Joseph Meyer

Joseph Meyer (May 9, 1796, Gotha, Germany – June 27, 1856, Hildburghausen, Germany) was a German industrialist and publisher.

Meyer was educated as merchant in Frankfurt am Main. He went to London in 1816, but returned to Germany in 1820 after business adventures and stock speculations fell through; nor did he succeed in the other enterprises he initiated like investments in textile-trade (1820–24), mining industry and railways in the thirties and forties of the 19th century. However, he operated very successfully as a publisher, practising the system of subscription to serial works, which was new at that time. To this end he founded the company "Bibliographisches Institut" in Gotha in 1826, which issued several bible-editions, classical literature ("Miniatur-Bibliothek der deutschen Classiker", "Groschen-Bibliothek"), atlases, the world in pictures on steel engravings ("Meyers Universum", 1833–61, 17 volumes in 12 languages with 80,000 subscribers all over Europe), and the encyclopaedia "das Grosse Conversations-Lexikon für die gebildeten Stände" (see Meyers Konversations-Lexikon), 1839–55, 52 volumes.