Karl Robert Langewiesche
Karl Robert Langewiesche (born December 18, 1874 in Rheydt , † September 12, 1931 in Königstein im Taunus ) was a German publisher . In 1902 he founded the Langewiesche publishing house in Düsseldorf , which is one of the oldest independent publishing houses in Germany .
origin
His grandfather Wilhelm Langewiesche (* December 4, 1807, † March 24, 1884) was a publisher and writer. His parents were the bookseller Wilhelm Robert Langewiesche and his wife Dorothee Schrader , the daughter of a Westphalian country doctor. The writer Wilhelm Langewiesche was his brother, his brother Ludwig was a print owner.
Life
Langewiesche founded his publishing house on May 5, 1902 in Düsseldorf with the aim of producing “elegant mass-produced items at the lowest prices” in order to “be able to serve the broad masses, those who are called the uneducated, through my work”. The concept quickly became successful, not least thanks to Langewiesche's advanced marketing methods. He is considered both the inventor of the shop window poster and the "advertising dust jacket", a consistent further development of the blurb for books.
Initially, his books were devoted to the topics of lifestyle and worldview. In 1907 he created the group of art books and photo books, for which in 1907 he developed the new type of cheap, high-quality illustrated book. From 1911 he used the brand name Die Blauen Bücher after his books had been equipped with blue dust jackets since 1902, on which - in 1902, a novelty in the industry - advertising texts were printed.
In 1909 Langewiesche married Stefanie Rampelmann (1878–1956), who had studied graphics in Stuttgart and Düsseldorf. The marriage remained childless.
In 1913 the Langewiesche publishing house moved to Königstein im Taunus. There, architect Kurt Friedenberg built the Langwiesche house for the publishing house and publisher , which is now a listed building.
On the 25th anniversary of the publishing house, in 1927, he founded the even cheaper book series Der Eiserne Hammer (renamed Langewiesche Bücherei ) with red dust jackets under the motto Das Gute für Alle .
After Langewiesche's death, the publishing house was continued by his widow, Stefanie Langewiesche, assisted by Hans Köster (1902–1996), who had been with the publishing house since 1927.
His older brother Wilhelm Langewiesche (1866–1934) founded his own publishing house in 1906 with the name Langewiesche-Brandt .
literature
- Hans Köster: Langewiesche, Karl Robert. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 13, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1982, ISBN 3-428-00194-X , p. 594 f. ( Digitized version ).
- Cecilia Lengefeld: The German publisher [Karl Robert Langewiesche] and his publishing house , in: The painter of the happy home. On the reception of Carl Larsson in Wilhelmine Germany, Heidelberg (Universitätsverlag C. Winter) 1993 (= Scandinavian works, edited by Klaus von See, Vol. 14, plus Diss. Univ. Frankfurt a. M. 1991), ISBN 3- 8253-0105-2 , pp. 17-24.
- Britta Fritze: Karl Robert Langewiesche biography , in: The blue books. A national architecture biography ?, Berlin (Lukas Verlag) 2014 (also Diss. Techn. Univ. Darmstadt 2012, university code number D17), ISBN 978-3-86732-181-5 , pp. 12-20.
- Luise Lauffs, chronicle of the Langewiesche family , 1898, digitized
Web links
- The blue books
- Anniversary speech on the 100th birthday of Langewiesche Verlag on May 5, 2002 by Gabriele Klempert ( Memento from May 17, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Langewiesche, Karl Robert |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German publisher |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 18, 1874 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Rheydt |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 12, 1931 |
| Place of death | Königstein im Taunus |