Johann Friedrich Cotta: Publisher-Statesman-Entrepreneur

Dr. Fischer, author of the much-lauded 1000-page biography of Cotta published in 2014 on the occasion of his 250th birthday, will give an introduction to this enormously important (but in the USA all-too-little-known) figure who was the most significant German publisher of all time. At once a remarkable visionary, a major philanthropist and thoroughly political figure, Cotta is also a striking example of how one can take charge of and transform one’s own life.

Following his 1985 PhD thesis on Thomas Bernhard, Fischer was head of the Cotta-Archive at the German Literature Archive (DLA), Marbach/N. from 1992–2007, and since then the Director of the Goethe & Schiller Archive of the Klassik Foundation in Weimar. He has published extensively on German literature and the history of ideas in the 18th-20th century as well as on the history of publishing.

To make appointments to speak with Dr. Fischer during his office hours please call 258–4141.