Walther & Apolant

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Walther & Apolant was the name of a publishing house in Berlin that had this double name from 1879 to 1893.

Company history

Hermann Walther (1851 / 52-1896), from an old Hessian civil servant family and son of a general auditor of the Hessian army who died in 1867 , was actually a trained clerk in a Berlin bank , but by nature he was more versatile and interested in the humanities . In order to satisfy this curiosity, but at the same time to be able to earn a living, he started as a volunteer in the Stuhr'schen bookstore in Berlin in 1876 .

He quickly familiarized himself with the subject, which was completely new to him. He already had knowledge of books in some areas and he was familiar with bookkeeping from his previous banking activities. He quickly learned the tasks of a publishing house, the printing company , knowledge of paper and the wishes of the public.

A wealthy businessman, into whose house Walther had been introduced by a nephew, spontaneously offered him the necessary start-up capital when he heard of his plans to start his own business. Walther finally found a suitable partner in Emil Apolant .

Both opened a bookstore under the name Walther & Apolant in 1879 at Markgrafenstrasse 60 in Berlin. The book trade's assortment business went well from the start, so that Walther soon withdrew from it step by step and devoted himself more to the actual publishing business and the publication of writings and books on all social, political and economic issues of the day.

On January 1, 1891, the publishing house finally went in Walthers over sole possession of it in 1893 under his own name as publisher Hermann Walther continued led, while the range of business of the original company as Walther & Apolant assortments business of Emil Apolant was operated. However, after the separation, Apolant also worked under his own name as a publisher with a focus on Jewish topics from 1892 until at least 1907 .

literature

  • Börsenblatt for the German book trade , 1896
  • Corporation report of the Berlin booksellers , 1897
  • Rudolf Schmidt: German bookseller. German book printer . Volume 6. Berlin-Eberswalde 1908, page 1022f., - New edition: Verlag G. Olms, 1979

Web links

  • Biography of Hermann Walther at Zeno ( online )
  • Publishers directory in the German National Library ( online )

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Anton Bettleheim: Biographical yearbook and German obituary , Volumes 2-3, Verlag G. Reimer, 1898 ( excerpt )
  2. ↑ Emil Apolant may be a son or close relative of the rabbi Samuel Apolant .
  3. ↑ Anton Bettleheim ( Biographical Yearbook and German Nekrolog , 1898) mentions the year 1877 when the publishing house was founded.
  4. ↑ After Walther's early death - he died at the age of 44 on April 2, 1896 - Friedrich Bechly bought the Hermann Walther publishing house on July 1, 1896 , which was converted into a limited liability company on April 1, 1901 .
  5. ↑ Apolant's company was later taken over by Richard Kalbersberg , then by the royal book dealer Martin Scheringer (Charlottenstrasse 64).