Alexander Friedrich Wilhelm Duncker (Feb. 18 1813 in Berlin – Aug. 23 1879 Id

ID

ID, I.D. or id may refer to:* The id, ego, and super-ego comprise the psychic apparatus defined in Sigmund Freud's structural model of the psyche- Abbreviations :...

) was a German publisher and bookseller.

Life and Family

He was descended from a successful Berlin family of booksellers, the son of Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Duncker (1786-1869) and Fanny Duncker (neé Wolff). His brothers included historian and politician Maximilian Duncker

Maximilian Wolfgang Duncker

Maximilian Wolfgang Duncker was a German historian and politician.-Life:Duncker was born in Berlin, Province of Brandenburg, as the eldest son of the publisher Karl Duncker...

 (1811-1886), and publisher and pundit Franz Duncker (1822-1888), founder of a trade union with labor economist Max Hirsch

Max Hirsch (labor economist)

Max Hirsch was a German political economist and politician.-Biography:...

 (1832-1905). Another brother, Hermann Carl Rudolf Duncker (1817-1892) was a member of the Prussian National Assembly

Prussian National Assembly

The Prussian National Assembly came into being after the 1848 revolutions and was tasked with drawing up a constitution for the Kingdom of Prussia. It first met in the Berlin Singakademie....

 and a mayor of Berlin.

Duncker's father had founded the publishing firm Duncker & Humblot in 1809, running it alone after business partner Peter Humblot died in 1828. Alexander Duncker started his education in 1829. After apprenticeships with Friedrich Christoph Perthes

Friedrich Christoph Perthes

Friedrich Christoph Perthes was a German publisher, nephew of Johan Georg Perthes.Perthes was born at Rudolstadtin Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt. At the age of fifteen he became an apprentice in the service of Adam Friedrich Bohme, a bookseller in Leipzig, with whom he remained for about six years...

 and Johann Besser in Hamburg, Duncker founded his own firm, "Verlag Alexander Duncker." His firm specialized in Belles lettres (German: Belletristik) and visual arts. Among the authors he published were Thekla von Gumpert, Ida Hahn-Hahn, Paul Heyse, Karl von Holtei, August Kopisch

August Kopisch

August Kopisch , was a German poet and painter.-Biography:Kopisch was born on 26 May 1799 in Breslau, Prussia...

, Fanny Lewald

Fanny Lewald

Fanny Lewald was a German Jewish author-Biography:She was born at Königsberg in East Prussia. When seventeen years of age she accepted Christianity. She traveled in the German Confederation, France and Italy...

, Elise Polko

Elise Polko

Elise Vogel Polko was a German novelist.-Biography:She was a sister of Eduard Vogel, the African explorer, and attained considerable fame as a public singer, but retired from the stage after her marriage to Polko, a scientist, and thenceforth devoted herself to literature, in which field she won...

, Christian Friedrich Scherenberg, Hermann von Pücker-Muskau, and Friedrich von Uechtriz. He was instrumental in promoting new authors, and some of them Emanuel Geibel

Emanuel Geibel

Emanuel von Geibel , German poet and playwright, was born at Lübeck, the son of a pastor in the city.He was originally intended for his father's profession and studied at Bonn and Berlin, but his real interests lay not in theology but in classical and romance philology. In 1838 he accepted a...

, Wilhelm Jensen

Wilhelm Jensen

Wilhelm Hermann Jensen was a German writer and poet.-Biography:Wilhelm Jensen was born at Heiligenhafen in Holstein , the natural son of Swenn Hans Jensen , the Mayor of the city of Kiel, later administrator of the German/Danish island of Sylt, who came of old patrician Frisian stock...

, Marie Petersen

Marie Petersen

Marie Luise Auguste Petersen was a German author famous for her fairy tale Princess Ilse.Petersen came from a well off family of pharmacists in Frankfurt...

, Gustav zu Putlitz, and Theodor Storm

Theodor Storm

Hans Theodor Woldsen Storm , commonly known as Theodor Storm, was a German writer.-Life:Storm was born in Husum, at the west coast of Schleswig than an independent duchy and ruled by the king of Denmark...

 found their first recognition through Duncker's efforts.

Duncker had far-reaching political connections and regularly corresponded with King Friedrich Wilhelm IV

Frederick William IV of Prussia

|align=right|Upon his accession, he toned down the reactionary policies enacted by his father, easing press censorship and promising to enact a constitution at some point, but he refused to enact a popular legislative assembly, preferring to work with the aristocracy through "united committees" of...

. Later, he maintained contact with Emperor William I

William I, German Emperor

William I, also known as Wilhelm I , of the House of Hohenzollern was the King of Prussia and the first German Emperor .Under the leadership of William and his Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, Prussia achieved the unification of Germany and the...

. From 1841 he held the title "Royal Court Bookseller." As a reserve officer attaining the rank of lieutenant colonel

Lieutenant colonel

Lieutenant colonel is a rank of commissioned officer in the armies and most marine forces and some air forces of the world, typically ranking above a major and below a colonel. The rank of lieutenant colonel is often shortened to simply "colonel" in conversation and in unofficial correspondence...

, he participated in the wars against Denmark (1864), Austria (1866)

Austro-Prussian War

The Austro-Prussian War was a war fought in 1866 between the German Confederation under the leadership of the Austrian Empire and its German allies on one side and the Kingdom of Prussia with its German allies and Italy on the...

, and France (1870-71)

Franco-Prussian War

The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the 1870 War was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia. Prussia was aided by the North German Confederation, of which it was a member, and the South German states of Baden, Württemberg and...

.

Works

A high point in his output was a graphic collection of Prussian castles under the title, The rural residences, palaces and residences of the Prussian nobility, together with the royal family, vacation home, and garden residences in vivid, artistically executed, colorful illustrations with accompanying text appearing from 1857-1883. The series of 320 signatures in 16 volumes included 960 color lithographs measuring 20x15 cm.


File:1865 Glietz.jpeg| Manor of Glietz Brandebourg in 1865
File:Schloss Tamsel.jpg| Tamse

Tamse

Tamse is a village in Muhu Parish, Saare County in western Estonia....

File:Rittergut Fredersdorf Sammlung Duncker.jpg|Fredersdorf Manor
File:Ahrensburg Lithographie .JPG|Ahrensburg

Ahrensburg

Ahrensburg is a town in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is part of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region, situated in Stormarn. Its population around 31,700 . Its outstanding sight is the Renaissance castle dating from 1595....

 in Schleswig-Holstein

Schleswig-Holstein

Schleswig-Holstein is the northernmost of the sixteen states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Schleswig...

File:Burg Loersfeld.jpg| Lörsfeld Hall
File:Gut Rosbitek Sammlung Duncker.jpg|Rozbitek
File:Schloss Stolzenfels Sammlung Duncker.jpg|Stolzenfels Castle

Stolzenfels Castle

Stolzenfels Castle is a castle near Koblenz on the Rhine, Germany.Finished in 1259, Stolzenfels was used to protect the toll station at the Rhine, where the ships, back then were the main transport for goods, had to stop and pay toll...

File:Tillowitz - Schloss.jpg|Tillowitz (Silisia)

Another large project was an edition of the political correspondance of Frederick the Great, which by Duncker's death had appeared in 24 volumes – eventually totaling 46 volumes by 1939 when it was interrupted by the second world war). The project resumed with the issue of volume 47 in 2003.

Duncker also wrote works including:

• 1851 The Patriots: National drama in three acts.
• 1867 Through Night to the Light. A time story
• 1877 Off the road. Poems of a vagabond
• 1886 Angiola Folimarino (novella)
• 1891 Her Picture (novella)
• 1897 The Swallows. A children's tale.