Johannes Miesler

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Johannes Miesler (born April 7, 1851 in Wevelinghoven ; † June 5, 1905 in Schöneberg ) was a German publisher in Berlin . The entrepreneur and printer is considered a pioneer of color chromolithographed postcards and the "Greetings from ..." postcards .

Life

General

"Ges. Gesch. Dess No. 6 ; Official postcard ”from the Berlin trade exhibition in 1896
"Greetings from Meissen "; lithographed postcard of the J. Miesler Art Institute , also No. 19 published by Brück & Sohn
Postcard number 61 from Old Berlin
ditto, number 62
" Hanover : Kramerstraße and Marktkirche "; Postcard number 85
No. 801 from the Berlin Anhalter Bahnhof , with artist signature J. von Kulas
No. 5588 with a "Greetings from the Abbey ", owner Gust. Busekow

It is said that Miesler was the first to send hand-drawn outlines as picture postcards in the 1870s , thus creating one of the oldest known postcards with individual hand drawings .

The entrepreneur ran his art institute J. Miesler from 1876 to around 1904, when the company had to file for bankruptcy shortly before the company's founder's death . Well-known addresses of the printing company in Berlin were the (then) Neanderstraße 37 , Schmidtstraße 8a , Luisenufer 30 and since 1898 finally Luisenufer 44 in Berlin SO . The company's specialties were picture postcards , greeting cards, calendars, large-format posters and relief prints with simultaneous production of (printed) deluxe papers . In cooperation with the Brück & Sohn company , Miesler's postcards were exported to California in the USA . Cooperation with other publishers was also contractually regulated.

In addition to images with views of Germany at that time , Austrian motifs are also known, for example from the Aspern Bridge in Vienna . Some of the postcards had a registered trademark . To Berlin Trade Fair 1896 is Miesler was different "Official Postcard [n]" with continuous design be trademarked -Nummern and had thus in the affluent educated middle of the early days an "official" competitive advantage over competitors such as the Art Institute Rosenblatt from Frankfurt am Main.

Almost all postcards were numbered consecutively, a “Greetings from the Abbey ” in Berlin, for example, had the serial number 5588 and at the same time documented the name of the owner of the excursion destination and establishment . Occasionally the cards have artist's signatures; the card number 801 with a view of the Berlin Anhalter Bahnhof, for example, the lithographer J. von Kulas .

In 1892 Miesler's art institute employed 70 workers, around 1900 even around 100 people.

The main lithographer and technical director at the J. Miesler Art Institute was Paul Grasnick , who, however, left the company on October 1, 1896 and nine months later founded the company Finkenrath & Grasnick . As a result, the company ran into difficulties and was only able to win the J. Miesler David Herrmann Art Institute as a new cooperation partner in 1902 , which, however, could no longer avert bankruptcy in 1904.

Collections

Documents from the Miesler house are now often part of important collections: a map on the death of Otto von Bismarck with a view of Friedrichsruh Palace can be found in the German Historical Museum . Other maps, for example with a picture of the New Stock Exchange in Leipzig , have been digitized by the Leipzig City History Museum , but in such a low resolution that even the lettering on the maps is no longer legible. In addition, watermarks suggest a renewed, own copyright claim .

reception

The composer Paul Lincke created yet in 1920 a "card collector - march " for piano , "the inventor of the postcards Mr. John Miesler dedicated " and humorous essays by P. Grossmann highlighted such as

"Postcard collecting is the highest sport today ..."

On the cover of the musical work was a colored cross-section of mostly German city maps like Berlin, Munich or Danzig .

literature

  • Helmfried Luers (Ed.): The Postcard Album (in English), vol. 25th

Web links

Commons : Johannes Miesler  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

References and comments

  1. ^ Dresden registry office II: marriage register . No. 700/1883.
  2. ^ Registry office Schöneberg I: death register . No. 644/1905.
  3. ↑ a b c d e Helmfried Luers: J. Miesler (see web links)
  4. ↑ a b Joan Kay: Johannes Miesler / 1876-1904 ... (see web links)
  5. ↑ Compare this postcard, which unfortunately has only a low resolution, with a motif from Ostmark , uploaded by the University of Cologne in the Prometheus picture archive
  6. ↑ Compare this sales offer at AbeBooks.de , last accessed on March 21, 2013
  7. ↑ a b Compare the image (‑) documents at Commons (see under the section Web links ).
  8. ↑ Compare, for example, this picture postcard from the Rosenblatt art establishment from the Berlin trade exhibition in 1896
  9. ↑ Note: The Metropolitan Postcard Club of New York City gives a different date (1899) than Helmut Luers (1896) for the date of departure .
  10. ↑ Low-resolution digital copy on the dhm.de page under the title Collections of the German Historical Museum / Everyday Culture III ›Postcards› Stock selection , accessed on March 21, 2013
  11. ^ A b Paul Lincke: Map Collectors March. Dedicated to the inventor of the postcards, Mr. Johannes Miesler [for piano] , Berlin: Internationaler Musik-Verlag Apollo, around 1920
personal data
SURNAME Miesler, Johannes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German publisher in Berlin
DATE OF BIRTH April 7, 1851
PLACE OF BIRTH Wevelinghoven
DATE OF DEATH June 5, 1905
Place of death Berlin-Schöneberg