Otto Meissner (publisher)

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Otto Carl Meißner around 1902
Cover of the first capital edition by Verlag Otto Meissner 1867

Otto Meissner , also Otto Carl Meißner (born July 28, 1819 in Quedlinburg , † June 4, 1902 in Hamburg ), was a German publisher , bookseller and from 1871 to 1876 a member of the Hamburg parliament. He gained fame above all because he first published " Das Kapital " by Karl Marx in 1867 . He is the founder of Otto Meissner Verlag, which still exists today.

Life

Birthplace at Steinweg 19 in Quedlinburg, photo 2014
Memorial plaque for "Das Kapital" by Karl Marx in Hamburg, Bergstrasse 26

Meissner was born in Steinweg 19 in Quedlinburg as the seventh child of a postmaster family. He came to Hamburg in 1842 because the publisher Julius Campe was allowed to print again after the great fire in Hamburg and in June 1848 he founded his own publishing house in Hamburg Bergstrasse 26 together with Georg Gottlieb Schirges , which Meissner continued to run alone from December 8, 1853. For Otto Meissner, 1859 was the breakthrough to political significance in Hamburg. As a co-organizer and propagandist of the Schiller Festival procession in Hamburg, when on November 13, 1859 more than 10,000 parade participants of 200,000 Hamburg residents marched through the city under black-red-gold flags for freedom of the press and freedom of thought and a republican state constitution, he came into contact with many republicans Reformers. In 1860 he founded the "Hamburg-Altona Booksellers Association", was involved in the new architects' association and won reform-oriented and socialist authors for his publishing house. In 1861 he bought a private house at Gurlittstrasse 13 and opened the publishing bookstore Meissner & Behre at Bergstrasse 26 with a partner in 1865. There Meissner received the first bundle of a manuscript from Karl Marx in November 1866, which he wrote in the following year had a relatively small edition of 1000 copies printed in the printing works of Otto Wigand's sons in Leipzig . The date of publication of the first “Capital” volume is September 14, 1867. The manuscript of the first volume was sent back to Otto Meissner from Leipzig after the printing was completed. It was kept there as evidence of the publishing rights until Meissner's older grandson, Otto Heinrich Meissner, left the manuscript to the SPD archive in Berlin. This is where traces of it are lost; it has been lost to this day. Marx became aware of Meissner because Friedrich Engels had his work on the Prussian military question published by him. After Karl Marx's death, Engels had volume 2 published by Otto Meissner in 1885 and volume 3 in 1894.

Otto Meissner was a member of the Hamburg parliament from 1871 to 1876 , at the time a maximum of 5 percent of Hamburg's residents elected parliament in order to achieve a special design for the town hall with the architect Martin Haller . He had become so wealthy through his publishing activities that he moved the bookstore and publisher to Hermannstrasse 44 in 1889 to a property that had become very expensive, even closer to the town hall. He died on June 4, 1902 in his house at Gurlittstrasse 13 in St. Georg .

literature

  • Otto Meißner publishing house in Hamburg. Founded in 1848. Publishing catalog 1848–1906 . Otto Meißner Verlag, Hamburg 1906.
  • Anniversary catalog 1848–1923 . Otto Meißner Verlag, Hamburg 1923.
  • Heinrich Reincke, Walter Hävernick, Gustav Schlotterer (eds.): Otto Meißner (series: Hamburger Leben, 16). Hamburg 1937.
  • Heidi Wolf: Otto Meißner - the first publisher of Karl Marx's “Capital”. In: Contributions to the history of the labor movement , No. 5, Berlin 1967, pp. 832–843.
  • Rolf Dlubek , Hannes Skambraks: "Das Kapital" by Karl Marx in the German labor movement (1867–1878). Outline of the evidence of the history of the impact . Dietz Verlag, Berlin 1967 (contains letters from Meißner to Marx).
  • Ernst Franke: Otto Meißner and "Das Kapital". On the biography of Otto Meißner . In: Börsenblatt für den deutschen Buchhandel , 142. Leipzig 1975. Issue 6, pp. 84–87.
  • Heiner Plauli: Expertise , a good will and willingness to take risks. Biographical information about Otto Carl Meißner, the first publisher of “Capital” . In: Neues Deutschland , Berlin 11./12. June 1977.
  • Ernst Franke: My grandfather published “Das Kapital” by Karl Marx . In: Contributions to Marx-Engels Research 3, Berlin 1978, pp. 73–80.
  • Eike Kopf : When did the first volume of Karl Marx's “Kapitals” actually appear? . In: Contributions to Marx-Engels Research 3, Berlin 1978, pp. 81–92.
  • Eike Kopf: In what form did “Das Kapital” appear in Germany during the lifetime of Marx and Engels? . In: Contributions to Marx-Engels Research 3, Berlin 1978, pp. 93-124.
  • Lothar Berthold : How “Das Kapital” appeared at Otto Meißner. An edition history in letters . In: Börsenblatt for the German book trade . 155, 1988, 51/52, pp. 941-945.
  • L. Berthold: How “Das Kapital” appeared at Otto Meißner . In: URANIA 59 (1983), 11, p. 28ff.
  • Reinhard Müller: Otto Meißner, the Hamburg publisher of Marx's "Capital" . In: Industrial culture in Hamburg. The German Empire's gateway to the world . Edited with the participation of numerous authors. by Volker Plagemann. Verlag CH Beck, Munich 1984, pp. 361-362.
  • Bernd Feicke: Marx publisher Otto Meißner born 169 years ago in Quedlinburg . In: Liberal-Demokratische Zeitung , edition Quedlinburg / Aschersleben, Vol. 43 (1988), 66, p. 6
  • Bernd Feicke: Otto Meißner, the publisher of “Kapital”. An important son of Quedlinburg . In: Nordharzer Jahrbuch XV (1990), pp. 39–47.
  • Jürgen Bönig: Karl Marx in Hamburg - The production process of "Capital", Hamburg 2017, ISBN 978-3-89965-751-7
  • Jürgen Bönig: Why "Das Kapital" came out in Hamburg , Socialism (magazine) , issue 11-2017, pp. 63–67.
  • Barbara Supp: This Saubuch - A walk through capitalism, in the footsteps of Karl Marx, DER SPIEGEL 39/2017, pp. 72–79.

Web links

References and comments

  1. ^ Hans-Hartmut Schauer, Quedlinburg, specialist workshop / world cultural heritage , Verlag Bauwesen Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-345-00676-6 , pages 20
  2. ↑ General address book for the German book trade . Vol. 16, Leipzig 1854, p. 125.
  3. ↑ Jürgen Bönig, in the laughing dragon, district newspaper for St. Georg, 9/2017
  4. ↑ Jürgen Bönig, in the laughing dragon, district newspaper for St. Georg, 9/2017
  5. ↑ Hamburg places of remembrance of social democracy , publisher: SPD Landesorganisation Hamburg, Hamburg 2013
  6. ↑ Jürgen Bönig, in the laughing dragon, district newspaper for St. Georg, 9/2019, part II
personal data
SURNAME Meissner, Otto
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Meissner, Otto Carl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German publisher
DATE OF BIRTH July 28, 1819
PLACE OF BIRTH Quedlinburg
DATE OF DEATH June 4, 1902
Place of death Hamburg