Leopold Joseph Baer

Leopold Joseph Baer (born October 23, 1805 in Bockenheim near Frankfurt am Main, † December 31, 1861 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a German antiquarian and bookseller . He built the later antiquarian bookshop Joseph Baer & Co. in Frankfurt into one of the most important antiquarian bookshops in Germany and Europe.

Life

Leopold Joseph, son of the antiquarian Joseph Baer (1767–1851), was one of the first Jews to attend the municipal grammar school in Frankfurt am Main from 1815 and in 1820 joined his father's antiquarian bookshop. In 1824 he passed the business on to his sons Bernhard Joseph (1799–1864), who became authorized signatory, Leopold Joseph and Hermann Joseph (1811–1881). On April 23, 1834, Bernhard Joseph Baer, ​​who was now a citizen of Frankfurt, officially registered the company as Joseph Baer - Handlung und Spedition, combined with an antiquarian book store ; from 1836 it traded as Joseph Baer, ​​an antiquarian book and art dealer in the his brothers became authorized signatories. While his brother Hermann Joseph bought books on trips to England, France, Italy and Holland, among others, Leopold Joseph ran the business in Frankfurt. In 1841 Bernhard Joseph and Hermann Joseph Baer left the company and Leopold Joseph took over management of the company and expanded it further. In 1847 Hermann Joseph rejoined the management.

With its extensive book inventory of over 200,000 volumes around 1848, the antiquarian bookshop counted among its customers Jacob Grimm , Arthur Schopenhauer and Otto von Bismarck . In 1850, Baer moved the business and the now affiliated scientific publishing house from Steingasse in the eastern old town to Roßmarkt . In 1853 the company was appointed "Chief Commissioner of the Imperial Public Libraries in Moscow and St. Petersburg etc." by the Russian Tsar. He also played a major role in equipping public libraries in Germany.

He was married to Helena, born in 1841. Töplitz (born October 1, 1806). The daughter Hanna (1844–1890) married the factory owner Jacob Hermann Epstein (1838–1919) in 1857, the daughter Bertha (born July 16, 1848) married the coin dealer Adolph E. Cahn (1839–1918).

After his death in 1861, his widow ran the business with his brother Hermann until his son Simon Leopold (1845–1919) took over in 1870.

literature

• Leopold Joseph Baer . In: Börsenblatt für den deutschen Buchhandel , 29, 1862, pp. 103-104.
• Otto Mühlbrecht:  Bear, Leopold Joseph . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 1, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1875, p. 763 f.
• Eberhard Henze: Baer, ​​Leopold Joseph . In: Lexicon of the entire book industry . 2nd Edition. Volume 1. Hiersemann, Stuttgart 1987, p. 219.
• Andrea Hopp: Jewish bourgeoisie in Frankfurt am Main in the 19th century . Steiner, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-515-06985-2 , pp. 46, 49, 206, 208.
• Bear, Leopold Joseph . In: Rudolf Vierhaus (Ed.): German Biographical Encyclopedia (DBE) . 2., revised. and extended edition. tape 1 : Aachen – Braniss . De Gruyter / KG Saur, Berlin / Boston / Munich 2005, ISBN 3-11-094657-2 , p. 325 .
• Wolfgang Klötzer (Hrsg.): Frankfurter Biographie . Personal history lexicon . First volume. A – L (=  publications of the Frankfurt Historical Commission . Volume XIX , no. 1 ). Waldemar Kramer, Frankfurt am Main 1994, ISBN 3-7829-0444-3 , p. 35 .

Web links

• Baer, ​​Leopold Joseph. Hessian biography. In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS). Hessian State Office for Historical Cultural Studies (HLGL), accessed on May 10, 2017 .