Paul Zsolnay

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Paul Zsolnay (born June 12, 1895 as Paul von Zsolnay in Budapest , Austria-Hungary , † May 13, 1961 in Vienna ) was an Austrian publisher .

In 1924 he founded the Paul Zsolnay Verlag, the most important Austrian publisher of the interwar period. During the time of National Socialism in Austria , Zsolnay was expropriated due to his Jewish descent and the publishing house was “ Aryanized ”. After the liberation of Austria, the publishing house was restituted in 1946 and continued by him until his death in 1961.

Life

Paul von Zsolnay was born in Budapest as the eldest son of Adolf von Zsolnay, the Austrian Honorary Consul General , and his wife, Amanda, b. Wallerstein, born. The family had made fortunes from the tobacco trade and was a respected member of Austrian society. In 1897 she moved to Vienna in order to be able to offer her son Paul, who was constantly ailing, better medical care. He attended the Hietzinger Gymnasium, where he edited the hectographed literary magazine “Das neue Land” together with Hans Kaltneker and Hans Flesch-Brunningen . Zsolnay later studied in Vienna at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences and managed the family's estates near Pressburg . There he ran, among other things, a floriculture, which he, according to his own statements, was able to develop into the "largest flower-growing company in Czechoslovakia". A red-rimmed yellow rose he bred bears his name, which Zsolnay was very proud of. He used another idea to protect the apricot trees from night frosts: he wrapped the branches with garlands of lightbulbs , which he left on during the nights. " It helped and looked so pretty, " he later recalled.

With the support of his mother, in her salon in Oberufer Castle near Pressburg, prominent artists and writers such as Richard Strauss , Hugo von Hofmannsthal , Gerhart Hauptmann , Arthur Schnitzler , Bruno Walter and the sisters Elsa, Berta and Grete Wiesenthal and Richard Nikolaus Graf von Coudenhove-Kalergi perverted, he made the decision to found a literary publishing house in Vienna.

In 1929 Zsolnay married Alma and Gustav Mahler's daughter, the sculptor Anna Mahler . With her he had a daughter, Alma Zsolnay (1930-2010). Her new home at Maxingstrasse 24 - the so-called Kaunitzschlössel - became one of the centers of cultural and social life in Vienna, continuing the tradition of the Oberufer literary salon. Marriage suffered from his zeal for work; In 1933 they separated, in 1935 the marriage was divorced. The daughter Alma stayed with her father.

The Zsolnay publishing house

The idea for a new publishing house happened by chance at an evening party in the Zsolnay house, at which Alma Mahler-Werfel and Franz Werfel were present. Ida Roland suggested that he found the publishing house. Paul von Zsolnay was initially skeptical because he was completely inexperienced in the publishing business. However, as Alma Mahler him the Verdi Roman offered Franz Werfel, he took it. Werfel's first novel was published on April 4, 1924 and, with 60,000 copies sold quickly, became the cornerstone of the “ Paul Zsolnay Verlag ”. The young publisher was full of energy and always had an open ear, especially for Alma Mahler, including her suggestion to include an edition with letters from Gustav Mahler in the first publishing program. She even persuaded Zsolnay to bring Mahler's 10th Symphony onto the market in a facsimile edition.

The friendship between Zsolnay and Werfel was never tarnished and in 1934 Werfel closed a letter to him with the words: " Thank you. And since our first ten years are over in these weeks, I thank you with a moved soul for these ten years, in which I have only experienced love and goodness from you humanly and in our common works. This long, long time, from the brush prints of the Verdi novel to the present day, is for me a beloved time of shining upswing and indestructible bond. Be warmly embraced by your Werfel "

Heinrich Mann , who, like Werfel, had come from Kurt Wolff Verlag , and John Galsworthy and Werfel were the main pillars of the publishing house in the early years. They also showed Zsolnay's principle to publish authors and not books, that is, to look after and care for the entire work of an author. As a result, he limited his publishing program to contemporary literature. Zsolnay enjoyed the friendly interaction with his authors on his country estate near Pressburg. He attached importance to a cosmopolitan approach and respected every political direction, provided it did not pursue criminal, misanthropic goals.

Zsolnay described the secret of his success as follows: “ I am an average person, and if I like a book, then many will like it because there are so many average people .” As a publisher, he owes the author above all “ understanding for his intentions "And" passionate dedication to the work . "

Zsolnay followed the “ seizure of power ” by the Nazis in Germany in 1933 with concern: he sold more than 75 percent of his production on the German market. Since many of its authors were Jews and / or political opponents, whose works were burned by the new rulers , the market collapsed and resulted in high losses.

emigration

Zsolnay Verlag few days after "was Anschluss " made on 16 March 1938, provisional administration and Hannes Dietl " arisiert ". In the autumn of 1941, the publishing house was taken over by Karl Heinrich Bischoff, a former specialist in the Reichsschrifttumskammer . Paul Zsolnay had to emigrate to England in November 1938. In February 1939 he was followed by his mother and daughter. After he had "established" himself with his family in a basement apartment in South Kensington , Galsworthy's publisher Charles Evans offered him a job at the traditional Heinemann publishing house. There Zsolnay succeeded in acquiring the French translation rights to works by Somerset Maugham , Winston Churchill , Ernest Hemingway and others. a. Evans to found the publishing house Heinemann & Zsolnay, which soon became successful.

Return to Austria

Zsolnay's grave

After the war, Paul Zsolnay returned to Vienna in 1946 and rebuilt his publishing house at Prinz-Eugen-Strasse 30 with branches in Hamburg, Paris and London. In addition to the former Anglo-Saxon and French regular authors, the Austrian writers Johannes Mario Simmel , Alma Johanna Koenig , Alexander Lernet-Holenia and Marlen Haushofer have been published . On his 60th birthday, the publisher was celebrated in the entire German-language press and on the radio.

Shortly after his first and last trip to the United States where he visited his former wife, and a subsequent visit to London with his daughter died Zsolnay 66 years after his return to Vienna and was on the Hietzinger Cemetery (Group 5, no. 8 ) buried.

Awards

literature

  • Hans W. Polak: Paul von Zsolnay . In: New Austrian biography from 1815. Great Austrians . Volume XXII. Amalthea, Vienna 1987, ISBN 978-3-85002-253-8 , pp. 133-143.
  • Biographical handbook of German-speaking emigration after 1933 . Edited by the Institute for Contemporary History in Munich under the overall direction of Werner Röder. Saur, Munich 1983, ISBN 978-3-598-10089-5 , p. 850.
  • Felix Czeike (Ed.): Historisches Lexikon Wien . Volume 5, Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1997, ISBN 3-218-00547-7 , p. 712.
  • Susanne Blumesberger, Michael Doppelhofer, Gabriele Mauthe: Handbook of Austrian authors of Jewish origin from the 18th to the 20th century. Volume 3: S – Z, Register. Edited by the Austrian National Library. Saur, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-598-11545-8 , pp. 1522f.
  • Murray G. Hall : Why not Zsolnay? In: Anna Mahler: I am at home in myself. Edited by Barbara Weidle and Ursula Seeber. Weidle, Bonn 2004, ISBN 978-3-931135-79-9 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Date of death stating the place of death (Vienna 9, AKH ) according to Felix Czeike (Ed.): Historisches Lexikon Wien . Volume 5, Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1997, ISBN 3-218-00547-7 , p. 712 .; according to other information on May 12th.
  2. ↑ cf. Hall, 1985, Vol. II, p. 484; there quoted from: Paul Zsolnay: Der Verlag Paul Zsolnay. Part of the series "How the major German publishers were founded". In: The literary world , Berlin, 4th year, No. 17, April 27, 1928, p. 3.
  3. ^ A b Hans W. Polak: Paul von Zsolnay . In: New Austrian biography from 1815. Great Austrians . Volume XXII. Amalthea, Vienna 1987, ISBN 978-3-85002-253-8 , p. 134.
  4. ↑ quoted from Hans W. Polak: Paul von Zsolnay . In: New Austrian biography from 1815. Great Austrians . Volume XXII. Amalthea, Vienna 1987, ISBN 978-3-85002-253-8 , p. 135.
  5. ^ Hans W. Polak: Paul von Zsolnay . In: New Austrian biography from 1815. Great Austrians . Volume XXII. Amalthea, Vienna 1987, ISBN 978-3-85002-253-8 , p. 136.
  6. ^ Hans W. Polak: Paul von Zsolnay . In: New Austrian biography from 1815. Great Austrians . Volume XXII. Amalthea, Vienna 1987, ISBN 978-3-85002-253-8 , p. 137.
  7. ↑ Tina Walzer , Stephan Templ : Our Vienna. "Aryanization" in Austrian . Structure, Berlin 2001, ISBN 978-3-351-02528-1 , p. 142.
  8. ↑ Staff news . In:  Der Wiener Tag , September 28, 1937, p. 7 (online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / maintenance / day.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Zsolnay, Paul
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Zsolnay, Paul von (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian publisher
DATE OF BIRTH June 12, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH Budapest
DATE OF DEATH May 13, 1961
Place of death Vienna