Georg Joachim Göschen
| Georg Joachim Göschen | |
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| Born |
Jürgen (Georg) Joachim Göschen 22 April 1752 Bremen, Kingdom of Saxony |
| Died | 5 April 1828 (aged 75) Grimma-Hohnstädt, Saxony |
| Occupation | Printer, publisher, bookseller |
Georg Joachim Göschen (22 April 1752 – 5 April 1828) was a German publisher and bookseller in Leipzig, Kingdom of Saxony, notable for typography and his publications of music and philosophy. He was the patriarch of the Goschen family, whose English branch rose to prominence as bankers and politicians, including the Viscounts Goschen and Goschen baronets.
Born Jürgen Joachim Göschen, he was the second child of merchant Johann Reinhard and Gebeta Göschen. Johann's own father, Emanuel, was a doctor who had settled in Bremen. Johann eventually was ruined financially and abandoned the family. Georg was admitted to the August Hermann Francke orphanage until relatives arranged for him to live in Arbergen with Rev. Hinrich Erhard Heeren, who educated him. At age 15, he began an apprenticeship with the bookseller Johann Heinrich Cramer in Bremen. In 1772, he moved to Leipzig, where he worked as an assistant to publisher Siegfried Leberecht Crusius.
In 1785, with the financial backing of Christian Gottfried Körner, Göschen opened his own publishing house in Leipzig, the G.J. Göschen'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung. His first major client was Körner's friend Friedrich Schiller, who was looking for someone to publish his journal Thalia. Göschen published numerous works for Schiller, including Don Carlos in 1787 and Geschichte des dreißigjährigen Kriegs (A History of the Thirty Years' War) in 1789.
One of Göschen's early successes was Rudolph Zacharias Becker's Noth- und Hülfsbüchlein für Bauersleute (Emergency Advice Booklet for Peasants). With 30,000 copies sold in its first edition, the publication was a cornerstone of educational history in Germany.
Göschen much preferred to print more classic subjects and scientific journals, and was the first German publisher to print affordable books for the general public. From 1786 to 1790, he published the first complete edition of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's works in eight volumes. He also published 42 volumes of the works of Christoph Martin Wieland.
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