Leipzig writers' association
The Leipzig Literature Association was founded in January 1842, and it was called the Leipzig Writers Association from 1846. The aim was to represent the writers' legal, economic and political interests to the exclusion of aesthetic and purely political questions.
history
Literary association
The first Schiller Festival was celebrated in Leipzig in 1840 at the instigation of Robert Blum ; the writers were enthusiastic about the great champion for law, truth and freedom, and this enthusiasm also had an impact on the founding of organizations of the Leipzig writers. In the winter of 1840/41 the Leipzig writers united; their gatherings were primarily social in nature. At the instigation of Robert Blum and Robert Heller , 17 writers from Leipzig met for the founding meeting in January 1842.
A committee was set up from the writers Robert Blum, Karl Herloßsohn and Gustav Kühne to draft the statutes. The main initiator of the merger, Robert Blum, decided not to be elected to the board in advance because, as the editor of the Vaterlandsblätter , he would have suspected the government. One hundred and thirty authors and publishers wanted the writer to be recognized as a legitimate civil profession.
Well-known members were u. a. Heinrich Wuttke , Georg Günther , Carl Biedermann , Friedrich Brockhaus , Heinrich Brockhaus , Hoffmann von Fallersleben , Heinrich Laube , Hermann Schletter and Friedrich Steger .
The members presented a multicolored picture. Not only were there, in addition to the writers of various literary directions, only those interested in problems of literature, no, the political directions were also very diverse.
The Leipziger Literatenverein fulfilled its social tasks by creating a support fund for writers in need. He obtained the necessary funds through literary evening entertainment.
The meetings of the literary association initially took place once a week on Friday, then later on Monday, mostly in the “Hotel de Pologne” on Hainstrasse. There were no meetings during the summer months when the writers were traveling. The meetings did not resume until September.
With the completion of the reading museum in Petersstrasse, the association had found its regular home since September 29, 1845. The reading museum offered up-to-date newspapers and magazines, which members of the association were also allowed to look at.
The Leipzig literary association turned to the Saxon government with resolutions to fight censorship and repression. The successes were modest. Demands for freedom of the press at the first Writers' Day in Leipzig in April 1845 resulted in the association being observed.
Writers Association
The "Leipziger Literatenverein" called itself from 1846 "Leipziger Writerserverein".
The first addressee to whom the writers' association turned was the state. The work of the writer should be placed under legal protection, which means: prohibition of reprinting and censorship and advocacy of copyright and publishing rights. Fulfilling this requirement, they believed, would also result in an economic improvement for writers.
A number of writers had already come to terms with censorship, while others were of the opinion that where there was censorship, the law ceased and wanted censorship to be abolished. After the establishment of the German Reich, the problem of censorship was regulated by the Reichspreßgesetz of May 7, 1874.
In addition, the association's efforts were aimed at the fight against reprinting, in other words the creation of copyright and publishing rights. On February 22, 1844, the Saxon Copyright Protection Act appeared, which, as suggested in a petition, stipulated a protection period of 30 years after death.
The second addressee was the writer. In 1845 the Leipzig Literary Association convened the first German writers' meeting in Leipzig.
After 1848 the Leipzig writers' association was under strict police supervision and was only allowed to meet with prior approval and in the presence of an official, which condemned it to insignificance.
It was not until 1865 that a second writers' meeting also took place in Leipzig. The German Writers' Association in Leipzig issued one of Dr. Hermann Friedrich Friedrich as chairman and Carl Cramer as secretary signed the invitation to a writers' day to be held on August 19 and 20, 1865 in Leipzig. The subject of the negotiations was the formation of a general German Writers' Union, the establishment of the concept of literary property and reprinting, and the German theater situation and the royalty for stage writers.
Heinrich Wuttke headed the Leipzig Writers' Association from 1852 to 1863, after which J. Fürst , Dr. Hermann Friedrich Friedrich, Dr. Gustav Eduard Benseler and G. Sandbank held this office. Carl Eduard Cramer took over the role of secretary from 1863 to 1870 and from 1876 to 1883 he was chairman of the writers' association.
literature
- The book from the book: 5000 years of book history , by Marion Janzin.
- Fourth annual report on the effectiveness of the Leipzig literary association in 1845
- Fifth annual report on the effectiveness of the Leipzig Writers' Association in 1846
- Memorandum on Intellectual Property. Published by resolution of the German Writers' Day on August 20, 1865. Heinrich Wuttge, 1866.
Individual evidence
- ^ History of the German book trade, by Reinhard Wittmann, 1991. Page 361.
- ^ The Leipziger Literatenverein of 1840, d. first German profession Writers' organization / Wolfgang Stegers, Frankfurt am Main: Booksellers Association, 1978, pp. 226–363.
- ^ The first German writers 'organization and the writers' movement. Author: Johannes Hofmann, Publisher: Leipzig, K. Scholtze, 1921.
- ↑ Development and changes in the objectives, the structure and the effects of the professional associations, Volume 6, paperback, author Schmitt Heinz, 1966, page 90ff.
- ↑ Taken from the "Leipzig Historical Address Books".
