BENZIGER. - Catholic publishing house, of Swiss origin, with branches in the United States of America (New York, Cincinnati, Chicago), in Germany (Cologne, Waldshut) and elsewhere. Its founder was Josef Carl B., b. in 1762 at Einsiedeln, in Switzerland, and d. there in 1841. Together with his brother Franz Sales B. (b. in 1758, d. in 1827), who was director of the printing press of the local Benedictine abbey, he formed the nucleus of the future great publishing house.
In 1833 the company was reconstituted by Josef Karl (1799-1873) and Nikolaus B. (1808-64). Under these two new publishers, book and artistic production enjoyed a very lively development. In 1840 the Einsiedler Kalender appeared for the first time. From the technical point of view, the lithographic process and the other modern innovations of the art of printing were adopted. At the same time, a son of Josef Karl, Adelrich (1827-73), who was Swiss consul at Cincinnati, founded the branch in the United States in 1853. In 1867 the publication of Alte und Neue Welt was begun, the first illustrated magazine for German-speaking Catholics, of a popular nature. The publication of religious texts also began with large print runs, among them the Bible, in twelve languages, and well-known prayer books. The publishing activity of the company has been carried on almost exclusively in the field of popular religious literature. From 1896 to 1914 no fewer than 2154 works were published by the Swiss company, while the American branch (now entirely independent of the European parent house) by 1912 had already reached a publishing output of over 5500 works.
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Silvio Furlani