The German publishing company was founded 1826 in
Gotha
Gotha () is the fifth-largest city in Thuringia, Germany, west of Erfurt and east of Eisenach with a population of 44,000. The city is the capital of the Gotha (district), district of Gotha and was also a residence of the Ernestine House of Wet ...
by
Joseph Meyer, moved 1828 to Hildburghausen and 1874 to
Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...
.
Its production over the years includes such well-known titles as ' (encyclopaedias, since 1839, see '), ' (animal life, 1863–1869, 4th ed. 1911–1918); ' (dictionaries on every aspect of the language, since 1880); ' (guide books, 1862–1936); ' (home and foreign literature); atlases (', '), newspapers (''Koloniale Zeitschrift'')
and others.
The buildings of the company were completely destroyed by the bombing raids on Leipzig 1943/1944; the company itself expropriated by the communist regime of
East Germany
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...
in 1946 and turned into a '. The shareholders moved the company to
Mannheim
Mannheim (; Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (german: Universitätsstadt Mannheim), is the second-largest city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg after the state capital of Stuttgart, and Germany's ...
in
West Germany
West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...
in 1953 (). Titles like ', ', ' and ' appeared again. In Leipzig remained the , operating in the same field, publishing '", ' etc.
In 1984 amalgamated with its biggest competitor in the market of reference works, of Wiesbaden to Bibliographisches Institut & F. A. Brockhaus AG,
having their seat in Mannheim. After the
German reunification the company regained its former properties in Leipzig in 1991.
See also
*
Verlag Enzyklopädie
(English: ''Publisher Encyclopedia'') was an East-German publishing house located in Leipzig. It was founded on 1 November 1956 by the German Democratic Republic (GDR) as a VEB. In 1964, the publishing house was merged with the larger (BI), wi ...
*
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
1826 establishments in Germany
Companies based in Leipzig
Companies established in 1826
Mass media in Gotha
Mass media in Leipzig
Mass media in Mannheim
Publishing companies of Germany
Book publishing companies of Germany