Nikolaus Simrock

Nikolaus Simrock (* August 23, 1751 in Mainz, † June 12, 1832 in Bonn) was bugler at the Electoral Cologne court in Bonn, a friend of Ludwig van Beethoven and founder of the music publisher N. Simrock.

Life

Nikolaus Simrock was born the son of a corporal in the Electoral Mainz Mainz and still stood before reaching his 16th birthday as a horn player in a French military chapel. Back in the Rhineland, he applied to the Cologne Elector Maximilian Friedrich for a job in the Bonn court orchestra, in which he was taken by order dated March 23, 1775 April 1, 1775 as " bugler " with an annual salary of 300 florins.

Simrock was one of the most famous philosophers of the Enlightenment in the Electoral Cologne residence. He was like his colleague Franz Anton Ries and Christian Gottlob Neefe member of Minervalkirche Stagira in Bonn, an association of the Illuminati order. After its demise, he was a founding member of the Bonn Reading Society. He was also a member of the Masonic Lodge, founded in 1805 in Bonn Les frères courageux.

For the court orchestra Simrock had very soon the task to procure the music. He joined show " Intelligenzblatt Bönnischen " since 1785 this order with the construction of its own distribution of music and other articles ( for example, wine), such as advertisements in. 1790, for example, he offers " papers of all types, envelopes, inks, paints, lead and Roth pens, pen knife, paper scissors, forks and hammers, old and new instruments, different kinds of pianos, violin and double bass bow, further rosin and all kinds music [ ... ] of the highest quality and at the cheapest prices. "

As part of its business activities Nikolaus Simrock founded in 1793 in Bonn, the music publisher N. Simrock. One reason for the success of this enterprise was - in addition to Simrock's business acumen - his pro-French attitude that paid off after the end of the electoral period during 1794 commencing occupation of Bonn and the Rhineland by French revolutionary troops.

Simrock Verlag rose at the beginning of the 19th century to become one of the most important European music publishers. In addition to many first editions of Joseph Haydn, Ludwig van Beethoven, Robert Schumann and Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy especially the relationship with Johannes Brahms is exemplary of the more than 80 works are published by N. Simrock of.

The headquarters of the publisher moved the grandson of Nikolaus Simrock, Fritz Simrock, 1870 from Bonn to Berlin.

A Rhenish family

Nikolaus Simrock was married to Ottilie Franziska Blaschek from Mainz. They had 13 children. The couple Simrock thus started a family, who has written almost 200 years Rhenish cultural history. Took one of the sons - Peter Joseph - the publishing business, was another son for many years manager of the Hotel " Trier yard" on the market and had, inter alia, Alexandre Dumas guest. The youngest son, Karl coined as narrator and editor of Old and Middle High German literature, German literature of the 19th century.

Karl Simrock's son, the Bonn August Reifferscheid, was one of the prominent philologists in the late 19th century. A son from the marriage of August Reifferscheid and Anne Simrock, Heinrich Reifferscheid, has made ​​a name in particular as an eraser. His son Gerhard Reifferscheid (1913-2002) was a priest and religion teacher at Bonn Beethoven Gymnasium, which had visited both his father and his grandfather as a student. Another son August Reifferscheids was the physician Karl Reifferscheid.