Male friendship, loyalty and work at Perthes publishing house around 1900

The lecture will focus on the close, friendly relationship between the Göttingen geography professor Hermann Wagner and the publisher Bernhard II. Perthes. The two had a long-standing relationship. Even as a grammar school teacher at the Ernestinum in Gotha, Wagner worked as a freelance employee of the Perthes publishing house until the mid-1870s, which Bernhard Perthes, who had come of age, took over in 1881. Wagner, who had held the Göttingen Chair of Geography since 1880, became one of the young publisher's closest confidants during the reorganisation of the publishing house after the death of August Petermann, whose son and future successor - Joachim Perthes – completed his doctorate under Wagner in 1913. Based on letters, publishing correspondence and personal relationships, the speaker will analyse how male friendships and loyalties structured the work at the publishing house – and what emotional, social and scientific dependencies arose from this.

At the end of the evening, the Friends of the Gotha Research Library Association invites you to a small reception.

The speaker
Charlotte Prauß is currently researching the emergence of colonial knowledge at the University of Göttingen as a doctoral student at Justus Liebig University Giessen.

The event can also be attended digitally for the first time. Simply click on the following link.