Joseph Meyer (9 May 1796 - 27 June 1856) was a German industrialist and publisher, most noted for his encyclopaedia, Meyers Konversations-Lexikon.
Joseph Meyer (9 May 1796 - 27 June 1856) was a German industrialist and publisher, most noted for his encyclopaedia, Meyers Konversations-Lexikon.
Meyer was born at Gotha, Germany, and was educated as a merchant in Frankfurt am Main. He went to London in 1816, but returned to Germany in 1820 after business adventures and stock speculations fell through. Here he invested in enterprises such as the textile trade (1820–24). Soon after the first steam-hauled railway had started in December 1835, Meyer started to make business plans to start the first railways. He also bought some concessions for iron mining. In 1845 he founded the Deutsche Eisenbahnschienen-Compagnie auf Actien (German Railway Rail joint stock company).
Meyer operated very successfully as a publisher, employing a system of serial subscription to publications, which was new at that time. To this end he founded a company, Bibliographisches Institut, in Gotha in 1826. It published several editions of the Bible, works of classical literature ("Miniatur-Bibliothek der deutschen Classiker", "Groschen-Bibliothek"), the world in pictures on steel engravings ("Meyers Universum", 1833–61, 17 volumes in 12 languages with 80,000 subscribers all over Europe), and an encyclopaedia, ("das Grosse Conversations-Lexikon für die gebildeten Stände"; see Meyers Konversations-Lexikon, 1839–55, 52 volumes). His company grew substantially, and in 1828 he moved it from Gotha to Hildburghausen, [1] : 452/2 where he died thirty years later. [2] He became involved in cartography, producing many atlases with steel-engraved maps printed from steel plates, including Meyer's Groẞer Hand-Atlas (1843-1860). [1] : 458/2
In 1830, inspired by new of the July Revolution in France, Meyer founded newspapers that promoted the liberal ideals of the revolutionaries. [1] : 460/2 In 1848 he supported the revolutions that took place throughout Germany and much of Europe, and in 1849 was briefly imprisoned for his revolutionary activities. [1] : 461/1 His publishing and other businesses prospered, and by 1910 his grandsons constituted the richest family in the Saxon territories, with more total wealth than the King of Saxony. [1] : 464/1
Ferdinand I was the Emperor of Austria from March 1835 until his abdication in December 1848. He was also King of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia, King of Lombardy–Venetia and holder of many other lesser titles. Due to his passive but well-intentioned character, he gained the sobriquet The Benign or The Benevolent.
Meyers Konversations-Lexikon or Meyers Lexikon was a major encyclopedia in the German language that existed in various editions, and by several titles, from 1839 to 1984, when it merged with the Brockhaus Enzyklopädie.
Prince Frederick Josias of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld was an Austrian nobleman and military general.
The Brockhaus Enzyklopädie is a German-language encyclopedia which until 2009 was published by the F. A. Brockhaus printing house.
Gotha is the fifth-largest city in Thuringia, Germany, 20 kilometres west of Erfurt and 25 km east of Eisenach with a population of 44,000. The city is the capital of the district of Gotha and was also a residence of the Ernestine Wettins from 1640 until the end of monarchy in Germany in 1918. The House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha originating here spawned many European rulers, including the royal houses of the United Kingdom, Belgium, Portugal and Bulgaria.
The German publishing company Bibliographisches Institut was founded 1826 in Gotha by Joseph Meyer, moved 1828 to Hildburghausen and 1874 to Leipzig. Its production over the years includes such well-known titles as Meyers Lexikon, Brehms Tierleben ; Duden ; Meyers Reisebücher ; Meyers Klassiker ; atlases, newspapers and others.
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Bruno Hassenstein was a German cartographer born in Ruhla, Thuringia.
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Eugen Oswald, was a German journalist, translator, teacher and philologist who participated in the German revolutions of 1848–49.
Justus Perthes Publishers was established in 1785 in Gotha, Germany. Justus Perthes was primarily a publisher of geographic atlases and wall maps. He published Petermanns Geographische Mitteilungen and also the Almanach de Gotha. In 2016 the publisher was discontinued.
A variety of units of measurement were used in the various independent Italian states and Italian dependencies of foreign empires up to the unification of Italy in the 19th century. The units to measure length, volume, mass, etc., could differ widely between countries or between towns in a country, but usually not between a country and its capital.
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Sophie Caroline Pataky, real name Stipek was an Austrian bibliographer. With her two-volume Lexikon deutscher Frauen der Feder, the first German-language encyclopaedia of women writers edited by a woman was published in 1898.
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