Gabelsberger Shorthand Silver Award Medal

Franz Xaver Gabelsberger (9 February 1789,

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

- 4 January 1849, Munich) was a German stenographer; the inventor of

Gabelsberger shorthand Gabelsberger shorthand, named for its creator, is a form of shorthand previously common in Germany and Austria. Created c. 1817 by Franz Xaver Gabelsberger, it was first fully described in the 1834 textbook ''Anleitung zur deutschen Redezeichenk ...

Biography

His father was a wind instrument manufacturer, originally from Mainburg, who died while Franz was still in school. As a result, he was transferred to a convent school and finished his studies at the Alten Gymnasium in 1807. He was unable to pursue his education further, due to lack of funds and poor health. Instead, he entered the civil service of the newly established

Kingdom of Bavaria The Kingdom of Bavaria (german: Königreich Bayern; ; spelled ''Baiern'' until 1825) was a German state that succeeded the former Electorate of Bavaria in 1805 and continued to exist until 1918. With the unification of Germany into the German ...

. His superiors were impressed by his skills in calligraphy. Meanwhile, he was contemplating a system that would make writing faster and easier. In 1817, he began to develop his system. As the German bureaucracies expanded, rapid transcription became essential. England and France already had such systems, but they proved difficult to adapt to German. Gabelsberger's method caught on quickly, and he became the first stenographer for the Bavarian State Parliament. He was also promoted to Ministerial Secretary, and his system was certified by the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities as being more reliable and legible than previous systems. Later, he was awarded 1,000 Gulden per year, half of which was to be used for his shorthand students. His method was officially named and published in 1834. He designed an abbreviation

typeface A typeface (or font family) is the design of lettering that can include variations in size, weight (e.g. bold), slope (e.g. italic), width (e.g. condensed), and so on. Each of these variations of the typeface is a font. There are thousands o ...

in 1840. In 1849, he suffered a stroke while out for a walk, and died shortly after. He was interred in the Alter Südfriedhof. From then until 1902, his system was revised three times. By that time, the number of users was estimated to be four million. Monuments have been dedicated to him in Munich, Vienna, and

Traunstein Traunstein (Central Bavarian: ''Traunstoa'') is a town in the south-eastern part of Bavaria, Germany, and is the administrative center of a much larger district of the same name. The town serves as a local government, retail, health services, ...

. Streets in numerous German and Austrian cities are named after him. The medal of honor awarded by the German Stenographers' Association bears his likeness.

Sources

* ''Franz Gabelsberger und seine Kunst''.

Festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...

. G. Franzscher Verlag, Munich 1890
Online
* * * Jürgen Wurst: "Franz Xaver Gabelsberger". In: üAlexander Langheiter (Ed.): ''Monachia. Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus''. Munich 2005, , pg.169 * Emil Zehl: ''Der Gabelsberger Stenographen-Verein zu Leipzig von 1846–1896''

* Joseph Alteneder, ''Franz Xaver Gabelsberger, Erfinder der deutschen Stenographie'', Vol. 1: "Gabelsbergers Lebensverhältnisse und öffentliche Tätigkeit", G. Franzscher Verlag, 1902

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gabelsberger, Franz Xaver 1789 births 1849 deaths 19th-century German inventors Creators of writing systems People educated at the Wilhelmsgymnasium (Munich) Burials at the Alter Südfriedhof