Paul Girardet (publisher, 1878)

Paul Girardet (born December 6, 1878 in Essen , † July 28, 1970 at Gut Buchberg in Gelting, part of the city of Geretsried ) was a German publisher and consul general .

Live and act

Paul Girardet was a son of the company's founder and councilor Wilhelm Girardet . As his father's successor, his eldest brother Wilhelm continued to run the printing company he had founded in Essen. His younger brother Hellmut Girardet was a newspaper publisher.

After attending school, Paul Girardet trained in his father's printing company . At an international business school on Lake Geneva , he acquired commercial skills and took up a job in a printing company. He completed linguistic, art history and literary studies at the University of Geneva . He then spent a year training in an Edinburgh printing company. In 1901 he continued his training in the publishing house of Chemnitzer Neuesten Nachrichten , which belonged to his father's company , and expanded his knowledge by traveling to Scotland , Scandinavia and Russia .

On October 1, 1903, Girardet took over the management of the Girardethaus in Düsseldorf on Königsallee , which published the Düsseldorfer Nachrichten , which under his direction became the largest newspaper on the Lower Rhine until the First World War .

He took part in the First World War as a reserve officer. After 1918, the Düsseldorf printing house was occupied by communists who published an edition of the Red Flag on the Lower Rhine . During the occupation, Girardet stood before a French court martial, and his newspaper was banned several times. He later acquired further professional knowledge on an extended tour of the United States .

In 1936 Girardet became the sole owner of the Düsseldorf publishing house including the printing house, after the entire company was split up into individual, independent companies due to pressure from the National Socialists .

Girardet was a founding member of the Düsseldorf Industry Club in 1912 . From 1925 he was the Hungarian consul general . He was also an important art collector.

Honors

Paul Girardet was the bearer of the Grand Cross of the Royal Hungarian Order of St. Stephen . He was also awarded the Federal Cross of Merit on his 75th birthday . He was also an honorary citizen of the community of Gelting in Upper Bavaria, where he ran a model estate.

literature

• Erwin Dickhoff: Essen heads . Ed .: City of Essen - Historical Association for City and Monastery of Essen. Klartext-Verlag, Essen 2015, ISBN 978-3-8375-1231-1 , p. 116, 117 .
• Barbara Gerstein: Herbert Girardet; in: Life pictures from the Rhenish-Westphalian industrial area, born 1968–1972 . Nomos-Verlagsgesellschaft, Bade Baden 1980, ISBN 978-3-7890-0527-5 , p. 64 ff .
• Hermann Eich (Ed.): 1878–1963: Anniversary publication for the 85th birthday of Consul General a. D. Paul Girardet . Düsseldorf 1963.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ International Biographical Archive 45/1970 of October 26, 1970