Slezak publishing house
The publishing house Josef Otto Slezak KEG was a specialist publisher for the railway industry based in the Austrian capital Vienna .
Numerous publications by the publisher are now considered standard works of Austrian and European railway literature . Some titles are also considered to be standard works internationally, such as the book written by Tadej Braté about the steam locomotives of Yugoslavia.
history
On the occasion of the discontinuation of the Salzkammergut local railway in 1957, Josef Otto Slezak, who was then a teacher, published a commemorative publication as his first work, which for the time also dealt very critically with the traffic-political circumstances of this line closure. Slezak retained this, according to today's understanding, “green” attitude in an era in which transport policy was primarily characterized by motorization and the vision of a car-friendly city , both as a publisher and as author and co-author of numerous works on the subject of rail transport consistently at.
Particular attention was paid to Austria's rail transport, but books on international railway topics and reprints of historical writings were also published.
The writings on the Vienna tram have meanwhile become standard works for the history of urban transport in the city, also due to the extensive fund of photographic material from the property of the publisher and the family.
The company operated next to it, which specializes in railway books and timetables Antiquarian boutique transalpine in the Wiedner main street . Josef Otto Slezak ran his publishing house as a family business with his wife and daughters throughout its history. After his death in 2002, the company was continued by his two daughters. In July 2008, the management announced that further titles would appear regularly in the future. In February 2016, however, the publisher announced that it would finally close its 47-year-old business in a few weeks , which was ultimately the case after the stocks were sold out on September 12, 2016.
Publications (selection)
Rail transport
- JO Slezak: The Locomotives of the Republic of Austria , 1970, ISBN 3-85416-075-5
- Tadej Braté: The Steam Locomotives of Yugoslavia , 1971, ISBN 3-900134-01-4
- Walter Krobot, JOSlezak, H. Sternhart: Schmalspurig durch Österreich , 4th edition, 1991, ISBN 3-85416-095-X
- JO Slezak: From Salzburg to Bad Ischl, history of the Salzkammergut local railway , 2nd edition, 1995, ISBN 3-85416-170-0
- Hans Peter Pawlik : Technology of the Mariazellerbahn , 2001, ISBN 3-85416-189-1
- Adolph Giesl-Gieslingen : Anatomy of the steam locomotive international , 2nd edition, 2004, ISBN 3-85416-194-8
- Manfred Hohn : Forest railways in Austria , 3rd edition, 2005, ISBN 3-85416-148-4
- Karl Gölsdorf : Locomotive construction in old Austria 1837-1918 . (Reprint). ISBN 3-900134-40-5 .
Local public transport
- Josef Otto Slezak: Wiener Stadtverkehr - Illusion und Reality , 1978, without ISBN (evaluation of the article by JOSlezak on the state of Viennese urban traffic from 1957).
- [Walter] Krobot, [Josef Otto] Slezak, [Hans] Sternhart: Tram in Vienna. The day before yesterday and the day after tomorrow , 2nd revised edition, 1983, ISBN 3-85416-076-3
- Hans Peter Pawlik, Josef Otto Slezak: Wiener Straßenbahn-Panorama - Pictures from the period from 1865 to 1982 , 2nd revised edition, 1995, ISBN 3-85416-105-0
- Hans Peter Pawlik, Josef Otto Slezak: Wagner's work for Vienna - total work of art Stadtbahn , 1999, ISBN 3-85416-185-9