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overview
holdings
landmarks
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overview
This
profile deals with the Swiss NZZ publishing group, centred
on the daily Neue Zürcher Zeitung.
It covers -
introduction
The NZZ group traces its origins to the printery established
in Zurich in 1519 by Christoph Froschauer. His heirs sold
the publishing, printing and bookshop to Conrad Orell
and Hans Rudolf Füssli in 1735; the partnership of
Orell & Füssli was joined by Salomon Gessner
(1730-1788) in 1761. Gessner was a poet, literary critic
and artist (now best known for his engravings rather than
paintings) who was a leader of the Swiss Enlightenment
and an heir to the Gessner printing/publishing business.
In 1780 the partners launched the Zürcher Zeitung
under Gessner's editorship as a replacement for the weekly
Gessnersche Montagszeitung (1760-1780). In 1821
the journal was renamed the Neue Zürcher Zeitung,
under editor-in-chief Paul Usteri (1768-1831). Usteri
was an author, doctor and politician who had earlier established
the reformist Schweizer Republikaner weekly (1798-1803)
with Hans Conrad Escher von der Linth (1767-1823)and the
less controversial Magazin für die Botanik
and Klio. He served as editor from 1821 to 1831.
His grandson served as creator of the Swiss Accident Insurance
Institute and served as president of the National Bank
before becoming president of the Swiss Confederation.
The Neue Zürcher Zeitung was incorporated
in 1868. (Orell Füssli has continued to operate,
as a separate entity, and is prominent as a printer -
notably of securities, maps and banknotes - and bookseller.)
By 1900 the Neue Zürcher Zeitung had gained
recognition of Zurich's - and implicitly Switzerland's
- newspaper of record, with a status equivalent to the
New York Times and London Times. In
contrast to parts of the Swiss press it was strongly critical
of both fascism and communism, with editor-in-chief Willy
Bretscher (1931-1941) criticising Nazis as responsible
for a coming "European catastrophe".
studies
For
Gessner see John Hibberd's Salomon Gessner: His Creative
Achievement and Influence (Cambridge: Cambridge Uni
Press 1976)
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