Spett, Henry C.

Publisher

born: 03.12.1898 in Krakow (Austria-Hungary)

died: 04.04.1972 in New York

Spett, who came from a Jewish family that moved to Wiesbaden in 1900, volunteered for the Austro-Hungarian army in 1916 after attending the Oberrealschule am Zietenring and graduated in 1917. He studied economics in Vienna and Frankfurt am Main under Max Weber, among others.

On January 1, 1923, he founded what would later become Westdruckerei in the backyard of Blücherstraße 20 in Wiesbaden. The company escaped the effects of inflation by producing wine labels for regional wineries and with the help of orders from France.

From 1925, the Westdruckerei, now located at Dotzheimer Straße 26, became a limited company with Spett as managing director and produced publications on Jewish topics as well as an internationally sought-after work on regional viticulture. In 1925 and 1926, Spett published the magazine "Die Wilhelmstraße", which focused on cultural events in Wiesbaden and international art trends by personalities such as Alfons Paquet and Carl Hagemann. Other periodicals included the weekly newspaper "Die Menschheit" and the "Wiesbadener Fremdenblatt"; advertising brochures for industry and leaflets for the SPD and KPD were also produced. In the 1920s, the Westdruckerei increasingly developed into a respectable medium-sized company with an annual turnover of 70,000 marks.

After the National Socialists came to power at the beginning of 1933, Spett directly attacked Hermann Göring politically in a letter. In June, the company was closed down by the SA. At this time, Spett was already in exile in Brussels and worked as a plant manager in the print shop that published the newspaper "L' Avenir Juif", the weekly newspaper of the Zionist Federation of Belgium. In exile, he married his former Wiesbaden proxy Lizzie (Lisel) Dreyfuß. In 1940, Spett became a partner in the printing company, but had to flee with his family before the invasion of the German troops, leaving behind his private library, which specifically included Hebraica and Judaica as well as rare editions of other subjects from the 17th and 18th centuries and was later confiscated by Alfred Rosenberg and his task force. The family fled via France to Spain and Portugal and in November 1940 to New York City. In the USA, Spett once again established a publishing house. He fought for appropriate compensation until his death.