Leopold Ullstein (6 September 1826 – 4 December 1899) was the founder and publisher of several successful

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

newspapers, including '' B.Z. am Mittag'' and ''Berliner Morgenpost.'' Many of these are still published today. Ullstein was also the founder of the leading German publishing house

Ullstein-Verlag The ''Ullstein Verlag'' was founded by Leopold Ullstein in 1877 at Berlin and is one of the largest publishing companies of Germany. It published newspapers like '' B.Z.'' and ''Berliner Morgenpost'' and books through its subsidiaries ''Ullstein ...

Biography

Early years

Leopold Ullstein was born 6 September 1826 in

Fürth Fürth (; East Franconian: ; yi, פיורדא, Fiurda) is a city in northern Bavaria, Germany, in the administrative division ('' Regierungsbezirk'') of Middle Franconia. It is now contiguous with the larger city of Nuremberg, the centres of ...

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total l ...

of ethnic

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

parents.

Publishing dynasty

Ullstein company was a major publisher in Germany. All five of Ullstein's sons entered the family firm. Hans (1859–1935) was legal advisor. Louis (1863–1933) took over as CEO after his father's death. Franz (1868–1945) was the editorial director. Rudolf (1873–1964) became technical director and Hermann (1875–1943) managed the magazine and book departments. The Encyclopedia described some of the sons' contributions to the family publishing empire:

In 1887 Louis Ullstein founded the ''Berliner Abendpost;'' in 1898 the three eldest sons founded the ''Berliner Morgenpost'' and raised its circulation to 600,000, the largest of any German daily. They made the ''Berliner Zeitung am Mittag'' the first German newspaper to be sold by street vendors instead of by subscription. They also produced a series of other newspapers, including the ''Berliner Allgemeine Zeitung'', the ''Montagspost'', the ''Vossische Zeitung'', and ''Tempo''. In addition, the Ullsteins had their own picture and news services, radio equipment, music division, dress pattern division, movie studios, and even a zoo to serve one of their children's papers. The other major ventures of the Ullstein company were its book publishing house (Ullstein, renamed Propylaeen in 1919) and magazine empire. They published the ''Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung'', a new type of paper with many illustrations, photographs and drawings, from 1894 with a circulation of two million. In 1919 the Ullsteins began publishing on a large scale, producing many other magazines on the sciences, the arts and literature, broadcasting, automobiles, and aviation.

Leopold Ullstein died 4 December 1899. He was 73 years old at the time of his death.

Nazi persecution

Following the rise of

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

and the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...

in 1933, the Ullstein publishing empire was forcibly "Aryanized." In 1934 the firm, valued at 60 million marks, was sold under duress for 6 million marks. One of the sons, Hermann Ullstein, emigrated from Nazi Germany in December 1938 and published a history of the Ullstein firm.Koppel S. Pinson, "Review of ''The Rise and Fall of the House of Ullstein'' by Hermann Ullstein," ''Jewish Social Studies,'' vol. 5, no. 3 (July 1943), pg. 321. Another son, Dr. Franz Ullstein, fled to the United States where he continued the publishing firm.

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