Salomon Hirzel (publisher)

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Salomon Hirzel, engraving by Adolf Neumann

Salomon Hirzel (* 13. February 1804 in Zurich , † 8. February 1877 in Halle (Saale) ) was from Switzerland originating and Leipzig acting publisher .

life and work

Salomon Hirzel
First edition of G. Freytag Die Ahnen published by S. Hirzel in 1874

Salomon Hirzel came from an old Swiss family of scholars and merchants; his father Heinrich was a professor of philosophy in Zurich. In 1823 he apprenticed to the Berlin publisher Georg Andreas Reimer , whose daughter Anna (1813–1885) he married in 1830. In the same year he and his brother-in-law Karl August Reimer (1801-1858) took over the management of the Weidmann bookstore in Leipzig, which had existed since 1680 and was owned by his father-in-law.

On January 1, 1853, he founded the S. Hirzel Verlag in Leipzig . He had already met the Brothers Grimm in Berlin beforehand . After they had lost their professorship at the University of Göttingen because of their participation in the protests of the Göttingen Seven , Reimer and Hirzel suggested in 1838 that the two impeachers should fill out the "involuntary form and write a new, large dictionary of the German language". The German dictionary of the Brothers Grimm, which was then started , was edited by the new S. Hirzel Verlag.

The publisher's name “S. Hirzel ”exists to this day, the company with its headquarters in Stuttgart is still active in publishing.

Hirzel collections

In addition to his publishing activities, Salomon Hirzel was a passionate collector of old prints and manuscripts by important poets, especially Goethe's . Two collections emerged from his estate and are now owned by the universities of Frankfurt / Main and Leipzig.

One of these, the coveted special collection of Baroque literature , was acquired by the Frankfurt City Library in 1908/1909 with special funds. The Hirzel Collection consists of 426 original prints of German literature from the period 1520 to 1750, including numerous unique items. The focus of the collection is on works from the 17th century, including first editions by Grimmelshausen , Christian Reuter and Christian Weise .

The other, more extensive collection includes handwritten and printed texts by Goethe and those around him. It is the largest Goethe collection outside of Weimar . Hirzel bequeathed this collection in 1877 to the Leipzig University Library , which still owns it in full. The holdings of the collection are documented in a printed catalog by Reinhard Fink.

Honor

In honor of Salomon Hirzel, a street in the Leipzig district of Kleinzschocher is named Hirzelstraße.

literature

  • Dietmar Debes:  Hirzel, Salomon. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 9, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1972, ISBN 3-428-00190-7 , p. 247 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Alfred Dove :  Hirzel, Salomon . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 12, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1880, pp. 500-503.
  • Reinhard Fink: Directory of Salomon Hirzel's Goethe collection in the University Library in Leipzig , based on Hirzel's directory from 1874, re-edited. by Reinhard Fink. Hirzel, Leipzig 1932.
  • One hundred years of S. Hirzel Verlag . Hirzel, Leipzig 1953.
  • Thomas Keidling: Salomon Hirzel (1804–1877), in: Sächsische Lebensbilder, Volume 7, Leipzig 2015, pp. 203–207.
  • Alan Kirkness, Simon Gilmour (ed.): Correspondence between the brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm and the publishers of the "German Dictionary" Karl Reimer and Salomon Hirzel . (Correspondence between the brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. Critical edition in individual volumes. Vol. 5.) Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-7776-1525-7 .
  • Horst Riedel (Red .: Thomas Nabert ): Stadtlexikon Leipzig from A to Z. PRO LEIPZIG, Leipzig 2012, ISBN 978-3-936508-82-6 , p. 240.
  • Benedict Schofield: Private Lives and Collective Destinies: Class, Nation and the Folk in the Works of Gustav Freytag , p. 52, Google Books .
  • Anton Springer: The young Hirzel . Leipzig 1883.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ W. Hertz: Memorial speech , in: Börsenblatt für den Deutschen Buchhandel, 115 (1880),
  2. ↑ Leipzig-Lexikon.de: Register: Hirzel Street .
  3. ↑ Gina Klank, Gernot Griebsch: Lexicon of Leipzig street names. Verlag im Wissenschaftszentrum, Leipzig 1995, ISBN 3-930433-09-5 , p. 105
personal data
SURNAME Hirzel, Salomon
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hirzel-Reimer, Salomon
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss publisher
DATE OF BIRTH February 13, 1804
PLACE OF BIRTH Zurich
DATE OF DEATH February 8, 1877
Place of death Halle (Saale)