Samuel Conrad Schwach

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Title page of the first edition of the Norske Intellektiven-Seddeler from May 25, 1763. The date was partially handwritten because the date of the first edition was not yet certain.

Samuel Conrad Schwach (* 1731 in Stettin , † 1781 in Christiania ) was a Norwegian printer and publisher from Pomerania . In 1763 he founded Norway's first newspaper , the Norske Intellektiven-Seddeler .

Life

Little is known of Schwachs life before his time in Norway ; there is apparently no portrait of him either. He grew up in Szczecin and worked during his journeyman years in Berlin , Leipzig , Copenhagen and Paris . In 1758 Frederick V (1723–1766), King of Denmark and Norway and Duke of Schleswig-Holstein, granted him the printing privilege necessary for the independent exercise of the trade. Weak settled in Christiania (now Oslo). There he married Jessina Maria Jensdatter born in 1758. Ørbeck (1724–1771), the widow of the then only book printer Jens Andersen Berg (approx. 1711–1757). In 1760 their son Immanuel was born. He became a pastor and is the father of Conrad Nicolai Schwach (1793–1860), an important Norwegian writer, translator and lawyer.

Early activities

In addition to several books, from 1760 on, the Bishop of Christiania published religious writings under the title “Ugentlige Afhandlinger” and from 1762 under Schwach's direction “Maanedlige Afhandlinger”, ie weekly or monthly treatises. The latter mostly dealt with agricultural and domestic issues.

Founder and publisher of Norway's first newspaper

On May 25th, 1763, under Schwachs direction, the Norske Intellektiven-Seddeler (literally: Norwegian notification slip) came out for the first time. As a weekly, they are Norway's first newspaper and are aimed at the general public. The first daily newspaper (Morgenbladet) did not follow until January 1, 1819. Schwach did not obtain a privilege of his own for this , as would have been necessary. He benefited from the fact that influential business circles and civil servants supported his work, including the Magistrate President Nicolai Feddersen from Flensburg. The newspaper probably had a circulation of around 200 copies, but not all of them were always sold. Weak interests were not aimed at forming opinions and creating sensations. However, he wanted to sell beyond Christiania. He himself once said that since there were already newspapers in Denmark and Sweden, it was “time to get a Norwegian newspaper” (“Det var på tide å få en norsk avis”).

The first issues appeared every Thursday and consisted of four pages, two of which were mostly for advertisements. The contributions often dealt with economic and literary topics as well as moral and religious considerations. Initially, political texts are very rare. That changed only gradually after 1814 after the first Norwegian Basic Law (Grunnloven), whose Paragraph 100 grants freedom of printing and expression. Schwachs Zeitung continued to appear after his death, twice a week from 1805 and every weekday after 1830. She went through several changes of ownership and name. In 1920 it became part of the Verdens Gang newspaper , which still appears today as Norway's leading tabloid. However, after only three years the title Norske Intellektiven-Seddeler changed to the newspaper “Tidens Tegn”, which mentioned it on page 1 until April 5, 1941.

literature

  • Haakon M. Fiskaa: Den norske presse før 1850. Fredrikstad: Institutt for journalistikk, 1985. P. 12 ff. ISBN 82-7147-045-0 .
  • Eckart Roloff : A Chapter in Norwegian Press History. In: ZV + ZV (Bonn), No. 29/1983, pp. 780–781.
  • Eckart Roloff: This is how Norway's first newspaper started. Conrad Samuel Schwach, a printer from Stettin, dared the premiere - but only 150 years after the German pioneering act. In: dialog. Announcements from the German-Norwegian Society (Bonn), No. 37 of December 2010, pp. 26–28.
  • Martin Eide: Schwach og norske intelligenssedler. In: Hans Fredrik Dahl (ed.): En samfunnsmakt blir til. 1660–1880 (Volume 1 of the 'Norsk presses historie 1-4 (1660–2010')). Oslo: Universitetsforlaget 2010, pp. 103 ff. ISBN 978-82-15-01551-4 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Eckart Roloff: A Chapter of Norwegian Press History. In: ZV + ZV (Bonn), No. 29/1983, pages 780–781.
  2. ↑ Hermann August Scheibler: Bogtrykkerkunstens og avisernes history. Kristiania: Fabritius, 1910. P. 70. Svennik Høyer: Presses mellom teknologi and samfunn: Norse and international perspectives on press histories from Gutenberg to vår tid. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 1995, p. 122. ISBN 978-820-022-396-2
  3. ↑ Øyvin Davidsen: Et 200-års minne: Om grunnleggelsen av regularly pressevirksomhet i Norge. A study of the supply chain of Norske Intellektiven-Seddeler May 25, 1763, and the innledningen to the various events, the presses and the supply chain. Oslo: Norsk Høyrepresse, 1963
  4. ↑ Svennik Høyer: Presses mellom teknologi og Samfunn, S. 122nd
  5. ↑ Øyvin Davidsen: Et 200-års minne: Om grunnleggelsen av regularly pressevirksomhet i Norge.
personal data
SURNAME Weak, Samuel Conrad
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Norwegian printer and publisher
DATE OF BIRTH 1731
PLACE OF BIRTH Szczecin
DATE OF DEATH 1781
Place of death Christiania