Julius Springer the Younger

Julius Springer (born April 29, 1880 in Berlin ; † November 20, 1968 there ) was a German publisher .

Life

Julius Springer was the eldest son of Fritz Springer and his wife Emma, ​​daughter of the Berlin publisher Wilhelm Hertz . After graduating from the Joachimsthalschen Gymnasium in Berlin, Springer went to England for six months. He interrupted his bookshop training from October 1, 1898 in Bonn, Stuttgart and Strasbourg in order to do his military service in Freiburg / Breisgau. Then he volunteered in the Pierersche Hofbuchdruckerei, where his father had already got to know printing technology and book production.

In 1904 he and his cousin Ferdinand Springer junior joined the "Julius Springer Publishing House" (now Springer Science + Business Media ) founded by their grandfather Julius Springer and run by their fathers for the first time . Among other things, Springer took over the technology division from his father, which was the most important publishing branch at the time. After the death of his uncle Ferdinand Springer senior in 1906, his father also withdrew from day-to-day business and left the field to the two younger ones. One of the first efforts was the planning of a new publishing house, which was occupied in 1911 (Linkstr. 23/24). Even before the war in 1914, Julius Springer was able to publish the first edition of the Springer book Dubbel Taschenbuch for mechanical engineering , the most successful to date , of which more than a million copies have been distributed in almost all world languages ​​in ever new adaptations and extensions.

Publishing development 1914 to 1933

Both publishers were drafted into military service in 1914. During her absence, Fritz Springer took over the management of the publishing house again. Julius Springer served as an officer for a full four years and was awarded the Iron Cross . After overcoming the difficult time with war, post-war chaos and inflation, Ferdinand and Julius Springer - as the third generation - were able to lead the publishing house to its actual importance as a scientific publishing house. In 1924 the Springer publishing house in Vienna was founded. Further publishers and bookstores were acquired, new journals founded and well-known scientists won over as authors.

The publisher's technology program reflected developments in engineering in almost all areas. Fonts for workshop technology, shipbuilding technology and civil engineering - to name just a few - had their permanent place. But they also reacted quickly to new developments, such as the emerging radio with its technology. The appreciation of Julius Springer and his services to the advancement of engineering was expressed in 1923 when he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Technical University of Stuttgart.

Publishing development 1933 to 1945

In the Third Reich, Springer-Verlag was endangered because of the family's Jewish origin. Jewish authors whose names stood for important titles in the book and magazine program were also despised and persecuted under the racial laws. The discrimination led to the exodus of numerous scholars from Germany and the restriction of publishing production. The consequence of this development was the impoverishment in research and teaching, but also the decline of German as a scientific language, which the publisher adjusted to after the war by increasingly turning to English.

Julius Springer was forced out of the publishing house in 1935 and briefly interned in the Oranienburg concentration camp. In 1942 his cousin Ferdinand lost his rights to the publishing house. The " Aryanization " took place under Tönjes Lange, the longtime head of the publishing house's own Hirschwald bookstore. However, he was a loyal partner to the Springer family, just like his brother Otto Lange at Springer-Verlag Vienna, so that after the war the two publishers were able to resume their work. Tönjes Lange remained a partner throughout his life and the bookstore was named Lange & Springer. A painful late consequence of this time of disenfranchisement and the war was the troubled succession for the publishing families.

reconstruction

While Julius Springer dared to make a fresh start in the western part of Berlin, his cousin Ferdinand set up the second publishing house in Heidelberg. The Berlin publishing house built in 1911 on Linkstrasse was in the eastern part of the city and was destroyed. A provisional domicile was found in 1948 at Reichpietschufer 20. Springer was able to move to Heidelberger Platz 3 in 1958, where the publishing house is still based today. The joint efforts of the two cousins ​​led the publishing house back to the status it had before 1933. Heinz Götze , who has been with the publishing house since 1949 , and has been a partner and designated successor to Ferdinand Springer since 1957, played a major role in the development of the global science publisher . Julius Springer left the publishing house in 1962 without a successor.

family

Julius Springer and his wife Else, b. Haver, six children. The oldest son was Bernhard Springer (1907–1970), who emigrated to the USA in 1937 and founded his own publishing house in New York (Springer Publishing Company). The second oldest son was the Berlin gallery owner Rudolf Springer (1909–2009), who served on the Western Front (France) during the war. The youngest son Robert (* 1912) died in 1943 near Stalingrad. Springer's father Fritz Springer committed suicide before the threatened deportation (Stolperstein: Straße zum Löwen 12). Springer's uncle, the lawyer and long-time legal advisor to the publishing house, State Finance Councilor in the Reich debt administration, Ernst Springer, died in the Theresienstadt ghetto (stumbling block: Boothstrasse 33).

Julius Springer's grave

Julius Springer died in 1968. He found his final resting place in the Zehlendorf Onkel-Tom-Straße cemetery . (Side wing 52)

Honors

• Iron Cross
• Doctorate to Dr. Ing. E. H. TH Stuttgart 1923
• Honorary Senator of the Dresden University of Technology, 1928

Web links

Commons : Julius Springer the Younger  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

literature

• Heinz Sarkowski : The Springer publishing house. Stations in its history. Part I: 1842-1945 . Springer, Berlin a. a. 1992, ISBN 3-540-55221-9 .
• Heinz Götze : The Springer publishing house. Stations in its history. Part II: 1945-1992 . Springer, Berlin a. a. 1994, ISBN 3-540-56691-0 .
• Ursula Springer: The History of Springer Publishing Company . Springer, New York, NY 2008, ISBN 0-8261-1112-2 .