L'esprit d'escalier

T he grave stone of Friedrich Arnold Brockhaus (* 1772 in Dortmund - † 1823 in Leipzig), the founder of the Brockhaus publishing house and editor of the first Brockhaus encyclopaedia, is located in the stonework of the old St. John's cemetery in Leipzig. Moreover there are the grave stones of six other members of the Brockhaus family, namely: Heinrich Brockhaus (* 1804 in Amsterdam - † 1874 in Leipzig), doctor of philosophy, as well as booksellers and print shop owner, Hermann Brockhaus (* 1772 in Dortmund - † 1877 in Leipzig) Doctor and Professor of Philosophy and Royal. Saxon. Privy Councillor, Frederick Clemens Brockhaus (* 1837 in Dresden - † 1877 in Leipzig), doctor and professor of philosophy, as well as pastor of St. John's, Heinrich Rudolf Brockhaus (* 1838 in Leipzig - † 1898 in Leipzig), publisher and bookseller, Rudolf Heinrich Brockhaus (* 1864 - † 1943), also a publisher and bookseller Eric Raphael Brockhaus (* 1870 - † 1945), an engineer.
Similarly as in the case of Reclam-Verlag publishing house and the island passed under the German Brockhaus publishing division two. Brockhaus said Eberhard continued in 1945, the publisher tradition in his first under the name Wiesbaden away, where the publisher after the expropriation of the Leipzig headquarters but was renamed again as FA Brockhaus. In 1984 FA Brockhaus merged from existential needs ^a major with his opponents - the Bibliographical Institute Ltd ^two of the company BIFAB (Bibliographic Institut & FA Brockhaus AG), the common seat from 1985 to Mannheim was. Four years later rose to the dictionary publisher Langenscheidt as a major shareholder in the company.
In contrast, the Leipzig publishing house was expropriated in 1953 and eventually converted into a state-owned enterprise, namely the VEB FA Brockhaus of Leipzig, who was until 1990. Then came the re-privatization. In 1992, the Leipzig publisher to a subsidiary of Bibliographic Institut & FA Brockhaus AG, named FA Brockhaus GmbH, unlike in the case of Reclam-Verlag, were remembered in Mannheim, apparently on their own tradition and is still with her. A Leipzig branch continues to exist and was involved in 2005, the 21st Bring out edition of the Brockhaus encyclopedia in 30 volumes and 300,000 keywords. This is the last printed edition of the encyclopedia. Henceforth, they will appear exclusively in digital form. The first digital edition appeared in 2002 on two CD-ROMs and a DVD. The latest version - the 21st Edition - was published in book form and digitally onto two DVD-ROMs and on a USB stick.

1. The market was saturated and therefore slow-selling encyclopedias [ ← ]
2. Founded in 1824 by Joseph Meyer in Gotha, first to Leipzig to Hildburghausen in 1874 and moved [ ← ]

A n the west wall of the Leipzig Südfriedhofs in Division III is the tomb of Mr. Julius Meyer, the most significant addition to Friedrich Arnold Brockhaus German encyclopedia publisher. Meyer was born on 4 April 1826 as son of publisher Joseph Meyer was born in Gotha. His father was the one who founded the publishing house called "Bibliographical Institute", which developed under Julius Meyer to bloom. To suppress it would mean to tell only half the story. So it was allowed to begin with the father.
Joseph Meyer was born in 1796 in Gotha, growing up there, first attended a grammar school and then headed by a minister Schulpensionat. At the age of thirteen, he began a four-year apprenticeship as a clerk in a grocery store in Frankfurt and was subsequently in 1817 to London to try his fortune as a merchant miscalculated, after interim successes, however, in 1820, in coffee shops and drive thus his business into bankruptcy. Finally he had to leave London to escape the debtors' prison.
A year later tried his hand as an entrepreneur Bleaching and Dyeing entangled, but again speculation that led to large losses and even fail so let this company. After he had given in the meantime at his former school language teaching and was entered as a writer in appearance, Meyer took over in 1824 a position in Henning's bookstore in Gotha, where he was trusted with the publication of a weekly correspondence sheet for merchants, which under his Aegis has been a great success. In addition, Meyer was also Shakespeare published in German, which is due to criticism of his translation designed but less successful.
After this employment relationship, however, lured him again independence, so he founded in 1826, the above-mentioned Bibliographical Institute. At the third attempt at independence, Meyer - as it should prove to you soon - found his destiny. His first project as an independent publisher that is a merchant was a resounding success. This project consisted of installing inexpensive editions of the classics under the name "Cabinet Library of the German classics." In this series appeared 150 bands, of which 40,000 copies were ever sold ^one , which was a huge success. He violated copyrights but also against what the competition is less disturbing than his offensive and among other things, new ways of advertising and marketing bypassed, with whom he sometimes even the established booksellers. Meyer said advertised in newspapers with not a single ad for his publications, but the same on several pages. He was putting up posters advertising on post offices and mail to millions of leaflets. The effect of these campaigns was immediate. Interested investigated the bookshops abound on to buy the advertised title, why did the bookstores forced to have these in stock. In the areas that possessed no bookstores or their bookstores did not want to cooperate with Meyer, he won from outside the industry as a distributor of commercial agents, which in turn hundreds colporteurs ² sent, so peddlers with abdominal stores in the country.
In addition, Meyer brought in his publications the Subskriptionsprinzip used. Especially for multi-volume publications, or otherwise could be costly, pre-ordered via the subscription, the subscription is similar to the magazines. This allowed the publisher to determine the one hand the number of copies that would be salable and second, whether this would at least cover the cost of production. Thus did reduce the risk of publishing. The subscriber paid the entire publication in advance, but was only partially supplied as a week over a period of one year. This was partly so far that not only individual volumes were delivered successively, but only two arcs, corresponding to 32 pages. Did you complete all the forms together, could they be bound in book binding. On the way, let the production volumes for the publisher manageable. At the same time this piecemeal acquisition for less affluent customers was affordable, so new buyers have been developed. Thus Meyer also acted in the spirit of the Enlightenment impetus arising from corporate motto "Education for All". Another reason for the low prices of Meyer's books and their resulting therefrom large spread was also the above mentioned fact that Meyer reprinted some works illegally, ie without having acquired the licenses. With such pirated editions, he was able to reduce its production costs and pass these cost savings to its customers. It was not until about 40 years later - namely, on 9 November 1867 - was enacted a law by which all those literary works were public domain, the authors of which at least 30 years had recently died. This was true on a work from then on had neither the publisher nor any descendants of the author's eligible compensation to be paid, which accounted for a significant cost factor in the production of books. It is therefore not to be regarded as a coincidence that the young publisher Philipp Reclam. just in the year in which this law was enacted, with the publication of his still selling Universal Library began.

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1. Source: website of the publisher [ ← ]
2. from queen or colporter from the Old Fr. Turn wear a col - on the shoulders, neck wear the [ ← ]