Weidmannsche Buchhandlung is a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 book publisher established in 1680 that remained independent until it was acquired by Verlag Georg Olms in 1983..

History

Weidmannsche Buchhandlung was established in 1680 in Frankfurt

Frankfurt

Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...

 by Moritz Georg Weidmann (1658-1693), who moved to Leipzig in 1681.
Johann Ludwig Gleditsch, brother of Johann Friedrich Gleditsch

Johann Friedrich Gleditsch

Johann Friedrich Gleditsch was a major book publisher in the late 17th and early 18th centuries.-Early career:...

, married Weidmann's widow in 1694 and built up the business of the house, while training the younger Moritz Georg Weidmann (1686 - 1743)

Moritz Georg Weidmann (1686 - 1743)

Moritz Georg Weidmann was a German bookseller and publisher based in Leipzig, accredited to the courts of Poland and the Electorate of Saxony.He was the son of the Moritz Georg Weidmann Senior...

 to take over the business.
Gleditsch published authors such as Wieland

Christoph Martin Wieland

Christoph Martin Wieland was a German poet and writer.- Biography :He was born at Oberholzheim , which then belonged to the Free Imperial City of Biberach an der Riss in the south-east of the modern-day state of Baden-Württemberg...

, Gellert

Christian Fürchtegott Gellert

Christian Fürchtegott Gellert was a German poet, one of the forerunners of the golden age of German literature that was ushered in by Lessing.-Biography:...

, Lessing, Lavater

Johann Kaspar Lavater

Johann Kaspar Lavater was a Swiss poet and physiognomist.-Early life:Lavater was born at Zürich, and educated at the Gymnasium there, where J. J. Bodmer and J. J...

 and Heyne.
The most significant achievement of the Gleditsch brothers was to persuade the leading Dutch booksellers to send their works to the Leipzig fair instead of to Frankfurt.

Weidmannsche Buchhandlung continued to publish in Leipzig until 1854, reaching its height under Philipp Erasmus Reich, called the "nation's bookseller".
The firm moved to Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

 in 1854, and continued publishing in Berlin, Dublin and Zurich

Zürich

Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...

 under the Reimer publishing family.
In 1983 the firm was taken over by Verlag Georg Olms.

Leadership

The publishing house was led by:

• Moritz Georg Weidmann (1658-1693) (1680-1693)
• Johann Ludwig Gleditsch (1694-1717)
• Moritz Georg Weidmann (1686 - 1743)
  Moritz Georg Weidmann (1686 - 1743)
  Moritz Georg Weidmann was a German bookseller and publisher based in Leipzig, accredited to the courts of Poland and the Electorate of Saxony.He was the son of the Moritz Georg Weidmann Senior...
  
   (1713/1717-1743)
• Philipp Erasmus Reich (1746-1787)
• Georg Andreas Reimer (1822 -1832)
• Karl Reimer und Salomon Hirzel (1830-1852/1858)
• Hans Reimer d. Ä. (1865-1887)
• Paul Parey und Ernst Vollert (1888-1928)
• Hans Reimer d.J. (1913-1951)
• Walter Georg Olms (1983-)

Published writers

The publisher has published writings of:

• Ernst Moritz Arndt
  Ernst Moritz Arndt
  Ernst Moritz Arndt was a German nationalistic and antisemitic author and poet. Early in his life, he fought for the abolition of serfdom, later against Napoleonic dominance over Germany, and had to flee to Sweden for some time due to his anti-French positions...
  
  
• Adelbert von Chamisso
  Adelbert von Chamisso
  Adelbert von Chamisso was a German poet and botanist.- Life :He was born Louis Charles Adélaïde de Chamissot at the château of Boncourt at Ante, in Champagne, France, the ancestral seat of his family...
  
  
• Christian Fürchtegott Gellert
  Christian Fürchtegott Gellert
  Christian Fürchtegott Gellert was a German poet, one of the forerunners of the golden age of German literature that was ushered in by Lessing.-Biography:...
  
  
• Johann Kaspar Lavater
  Johann Kaspar Lavater
  Johann Kaspar Lavater was a Swiss poet and physiognomist.-Early life:Lavater was born at Zürich, and educated at the Gymnasium there, where J. J. Bodmer and J. J...
  
  
• Johann Gottfried Herder
  Johann Gottfried Herder
  Johann Gottfried von Herder was a German philosopher, theologian, poet, and literary critic. He is associated with the periods of Enlightenment, Sturm und Drang, and Weimar Classicism.-Biography:...
  
  
• Alexander von Humboldt
  Alexander von Humboldt
  Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander Freiherr von Humboldt was a German naturalist and explorer, and the younger brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt...
  
  
• Christoph Martin Wieland
  Christoph Martin Wieland
  Christoph Martin Wieland was a German poet and writer.- Biography :He was born at Oberholzheim , which then belonged to the Free Imperial City of Biberach an der Riss in the south-east of the modern-day state of Baden-Württemberg...
  
  
• Jean Paul
  Jean Paul
  Jean Paul , born Johann Paul Friedrich Richter, was a German Romantic writer, best known for his humorous novels and stories.-Life and work:...
  
  
• August Wilhelm
• Friedrich Schlegel
• Brothers Grimm
  Brothers Grimm
  The Brothers Grimm , Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm , were German academics, linguists, cultural researchers, and authors who collected folklore and published several collections of it as Grimm's Fairy Tales, which became very popular...
  
  
• Adolf Kaegi
• Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff
  Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff
  Enno Friedrich Wichard Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff was a German Classical Philologist. Wilamowitz, as he is known in scholarly circles, was a renowned authority on Ancient Greece and its literature.- Youth :...
  
  
• Heinrich Friedrich Karl Freiherr vom Stein
• Theodore Mommsen

Further reading

• Buchner, Karl: Wieland und die Weidmannsche Buchhandlung: Zur Geschichte deutscher Literatur und deutschen Buchhandels. Berlin: Weidmann 1871.
• Kurtze, Gerhard: Philipp Erasmus Reich. Erster Buchhändler der Nation. In: Die großen Leipziger: 26 Annäherungen. Vera Hauschild (Hrsg.). Frankfurt/Main & Leipzig: Insel Verlag 1996. S. 144-154.
• Lehmstedt, Mark: Philipp Erasmus Reich (1717-1787). Verleger der Aufklärung und Reformer des deutschen Buchhandels. (Ausstellungskatalog). Leipzig: Karl-Marx-Universität 1989.
• Jauernig, Erich (Hrgs.): 250 Jahre Weidmannsche Buchhandlung. In: Monatsschrift für Höhere Schulen. Beilage/ Heft 4. Berlin: 1930.