Josef Knecht

This article deals with the publisher Josef Knecht, for the literary figure of the same name from Hermann Hesse's novel, see Das Glasperlenspiel

Josef Knecht (born November 15, 1897 in Eisenbach, now Obernburg am Main , † June 12, 1980 in Freiburg im Breisgau ) was a German publisher . The Josef Knecht publishing house is named after him.

After attending a humanistic grammar school, Knecht studied philosophy , art history and political science in Würzburg . After his doctorate as Dr. rer. pole. In 1921 he became private secretary of Friedrich Dessauer on the recommendation of Carl Sonnenschein , whose assistant he was during his studies . From 1924 he was managing director of the Carolusdruckerei publishing house in Frankfurt am Main . The left-Catholic Rhein-Mainische Volkszeitung, founded by Dessauer, was published there until it was confiscated by the National Socialists in 1934 . Knecht was then arrested and his property was confiscated. After a short time, however, he was released and worked as a finance director in the management of the Freiburg publishing house Herder .

In 1946 Knecht co-founded the Badische Zeitung and the Badischer Verlag in Freiburg and founded the Carolusdruckerei in Frankfurt as a book publisher for Christian literature under the name Verlag Josef Knecht - Carolusdruckerei new. In November 1945 Knecht was commissioned by the French military government in Baden-Baden to set up a book trade organization in the French-occupied area. From 1951 to 1953 he was chairman of the Association of German Publishers and Booksellers and from 1951 to 1967 he was chairman of the board of directors of Südwestfunk . He remained on the board of the Badischer Verlag until his death . Knecht was close to the Freiburg circle around Karl Färber .

The Josef Knecht publishing house is now an imprint of the Karl Alber publishing house within the Herder publishing group and publishes church thrillers and historical novels.

literature

• Max Müller : Confrontation as reconciliation: a conversation about a life with philosophy. = Polemos kai eirene . Edited by Wilhelm Vossenkuhl. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1994, pp. 140-141, 162-166, 327.
• In memory of the founding father Josef Knecht . In: Christ in der Gegenwart 52 (2000), p. 206.
• The Herder publishing house: 1801–2001 - chronological outline of its history with synchronopsis to intellectual and world events (200 years of Herder) [Ed .: Karl-Theo Humbach et al.], Herder publishing house, Freiburg 2001, ISBN 3-451-20550- 5 .

Remarks

1. ↑ Ernst Umlauf in the Archive for the History of the Book System 59.

Web links

• Literature by and about Josef Knecht in the catalog of the German National Library
• Josef Knecht in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available)