Gustav Adolf Kröner, from 1905 von Kröner (born May 26, 1836, in Stuttgart; died January 29, 1911), was a German publisher and chairman of the Börsenverein der Deutschen Buchhändler. He became particularly well known for his demand for fixed prices for books, which was implemented in the so-called Kröner Reform and is still in force today. The publishing houses he managed, especially J. G. Cotta'sche Buchhandlung, which he had acquired and expanded in 1889, were also among the most important publishers in the field of humanities and literary publications, especially at the beginning of the 19th century and 20th centuries.
Family
He was the son of the staff officer and late hospital administrator Ludwig Ferdinand Kröner (1807-1862) and Christine Magdalene Ebner (1799-1876). His brothers Carl (1835-1929) and Paul Kröner (1839-1900) were also publishers, like himself. In 1860, Adolf von Kröner married Amalie Mäntler (1838-1905), the daughter of the printshop owner Carl Mäntler (1799-1859) and his wife Emilie Luise, née Brann (1806-1880). He had three children with her, including the two sons Alfred and Robert, with whom he later led his printing houses, and the daughter Alwine, who married the Publisher Heinrich Beck.
Life and work
Early years and education
Kröner attended the Eberhard Ludwigs Gymnasium in Stuttgart and in 1853 went to study in Paris with the desire to become an opera singer. Because of financial reasons, he discontinued his studies in music and returned to Stuttgart to take up studies in acting a year later in Leipzig and Weimar. He also discontinued this and finally decided to become a bookseller. In 1855, he began his training in Wilhelm Bach's bookshop in Stuttgart, then moved to L. Boshoyer's store in Cannstatt for a few weeks before starting work as a bookseller's assistant in Munich. Through Wilhelm Hertz and Robert von Hornstein, two childhood friends, he came into contact with the Munich artists' group "Die Krokodile" and was greatly influenced in his literary perception by this literary group led by Emanuel Geibel and Paul Heyse. In 1857 he went back to Stuttgart and worked as a bookkeeper at Franz Malté's Artistic Institute.