Passion & Kalkül (eBook)

This book presents the history of the publishing house of Georg Andreas Reimer (1776-1842), the most important publisher of the German Romantics, a friend of Friedrich Schleiermacher's, Ernst Moritz Arndt's and Caspar David Friedrich's; at the same time, it is the history of one of the most important educational and academic publishing houses in the first half of the 19th century. The first part of the account is largely biographical and traces the early years of the Berlin publishing house up to the Wars of Liberation and the reactions against the demagogues around 1820. During this time, Reimer's business grew significantly ? partly through the acquisition of the Weidmann'sche Buchhandlung in Leipzig. The individual accounts of the day-to-day running of the publishing house utilise hitherto unknown sources ? correspondence, journals and contracts. Tables and selected transcriptions of the material can be accessed on the accompanying CD-ROM. Reimer's role as publisher of the Romantics is illustrated using his relationships with August Wilhelm Schlegel and E.T.A. Hoffmann. Previously disregarded correspondence on the Kinder- und Hausmärchen casts a new light on the publisher's relationships with the Brothers Grimm. A critical analysis of financial records relating to Ludwig Tieck permits a new interpretation of the position of the publisher's most productive literary author, translator and editor.