Wolfgang Stöckel

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wolfgang Stöckel actually Wolfgang Müller (* around 1473 in Obermünchen ( Lower Bavaria ), † around 1541 in Dresden ), ran a printing press in Leipzig during the Reformation and was the first in Dresden .

Live and act

Stöckel enrolled in the summer semester of 1489 under the Latinized name of Wolfgang Müller from Munich, Wolfgangus Molitoris de Monaco , and was able to pay the entire admission fee for the University of Erfurt . Stöckel completed his studies in 1490 with the academic title of a Baccalaureus and went into his first marriage in the same year. He then briefly ran his own printing company in Erfurt. In 1494 he went as a journeyman to the Leipzig printer Arnold Neumarkt , Arnoldus de Colonia, who originally came from Cologne and settled in Leipzig in 1492 and worked there until 1496. After that, in 1495, he opened in Leipzig Offizin , its own printing workshop and printed under his name or printer Signet . The print shop in Leipzig produced Stöckel mainly fonts for a larger, readable group of customers .

Around 1504 a branch was opened in Wittenberg , where he also carried out his business at times, for a few months. Around 1508 Stöckel bought a larger house in Leipzig and another one in 1523. However, he had to sell both houses again in 1525 due to debts or to pay off the inheritance to his son Jakob. From 1518 Stöckel also produced books by the reformer Martin Luther . The ideas of the reformers were an important impetus for the now up-and-coming book printing and book trade; including the illegal reprints, for on the one hand led to a rapid spread of Reformation ideas. On the other hand, this also helped to greatly increase the number of print products . “A Sermon of Indulgence and Grace” was published or reprinted twenty-two times between 1518 and 1520, three of which were by Stöckel's printing companies.

The first pictorial representation of Luther during the Leipzig disputation in 1519 . Luther, Martin: A sermon preached to Leipßgk. Stöckel, Leypßgk 1519

The first known portrait of Luther came from Lucas Cranach , a woodcut from 1519. In the same year he also printed a portrait of Luther's most important opponent, Cardinal Albrecht von Brandenburg . He ruled from 1514 until his expulsion on February 21, 1541 from his Moritzburg residence in Halle an der Saale .

The New Testament by Hieronymus Emser , an opponent of Martin Luther ; it was published by Stöckel in Dresden in 1527 .

Although very recognized as a printer, Stöckel ran into economic difficulties. Competition from illegal reprints, but above all government arbitrariness in Saxony against Reformation literature, made business difficult. Like other printers, Stöckel operated his business away from home at times and opened further branches in central Germany, for example in Halle , Grimma and Eilenburg ; partly also because of its temporary indebtedness. There, in Eilenburg, his son Jakob worked as a printer.

In 1526 Stöckel moved his center of life to Dresden. This was initiated at the suggestion of Duke George the Bearded , who needed a printing house in his residence to have his writings against the Reformation printed. Hieronymus Emser had previously carried out this task in a small private print shop with the help of Valentin Schumann from Leipzig . Schumann had come to Dresden because of financial difficulties, but returned to Leipzig in 1526. Stöckel was able to continue using its high-quality type material up to 1527 .

The city ​​council also had its announcements reproduced at Stöckel. In 1527 he arranged for the printing of the translation of the New Testament after Hieronymus Emser , to which Duke Georg himself had written a preface. At a time when copyright was not yet legally secured, Stöckel received an official reprint privilege. Stöckel also printed the writings of Emser's successor in Dresden, Johannes Cochläus .

After Duke George of the Bearded Death in 1539, who spread the Reformation in Dresden, the city council had the Counter-Reformation writings, something the "malignant book" libellus diffamatorius, bought by Kaspar von Stieler and burned. On behalf of Duke Heinrich the Pious, Stöckel now printed the new edition of the Visitator's Instruction and the new church regulations .

family

From 1497 Stöckel was married to the widow of the Leipzig printer Arnold Neumarkt , probably already in his second marriage . They had a son Jacob. He ran a branch of his father's print shop in Eilenburg. Stöckel's wife died around 1524. In 1525 he married Margarethe geb. Benzing, who continued her husband's printing business a year after his death. Their son Mathias Stöckel (1526–1587) took over the father's shop in 1543.

literature

  • Wolfgang Rudolf Schmidt : German bookseller. German book printer. Volume 5, Berlin / Eberswalde 1908, pp. 936–937 (zeno.org)
  • Christoph Reske: The book printers of the 16th and 17th centuries in the German-speaking area: based on the work of the same name by Josef Benzing. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden 2007, ISBN 978-3-447-05450-8 , p. 163 f., 516 f.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Stöckel, Wolfgang ADB 36 (1893), Georg Müller deutsche-biographie.de
  2. ^ Georg Witkowski: History of literary life in Leipzig. BG Teubner, Leipzig / Berlin 1909, p. 44.
  3. ↑ Helga Schnabel-Schüle (Ed.): Reformation. Historical and cultural studies manual. JB Metzler, Stuttgart 2017, ISBN 978-3-476-02593-7 , p. 107.
  4. ↑ Christoph Reske: Printing places and printers of the 16th century in the German-speaking area. In: William A. Kelly, Jürgen Beyer (Eds.): The German book in Wolfenbüttel and abroad. Studies presented to Ulrich Kopp in his retirement. Tartu 2014, ISBN 978-9949-32-494-1 , pp. 279-299.
  5. ↑ Andrew Pettegree : The Luther brand. How an unknown monk made a small German town the center of the printing industry and himself the most famous man in Europe - and kicked off the Protestant Reformation. Insel, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-458-17691-6 , pp. 235–236.
  6. ↑ Friedrich Kapp : History of the German book trade up to the seventeenth century. Volume 1, Publishing House of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association, Leipzig 1886, pp. 405–448. (zeno.org)
  7. ↑ Julia Grubitzch: The portrait as a religious propaganda - masses of Martin Luther Cranach portrays the reformer. BoD - Books on Demand, 2009. (books.google.de)
  8. ^ Wolfgang Rudolf Schmidt: German booksellers. German book printer. Volume 5, Berlin / Eberswalde 1908, pp. 936-937; an appointment as a court printer is quoted.
  9. ^ Rudolf Schmidt: German booksellers. German book printer. Volume 4, Berlin / Eberswalde 1907, pp. 666-670. (zeno.org)
  10. ↑ Friedrich Kapp: History of the German book trade up to the seventeenth century. Volume 1, Verlag des Börsenverein der Deutschen Buchhandels, Leipzig 1886, pp. 736–757. (zeno.org)
  11. ^ Writings by Johannes Cochläus at Stöckel
personal data
SURNAME Stöckel, Wolfgang
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wolfgang Müller; Wolfgangus Molitoris de Monaco
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German printer of the Reformation period
DATE OF BIRTH 1473
PLACE OF BIRTH Upper Munich
DATE OF DEATH 1541
Place of death Dresden