target of attack by the National Socialist daily Bayerische Ostwacht and at the beginning of 1934 was forced to change its name to “Bayerischer Anzeiger”. Because of a compilation of earlier statements by Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber , the newspaper was banned from June 6 to September 5, 1935 on the initiative of Reich Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels . On October 15 of that year, the President of the Reich Press Chamber expelled the company from the association because of "political unreliability". A continuation of the newspaper publishing house was no longer possible. On January 31, 1936, Gebr. Habbel GmbH had to sell the publishing rights to Phönix Zeitungsverlags GmbH - a holding company of the NSDAP press group Franz Eher Nachf . This destroyed one of the last bastions of political Catholicism in Bavaria.

The book publisher

For the book publisher and printer, which was separated from the newspaper publisher in 1906, Habbel's son Josef (II.) Built the first reinforced concrete building in the Upper Palatinate in 1910 in the Kumpfmühl district at Gutenbergstrasse 17. Although not one of the largest church-related publishers, the book publisher Josef Habbel has become a well-known company for decidedly Catholic literature in the entire German-speaking area. In addition to its own, multi-volume lexicon (the fourth edition of which was started in 1933) the publishing program included u. a. also the works of the world-famous writer Henryk Sienkiewicz and the German translation of the historical novel "Fabiola - The Church of the Catacombs" by Cardinal Nicholas Wiseman . Habbel also published sheet music for several church composers, such as Michael Haller and Joseph Kreitmaier . The Catholic book publisher was able to continue solidly until the Nazi era, but was then no longer allowed to publish any new productions because it was known to be critical of the regime. After the war, he again gained a considerable format and published well into the 1970s with a clearly conservative church orientation a. a. Works by Dietrich von Hildebrand , convert and personal friend of Pope Pius XII. In 1974, after the death of Josef Habbel III, the printing company became the property of the Diocese of Regensburg as "Erhardidruck" . Habbel's son Konrad managed the publisher's fortunes for two years until the company was taken over again in 1975 by the Friedrich Pustet publishing house , from which it had once emerged.

literature

• Josef Habbel, publishing bookstore with book printing and bookbinding, Gebrüder Habbel, newspaper and calendar publishing with book printing, Regensburg. In: The industry of the Upper Palatinate in words and pictures, ed. from the Regensburg Chamber of Commerce, Regensburg 1914, pp. 99-102.
• Heinz Dollinger: Obituary for a friend. On the death of Dr. Josef Habbel. In: Alt- und Jung-Metten 66 (1999/2000), pp. 55-73.
• Claudia Reichmann: The Habbel family of publishers. A chapter in the history of the Regensburg publishing house. In: Regensburger Almanach 34 (2000), pp. 111-117.
• Thomas Emmerig: Regensburg publishing bookstores as music publishers (1850–1950). Sources and treatises on the history of music publishing 3, Tutzing 2007, pp. 229–234.
• Andreas Jobst: Regensburger Anzeiger / Bayerischer Anzeiger. In: Historical Lexicon of Bavaria

Web links

Commons : Josef Habbel  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Josef Habbel in the Bavarian Musicians' Lexicon Online (BMLO)
• Heike Nasritdinova:  Habbel, Joseph I . Entry in the database of the Oberpfälzer Kulturbund (currently not available)

Individual evidence

1. ^ To the Junfermann-Verlag Paderborn ( Memento from July 15, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
2. ^ ^{A b c} Karl Bauer: Regensburg Art, Culture and Everyday History . 6th edition. MZ-Buchverlag in H. Gietl Verlag & Publication Service GmbH, Regenstauf 2014, ISBN 978-3-86646-300-4 , p. 35 f., 661 f .
3. ↑ Dieter Albrecht: Regensburg im Wandel, studies on the history of the city in the 19th and 20th centuries . In: Museums and Archives of the City of Regensburg (Hrsg.): Studies and sources on the history of Regensburg . tape 2 . Mittelbayerische Verlags-Gesellschaft mbH, Regensburg 1984, ISBN 3-921114-11-X , p. 208 .
4. ↑ Dieter Albrecht: Regensburg im Wandel, studies on the history of the city in the 19th and 20th centuries . In: Museums and Archives of the City of Regensburg (Hrsg.): Studies and sources on the history of Regensburg . tape 2 . Mittelbayerische Verlags-Gesellschaft mbH, Regensburg 1984, ISBN 3-921114-11-X , p. 223 f .
5. ^ Otmar Seemann : Incompletely published lexicons and encyclopedias. An addendum to war: MNE. In: Karl H. Pressler (Ed.): From the Antiquariat. Volume 8, 1990 (= Börsenblatt für den Deutschen Buchhandel - Frankfurter Ausgabe. No. 70, August 31, 1990), pp. A 329 - A 334, here: p. A 331.
6. ↑ Erika Bosl: Kreitmaier, Joseph. In: Karl Bosl (ed.): Bosls Bavarian biography. Pustet, Regensburg 1983, ISBN 3-7917-0792-2 , p. 448 f. ( Digitized version ).