Richard Stein (publisher)

Richard Stein

Richard Stein (born August 20, 1871 in Prostějov / Moravia , † October 6, 1932 in Vienna ) was an Austrian publisher . A doctorate in law and trained printers ran with his father Mark Stone from 1898 to his death in the business of Manz'schen publishing and university bookstore in Vienna.

School, military and university

Richard Stein was the first child of Markus and Nanette Stein. He was born in Moravia before the family moved to Vienna, where his father worked as a teacher. Richard Stein had four siblings: Paula married Kemperling (1878–1952), Emma married von Sax (1882–1969), Helene married Winger (1884–1945) and Erwin (1885–1958). Two other sisters died in infancy.

He attended the renowned Academic Gymnasium in Vienna, to which many Viennese Jews sent their offspring due to its liberal character, and after graduating from high school he joined the Bohemian Dragoon Regiment No. 13 "Eugene Prince of Savoy" as a " one-year volunteer " . Richard Stein had already converted to the Evangelical Confession HB on September 7, 1885 . After completing military service, he began studying law at the University of Vienna in 1890 , which he completed six years later with excellent results. In order to prepare for work in the family business, Richard Stein completed an apprenticeship as a book printer at the Klinkhardt publishing house in Leipzig, which still exists today .

Marriage and entry into the publishing house

1898 joined Richard Stone as a shareholder in the Manz'schen publishing and university bookstore and got married in the same year with Frieda Luise Klinkhardt a member of that Protestant Reich German publishing family, who held at that time still shares the house Manz and the time Markus Stein as chief clerk in Manz had employed. Richard subsequently pushed the expansion of the legal publishing program. Exponents of the legal world of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy now published in the publishing house. "Manz's collection of Austrian laws is perhaps the only one in the world. The handy black volumes are the constant companions of all lawyers and administrative officials and have superseded the official legal editions almost everywhere." Richard Stein and his father saved the publishing house from the economic crisis by founding the "Collection Manz", in which new editions of works of French literature from the 18th and 19th centuries were published and sold in the francophone area, which generated foreign exchange income.

Children and second marriage

Richard Stein's marriage to Frieda Klinkhardt had four children: Robert (1899–1970), Walter (1901–1979), Maria Charlotte (1904–1956) and Edith (1910–1985). With Maria Luise von Newlinsky (1888-1945) Richard Stein had another son, Otto (1919-?). He married Ms. von Newlinsky on May 28, 1922, after divorcing his first wife on November 3, 1921.

Client of Loos and Kokoschka

Around 1909 Richard and Markus Stein commissioned Adolf Loos to build a new portal and equip the office space for the bookstore on Kohlmarkt 16. In 1912 Loos carried out the commission; the portal still preserved today is one of the most important works of the architect in Vienna. In 1913 Richard Stein Loos had an apartment adapted for himself and his family (not preserved). It was probably Loos who mediated Richard Stein's protégé Oskar Kokoschka . In 1909 Richard Stein had himself and his two children Walter and Maria Charlotte painted by the then 24-year-old artist.

Last years and death

Around 1930 Richard Stein had health problems; he began to hand over responsibility to his son Robert. Richard Stein died on October 6, 1932 at the age of 61 in a Viennese sanatorium after "long and severe suffering".

Individual evidence

1. ↑ "The preferred grammar school of the enlightened liberals - and the Jews - was the academic grammar school" (Carl E. Schorske: Vienna. Spirit and society in the fin de siècle. Munich – Zurich: Piper 1994, p. 128).
2. ↑ TM HB City 09/07/1885 and 01/19/1886 TM HB City, zit. after Staudacher, Anna: Jewish-Protestant converts in Vienna 1782–1914. Part 1. Frankfurt am Main u. a .: Peter Lang 2004, p. 96 FN 172.
3. ↑ Rigorous certificate from the Law Faculty of November 11, 1896 on the examination on November 6, 1896 (Stein Familienarchiv, Vienna).
4. ^ Self-portrait by the Klinkhardt publishing house , accessed on April 20, 2012
5. ↑ "In the legal field Manz was undoubtedly a leader in Austria. Naturally, the overthrow and the dissolution of the Reich therefore affected this publisher most directly" ( Carl Junker : The publishing book trade in the Republic of Austria. Considerations on the occasion of the first Vienna Book Fair. In: Murray G. Hall (Ed.): On the book system in Austria. Collected writings 1896–1927. Edition Praesens, Vienna 2001, pp. 180–192, here p. 184, PDF on fwf.ac.at).
6. ^ Carl Junker: World Exhibition Paris 1900. Catalog of the Austrian department. Edited by the kk Österr. General Commissariats. Book 1, group I + III. Teaching - Tools of Art and Science. Vienna 1900, pp. 37–59 (republished in: Carl Junker. Zum Buchwesen in Österreich. Gesammelte Schriften 1896–1927. Ed. By Murray G. Hall. Edition Praesens, Vienna 2001, pp. 142–150).
7. ↑ See v. a. Murray G. Hall: Austrian Publishing History 1918–1938. Volume I: History of the Austrian publishing industry. Hermann Böhlaus Nachf., Vienna / Cologne / Graz 1985, p. 64.
8. ↑ work inv. L. 84.12 after Burkhard Rukschcio / Roland Schachel: Adolf Loos. Life and work. Salzburg: Residenz 1982, p. 496.
9. ^ "Apartment Dr. Robert [recte: Richard] Stein", W. 218.13 (ibid. P. 508 with ill.)
10. ↑ The portrait of Richard Stein has been lost since the Second World War, Playing Children is in the possession of the Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum of the City of Duisburg (oil on canvas, 72 × 108 cm, Inv.No.WLM 573/655) See Johann Winkler / Katharina Erling: Oskar Kokoschka. The paintings 1906–1929. Salzburg: Verlag Galerie Welz 1995, p. 12.
11. ^ Obituary in the Neue Freie Presse on October 7, 1932.

literature

• Christopher Dietz: Alexander Lernet-Holenia and Maria Charlotte Sweceny. Letters 1938-1945. Vienna: Böhlau 2013, pp. 335–399.
• Christopher Dietz: Absolutely nothing crazy .... The Manz portal created by Adolf Loos on Vienna's Kohlmarkt will be one hundred years old this year. About the project and its clients. Der Standard (album), August 18, 2012 ( http://derstandard.at/1345164450862/Absolut-nichts-Verruecktes )
• Ch. Gruber / J. Mentschl: entry "Stein Richard, publisher". In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950. Vol. 13 (60th delivery: Staudigl – Stich [2008]). Vienna: Austrian Academy of Sciences 2003–2009, pp. 153–154.
• Catherine Mumelter: The history of the publishing house Manz. Dissertation Innsbruck 2001.