Matthäus Rieger

Matthäus Rieger

Matthäus Rieger (born September 21, 1705 in Seehausen am Staffelsee , † April 2, 1775 in Augsburg ) was a German bookseller and publisher.

Life

Matthäus Rieger was born on September 21, 1705 in the Daber estate in Seehausen am Staffelsee . In 1727, Matthäus Rieger founded a publishing house and a bookstore in Seehausen. In the same year he married Clara Träxl from the Reindl estate and bought his wife's parents' house, later the Gege house , for 350 guilders .

In 1745 he and his publishing house moved to the Höchstetter house in Augsburg . When he received Augsburg citizenship in 1744, he brought his wife and eight children to the Fugger city. In 1765 Rieger bought a house in Augsburg on Philippine-Welser-Straße, where the publishing house and bookstore were located until it was destroyed in 1944.

Rieger's bookstore and publishing house developed into one of the largest of its time. His dealers traveled all over Germany as well as to Vienna, Bozen and Strasbourg. Its main sales area included Swabia, Bavaria, the Austrian hereditary lands and the Catholic cantons of Switzerland. In 1774 a branch was opened in Leipzig. The publishing house published over 1000 titles and was continued by the sons.

Page from a translation of the Bible, published by Rieger

Since the takeover of the Kranzfelder bookstore in 1928, the bookstore and publisher have been called "Rieger & Kranzfelder" ("R. & K."). After the bookstore was destroyed in the Second World War in 1948, it moved to the Fugger house in Maximilianstrasse. 36.

In 1772, Matthäus Rieger donated the new construction of the parish church of St. Michael von Seehausen. He also financed the construction of the school as well as the sacristan's and teachers' house , which is today's community. Matthäus Rieger did not live to see the inauguration of the new parish church in Seehausen in 1782 in the presence of Duchess Maria Anna of Bavaria and Bishop Wenzeslaus , he died in 1775.

In a script from this time we can read: “What zeal can do for the house of God, I cannot explain to you; but with your fingers, I say, I can show you: just go to Seehausen, go, and see what a Rieger has done. ”In the sanctuary of the parish church of St. Michael, a medallion is attached with the following wording:“ Matthäus Rieger von Seehausen, Bookseller from Augsburg had this church moved here from the nearby island at his own expense out of charity. "

Matthäus Rieger memorial plaque Seehausen 1775

literature

• Hans Pörnbacher; Helmut Gier and Johannes Janota (eds.): Matthäus Rieger, land book dealer in Augsburg. Ausburger book printing and publishing: From the beginnings to the present , Wiesbaden, Harrassowitz 1997, pp. 1205-1340.
• Stanislaus Alonsius Kaiser: Description of the translocation of the parish church from Staffelsee to Seehausen , Augsburg, Matthäus Rieger and Sons, 1783.
• Matthäus Rieger, bookseller in Augsburg , in: Hans-Jörg Künast: Augsburger Buchdrucker und Verlag. Augsburg 1997, pp. 621-632.
• Heidi Bäumel: The history of the properties with old house names of the Staffelsee community of Seehausen . St. Ottilien 2007, pp. 55–56 and pp. 221–232.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Rieger and Kranzfelder .