Melchior Lotter the Younger

Melchior Lotter the Younger (* around 1490 in Leipzig ; † around 1542 there ) was a German printer of the Reformation.

Life

The younger Lotter was born in Leipzig as the son of Melchior Lotter the Elder and his wife Dorothea, a daughter of Konrad Kachelofen . His father was Martin Luther's most important printer in the early stages of the Reformation . So he took him in 1519 during the so-called Leipzig disputation in his house. In the same year Luther urged him to move his printing company to Wittenberg . Lotter did not move there himself, however, but decided to let his son Melchior set up a branch.

In Wittenberg, Melchior Lotter the Younger contacted the painter Lucas Cranach the Elder and received permission from him to move in with his printer. In the next few years Lotter published a large number of Luther writings there, including the leaflet To the Christian Adel of the German Nation . In 1522 he was commissioned by Luther to publish his German translation of the New Testament. This project was so big it was beyond Lotter's financial resources. That is why he won Cranach and the goldsmith Christian Döring as partners. The work was carried out in great secrecy, as there was fear of pirated prints. Luther's translation finally appeared on September 22, 1522, which is why it became known as the September Testament. The publication was a great success, also financially, for Lotter. Luther then began translating the Old Testament, which was to be published in several parts. Lotter had so much to do with these orders that in 1523 he brought his younger brother Michael out of Leipzig.

In 1524, however, an incident occurred that destroyed the illustrious career of this early media entrepreneur: Melchior Lotter became so angry with a young clerk, a bookbinder, that he tied his hands behind his back and stabbed him through the nose with a metal pen . A court then sentenced him to a heavy fine of 25 shock groschen , about 71 guilders . Lotter could not raise this sum alone, his father from Leipzig had to help him. But that's not all: Lucas Cranach put him in front of the door with his print shop, and from then on Luther no longer gave him any jobs. Lotter then returned to Leipzig in the same year. However, since Luther's opponent, Duke George the Bearded , was in charge there, no more Reformation writings were allowed to be printed there. Luther later also publicly distanced himself from Lotter the Younger by stating that he had "won a lot of money" thanks to his commissions, which was "an ungodly and unacceptable gain". Melchior Lotter, like his father, did not recover from the fact that Luther had withdrawn his favor. He died in 1542 at the age of about 52.

literature

• Christoph Driessen : Reformation - The Fall of Melchior Lotter. In: Luther - How the Reformation changed Germany. G history special, Augsburg 2016.
• Jakob Franck :  Lotter . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 19, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1884, pp. 273-278. (Family article: description in the 2nd part)
• Werner Schade: The Cranach family of painters. Verlag Anton Schroll & Co, Vienna / Munich 1974, ISBN 3-7031-0440-6 , p. 44.
• Robert Naumann: Serapeum - magazine for library studies, manuscript studies and older literature. TO Weigel, Leipzig 1851.
• Stefan Oehmig (Ed.): Book printing and book culture in Wittenberg during the Reformation. Vol. 21, Writings of the Luther Memorials Foundation in Saxony-Anhalt, Evangelical Publishing House, Leipzig 2015, ISBN 978-3-374-04078-0 , excerpt [1]

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} Christoph Driessen: #Reformation - The Fall of Melchior Lotter. In: Luther - How the Reformation changed Germany. G-Geschichte Spezial, Augsburg 2016, pp. 49–53.