Joseph Räber (publisher)

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Joseph Räber-Schryber

Heinrich Joseph Alois Räber (also Josef Räber ; born June 19, 1860 in Lucerne ; † April 12, 1934 in Rome ; legal resident in Ebikon and since 1924 also in Lucerne) was a Swiss publisher of the Catholic press and printer .

Life

Joseph Räber was born as the only son of the longtime editor, printer and co-publisher of the Lucerne newspaper Heinrich Räber (1818–1870) and Katharina nee Jurt (1826–1896) and grew up with his sisters Maria (1859–1931) and Elise (1866– 1927) in Lucerne. After attending the city and secondary school, he learned the profession of printer in his father's company, the Räber brothers . After passing the printing exam, his path led him to the centers of book printing in Freiburg im Breisgau , Cologne , Leipzig , Vienna and Paris and above all to the Vatican printing works in Rome, where he established his lifelong love for this city, which was his second home has been.

From 1897, together with his second cousins ​​Bernhard Räber-Zemp (1863–1946) and Josef Räber-Hauser (1866–1948), he was a partner in the Räber & Cie. operating company, whose main task was the printing of the newspaper renamed to Vaterland in 1871 and now published by Vaterland AG. He soon worked in the professional organizations that appointed him to their boards. Along with Gustave-Adolphe Niestlé, Louis Sperlé and Emanuel Wackernagel, he was one of the founders of the "Association of Book Printing Owners with Journal Publishers " and one of the initiators who founded the Swiss Newspaper Publishers' Association (now the Swiss Media Association ) in 1899 . The young association immediately appointed him to the board of directors as vice president, which he presided over from 1915 to 1929 after the second president, Colonel Hermann Jent , passed away . After his resignation due to impaired hearing, his colleagues did not want to forego his work. They made him vice-presidency and assigned him to numerous commissions, “in the certainty that he would conscientiously carry out all the tasks assigned to him”. They also elected him the first honorary member of the association. He remained a member of the Executive Committee until his death in 1934.

Although the fatherland was not just a business relationship as a printer, but, according to the company's own statement, an "affair of the heart", problems arose in the partnership in the economically difficult 1930s. In 1932, the President of Vaterland AG Heinrich Walther saw “the cause of the financial misery also in the close connection and the dependence of our company on the company Räber & Cie.”. Joseph Räber, on the other hand, found the cause of the problems in the insufficient efforts of the advertising agency Publicitas to acquire advertisements. The conflict escalated under his son Franz Räber, which finally ended at the end of 1959 with the establishment of the fatherland's own printing company and the final separation between the fatherland and the Räber book printing company. At that time, Bernhard Räber, cousin of Franz, who died in 1948, was in charge of the 1959 Räber & Cie. AG renamed company. In 1969 it was renamed Raeber AG Luzern. The printing house was sold in 1991 and the bookstores in 2001.

Mandates

Räber was a member of the Swiss Press Association, co-founder and long-term member of the Central Switzerland Press Association and the Catholic Press Association as well as a member and president of the apprentice examination committee.

From mid-1899 to mid-1907 he was a member of the large Lucerne City Council for the Catholic Conservatives . For several years he was also the rector of the commercial training school and the theater commission.

Honors

Private

Joseph Räber was married to Anna nee Schryber (also: Schriber; 1858–1924). The couple had two sons and six daughters: Anna “Annie” Wyss-Räber (1887–1934), Franz Räber-Jucker (1888–1948), Klara Räber (1889–1926), Josefa “Josy” Zehnder-Räber (1891– 1955, from 1939 again Josefa Räber), Rosalia Räber (1892–1909), Luise Räber (1893–1981), Anton Räber (1895–1912) and Martha Räber (1898–1976). The children who survived him visited him in Rome at the death camp. The son Franz Räber succeeded Joseph Räber as head of the Räber & Cie.

Räber was enthusiastic about theater and opera. For decades he directed the performances of the Catholic Men's Association and the Rosali Society and worked on the opera performances of the Association of Young Merchants. He also made a contribution to founding the Richard Wagner Museum in Tribschen .

Every year he led a pilgrimage to Rome, where he lived in the officers' quarters of the Swiss Guard; he had particularly good relations with her. He died on his annual pilgrimage to Rome in the 74th year of age at a pneumonia .

literature

  • Eugen Kopp: Joseph Räber-Schryber. Printer and publisher. In: Fatherland . April 14, 1934, p. 1.
  • † Joseph Räber-Schryber. Printer and publisher. In: Fatherland. April 14, 1934, 2nd sheet.
  • † Joseph Räber-Schryber. Printer and publisher. The funeral service in Lucerne. In: Fatherland. April 17, 1934, 2nd sheet.
  • Josef Räber. In: Max Huber: History of the Political Press in the Canton of Lucerne 1914–1945 (also dissertation University of Zurich ). Rex, Stuttgart / Luzern 1989, ISBN 3-7252-0529-9 , pp. 68, 70, 76 ff. ( Limited preview in the Google book search).
  • Anton Räber, Robert Räber: Family tree of the Räber families from Ebikon and Lucerne. Grafische Anstalt Räber, Lucerne 1968, p. 17 f.
  • Ernst Rietmann : † Joseph Räber-Schryber. In: Bulletin 111.Swiss Newspaper Publishers Association, April 30, 1934, p. 2 ff.
  • Fritz Blaser: The Lucerne book printers of the 19th century (= contributions to Lucerne city history. Vol. 1). Keller, Luzern 1974, pp. 26–32.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Mark Lischer: Buchdrucker- and booksellers family Räber. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  2. ↑ Joseph Räber †. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . April 13, 1934.
  3. ↑ Eugen Kopp: Joseph Räber-Schryber. Printer and publisher. In: Fatherland . April 14, 1934, p. 1.
  4. ↑ Huber: History of the political press in the canton of Lucerne 1914–1945. 1989, p. 77.
  5. ↑ Huber: History of the political press in the canton of Lucerne 1914–1945. 1989, p. 78.
  6. ^ A. Räber, R. Räber: Family tree of the Räber families from Ebikon and Lucerne. 1968, p. 17.
  7. ↑ L'éditeur du "Vaterland" meurt en pèlerinage. In: Le Nouvelliste . April 14, 1934, p. 2.
personal data
SURNAME Räber, Joseph
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Räber, Heinrich Joseph Alois (full name); Robbers, Joseph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss publisher of the Catholic press and printer
DATE OF BIRTH June 19, 1860
PLACE OF BIRTH Lucerne , Switzerland
DATE OF DEATH April 12, 1934
Place of death Rome