Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Duncker

Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Duncker
Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Duncker unknown artist: 1867
Born	(1781-05-25)25 May 1781 Berlin, Prussia
Died	15 July 1869 Berlin, Prussia
Occupation	publisher
Spouse(s)	Fanny Levi (1791–1869)
Children	Maximilian Duncker (1811-1886) Alexander Duncker (1813-1897) (1817-1893) Franz Duncker (1822-1888) - and others
Parent(s)	Christian Wilhelm Duncker (1749-1783) Charlotte Adolphie

Carl Duncker (25 March 1781 - 15 July 1869) was a German publisher. He played an important part in the early creation and growth of the publishing firm which became , more recently the publishers of the Neue Deutsche Biographie (biographical dictionary).

Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Duncker was born in Berlin, his parents' only recorded child. His father, the merchant Christian Wilhelm Duncker (1749-1783), died while he was still an infant. Curiously, his father and grandfather had also both, similarly, lost their own fathers in infancy. His mother, Charlotte (born Charlotte Adolphie), remarried, which made it possible to preserve his father's business.

In 1810 Duncker himself married Fanny Levi (1791–1869), a daughter of the banker and military supplier Wolff Levy (who confusingly changed his name to "Wolff Levy Delmar" in 1810 or 1812). Their children included the historian Maximilian Duncker (1811-1886), the Berlin mayor Hermann Duncker () (1817-1893) and the publisher-politician Franz Duncker (1822-1888). The novelist Dora Duncker () was a granddaughter.

Duncker was briefly a pupil at the prestigious in Berlin but his step father decided that a career in business would suit him better than an academic one, and he was switched to a commercial school recently established by Karl Spazier () and a Dr Schulze. After this he was set up in business in a small shop. However, the late eighteenth century was a period of growth in publishing and literature and Duncker found himself increasingly drawn into the world of books. In November 1800 he moved to Leipzig where he embarked on an apprenticeship in the with Georg Voß. On completion of his training period Voß wrote that Duncker had applied himself to his work and to his learning "with demonstrable care and fidelity" ("mit der bewiesenen Treue und Aufmerksamkeit"). It becomes apparent that in Voß he had acquired a lifelong friend and mentor.

He returned to Berlin at the beginning of February 1806, accepting an invitation to take a job as an assistant to the book dealer and publisher Heinrich Frölich whose business, since its establishment in 1798, had thrived: Frölich had built up excellent literary and commercial connections. However, just six weeks after Duncker had joined him, on 11 March 1806 Frölich died suddenly, and Carl Duncker found himself running the firm. Duncker was confident that he would be able to sustain the business, but Frölich's widow was vehemently of the opinion that he was too young and inexperienced to do so. They called in the author and book dealer Friedrich Nicolai, a venerated elder of the Berlin book world, to arbitrate. Nicolai came down in support of Duncker who was left in post, to manage the business through what proved to be an exceptionally difficult couple of years for those seeking to live through commerce. Berlin was occupied by French troops between October 1806 and December 1808, while intensified fighting persisted in Silesia and East Prussia, where the king had been obliged to move with his court and government following military defeat in 1806. International trade was also inhibited by the blockade of the Prussian ports imposed by the British navy in response to Emperor Napoleon's so-called Continental System.