Friedrich Justin Bertuch

Friedrich Johann Justin Bertuch (30 September 1747 – 3 April 1822) was a German publisher and patron of the arts. He co-founded the Fürstliche freie Zeichenschule Weimar with the painter Georg Melchior Kraus in 1776. He was the father of the writer and journalist Karl Bertuch.

Bertuch came from a family attested in the Tennstedt area of Thuringia since the 15th century. His family was also strongly connected with the area's scientific and intellectual fields (e.g. Justin Bertuch 1654–1726, director of the Fürstenschule Schulpforta at Naumburg 1701–16). When Friedrich Johann Justin Bertuch was 5, his father Justinus became garrison doctor in the service of duke Ernst August Konstantin at Blutsturz. He lost his mother aged 15 and grew up in the house of his uncle Gottfried Matthias Ludwig Schrön (a member of the Weimarer Rat der Landschaftskasse). He attended the Weimar Gymnasium, studied from 1765 to 1769 theology then law at the Landesuniversität in Jena. His main interest, however, was for literature and natural history.

His acquaintance with Freiherr Ludwig Heinrich Bachoff von Echt allowed the 22-year-old Bertuch to break off his studies without taking his final exams, and that same year he began work as tutor to Ludwig's son at the Gut Dobitschen at Altenburg, holding the post until 1773. From him he learned Spanish (Bachoff von Echt was envoy to Spain), translating Don Quixote into German and self-publishing it in 1774. His translations from English and French literature also promised success.

In 1773 he returned to Weimar for health reasons, though he maintained contacts with the court kapellmeister Ernst Wilhelm Wolf and his wife, the daughter of the famous Konzertmeister Franz Benda, as well as with the acting couple Friederike and Abel Seyler, the actor Konrad Ekhof and the professor at the gymnasium Johann Karl August Musäus. He funded his living expenses until 1796 as manager of the ducal private finances.

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