Karl Wilhelm Hiersemann
Karl Wilhelm Hiersemann (born September 3, 1854 in Bortewitz ( Saxony ), † September 9, 1928 in Leipzig ) was a German antiquarian and publisher .
Live and act
Hiersemann came from a farming family in Saxony and decided at the age of 13 to become a bookseller , for which he completed years of training in Leipzig at the bookseller training institute as well as at List & Francke and in Mannheim with J. Bensheimer. In 1876 he went to London to work for the antiquarian bookshops David Nutt and Trübner & Co., from 1881 he worked for KF Koehler's Antiquarium in Leipzig.
On his 30th birthday, in 1884, he founded his own company KW Hiersemann in Leipzig as a specialist bookstore for Orientalia, modern linguistics, art, architecture, applied arts, numismatics and genealogy . The times of economic prosperity were favorable for the company, so that Hiersemann's drive and entrepreneurial foresight developed very quickly from its humble beginnings and in just a few decades became a leading international second-hand bookshop that enjoyed a worldwide reputation.
In 1909 the company moved into its own office building in Leipzig's graphic quarter at Goldschmidtstrasse 29. By 1924 540 catalogs had appeared and more than 100 libraries had been purchased, including important collections such as the Weigel collection of 84 manuscripts from the 9th to 16th centuries. Century; the last second-hand bookshop catalog No. 669 appeared during World War II . On the five floors of his respectable office building, Hiersemann maintained a rich store of valuable books and exhibition rooms, as well as an extensive reference library and the work tool praised by colleagues: Hiersemann's card catalog of antiquarian titles with bibliographic descriptions and prices.
From 1892, the second-hand bookshop developed into a scientific publisher, Anton Hiersemann Verlag , and an export bookstore was attached to the second-hand bookshop, which supplied libraries all over the world, especially in America and Russia .
The appreciation of Hiersemann's personality in society and the book trade world manifested itself in a commemorative publication published by Martin Breslauer and K. Koehler on his 70th birthday and 40th anniversary in business and in the award of an honorary doctorate in 1924 (Dr. Ing. E. h. ) by the Technical University of Hanover .
literature
- Becoming and working. Festschrift for KW Hiersemann . Edited by M. Breslauer and K. Koehler. Leipzig 1924
- German bookseller . Edited by G. Menz. Leipzig 1925
- KW Hiersemann antiquarian bookshop, publishing house, export range. History and areas of work of W. Olbricht's company. Leipzig 1950
- Wilhelm Olbrich: Hiersemann, Karl. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 9, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1972, ISBN 3-428-00190-7 , p. 113 f. ( Digitized version ).
- Lexicon of the entire book industry . Stuttgart 1987 ff. ISBN 978-3-7772-8527-6
- 100 years of Hiersemann 1884–1984 . Stuttgart 1984 ISBN 978-3-7772-8429-3
Web links
- Literature by and about Karl Wilhelm Hiersemann in the catalog of the German National Library
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Hiersemann, Karl Wilhelm |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German antiquarian and publisher |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 3, 1854 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Bortewitz |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 9, 1928 |
| Place of death | Leipzig |