Schellenberg, Ferdinand Ludwig (Louis)

Printer, newspaper publisher

born: 11.10.1852 in Wiesbaden

died: 21.04.1920 in Wiesbaden

Before Schellenberg took over the printing company founded by his grandfather Ernst Ludwig Theodor Schellenberg and the Wiesbadener Tagblatt (WT) in 1877, he had trained as a trainee in his parents' company, had received commercial training in Bremen, Leipzig and London and had completed his military service as a Prussian reserve officer candidate.

He gradually developed the Wiesbadener Tagblatt into Wiesbaden's highest-circulation daily newspaper. The growth of the newspaper was accompanied by the modernization of the printing plant's machinery, and he rounded off the premises by acquiring neighboring properties. In 1905-09, the stately press house was built in Langgasse. Articles in the Wiesbadener Tagblatt - above all by Johann Christian Spielmann and Theodor Schüler - bear witness to Schellenberg's attachment to his homeland, as does the "Alt-Nassauische Kalender", which he lovingly decorated.

Bismarck's social laws, which led to a significant improvement in the situation of the now more than 100 employees of Schellenberg's Hofbuchdruckerei, were passed during his creative period. Schellenberg was almost a quarter of a century ahead of the statutory regulations with the establishment of a company benefit and pension fund and the granting of regular vacation with full pay.

He was buried in the old cemetery. On the tombstone, which was probably created by the sculptor Carl Wilhelm Bierbrauer and shows the Wiesbaden coat of arms, he had himself inscribed as "Royal Prussian Court Book Printer".