Johann Friedrich Unger
Johann Friedrich Gottlieb Unger ( * August 1753 in Berlin, † December 26, 1804 ) was a German printer, typographer and wood engraver.
Unger was the fifth son of the Berlin woodcarver Johann Georg Unger (1715-1788) and his wife Susanna Katharina (b. Strucken ). He went into the printing of the book Oberhof printer Georg Jacob Decker in teaching. 1779 Unger requested the privilege to set up its own printing press, which was granted in January 1780. Later he expanded the printing to a publishing house, in which he moved, among other works of Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Friedrich Schiller, Friedrich Schleiermacher and August and Friedrich Schlegel.
As of 1784, he repeatedly tried to get permission to publish a newspaper, which should appear as the first day of Berlin. The applications were rejected in each case, as the two existing Berlin newspapers ( the Vossische newspaper and the Haude & Spenersche Berlinischen messages) were found to be sufficient and supervise another newspaper would overload the censor. 1802 Unger was, however, co-owner of Voss.
1788 Unger was appointed Academic bookseller and publisher was thus all the fonts of the Academy of Sciences. In 1794 he leased in addition the Academy privilege of printing and distribution of all Prussian calendar.
1790 Unger was elected member of the Academy of Arts; from 1800 he occupied the created there for him Chair of wood -engraving.
Unger also took part in the attempts to popularize the new roman typefaces by 1789 by Firmin Didot acquired the German license for the Didot. Since the audience but still preferred the Gothic script, he began in 1789 with the assistance of Didot and Johann Christoph Gubitz ( 1754-1826 ) with the development of a modernized fracture type, for which he established in 1791 its own foundry. The finished script, the Unger- Fraktur, was introduced in 1794 and should help to " carry away the many Square of the common, and Krause, Gothischschnörklichte of the large letters ".
On the initiative Ungers also the influential Don Quixote translation of Ludwig Tieck goes back, which appeared in Berlin 1799-1801. First Unger offered the work of the brothers Schlegel, but this gave the job to Tieck on.
1798 Unger began building its own foundry grade.
From 1785, he was with the writer Friederike Helene Unger, married, who had already attained in 1784 with her novel " Julie Grünthal " fame ( née von Rothenburg 1751-1813 ). She led the publisher after his death, however, so he went bankrupt with less success in 1811.