Friedrich Soennecken
Encyclopedia
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...
and inventor. He was the founder of Soennecken
Soennecken
Soennecken is a German office products manufacturer. Its products are well known in the Anglo-Saxon world, in North America, Australia and also India. Founded by Friedrich Soennecken in 1875, the name was registered as a trademark in 1905. Soennecken is the synonym for the development of the pen,...
, a German office supplier.
Soennecken was born in Iserlohn
Iserlohn
Iserlohn is a city in the Märkischer Kreis district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is the largest city by population and area within the district and the Sauerland region.-Geography:...
-Dröschede, Sauerland
Sauerland
The Sauerland is a rural, hilly area spreading across most of the south-eastern part of North Rhine-Westphalia, in parts heavily forested and, apart from the major valleys, sparsely inhabited...
in 1848, the son of a blacksmith
Blacksmith
A blacksmith is a person who creates objects from wrought iron or steel by forging the metal; that is, by using tools to hammer, bend, and cut...
. On May 27, 1875 he founded the F. Soennecken Verlag, a commercial enterprise in Remscheid
Remscheid
Remscheid is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is, after Wuppertal and Solingen, the third largest municipality in Bergisches Land, being located on the northern edge of the region, on south side of the Ruhr area....
, Westphalia
Westphalia
Westphalia is a region in Germany, centred on the cities of Arnsberg, Bielefeld, Dortmund, Minden and Münster.Westphalia is roughly the region between the rivers Rhine and Weser, located north and south of the Ruhr River. No exact definition of borders can be given, because the name "Westphalia"...
. His main invention is the "round writing" style of calligraphy
Calligraphy
Calligraphy is a type of visual art. It is often called the art of fancy lettering . A contemporary definition of calligraphic practice is "the art of giving form to signs in an expressive, harmonious and skillful manner"...
and the pen nib associated with it. Round writing was designed to be a visually appealing, standardized style of penmanship which was easy to learn and execute, and Soennecken published books on the topic in several languages.
In 1888, Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a 19th-century German philosopher, poet, composer and classical philologist...
wrote to a friend that he had finally discovered both a quality paper to write on and a quality pen from Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
: Soenneckens Rundschrift Federhalter.
Soennecken also introduced the two-hole punch
Hole punch
A hole punch is a common office tool that is used to create holes in sheets of paper, often for the purpose of collecting the sheets in a binder or folder.The origins of the hole punch date back to Germany via Matthias Theel, where two early patents for a...
and the ring binder
Ring binder
Ring binders are folders in which punched pieces of paper may be held by means of clamps running through the holes in the paper...
. In 1876 he and his company relocated to Poppelsdorf, near Bonn
Bonn
Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....
, to be closer to the University
University of Bonn
The University of Bonn is a public research university located in Bonn, Germany. Founded in its present form in 1818, as the linear successor of earlier academic institutions, the University of Bonn is today one of the leading universities in Germany. The University of Bonn offers a large number...
which later awarded him the honorary title Dr. med. h. c..
Soennecken died in Bonn in 1919.
Inventions
- Ink container with stable stand (invented as an apprentice)
- A style of writing with the round tip of the feather of a pen nib (1860)
- Round writing, model of our current script
- An early type of binderBinderThe reaper-binder, or binder, was a farm implement that improved upon the reaper. The binder was invented in 1872 by Charles Withington. In addition to cutting the small-grain crop, it would also tie the stems into small bundles, or sheaves...
s which later became the Soennecken file (1886) - The hole punchHole punchA hole punch is a common office tool that is used to create holes in sheets of paper, often for the purpose of collecting the sheets in a binder or folder.The origins of the hole punch date back to Germany via Matthias Theel, where two early patents for a...
- The ring binderRing binderRing binders are folders in which punched pieces of paper may be held by means of clamps running through the holes in the paper...
, later symbolically part of the logoLogoA logo is a graphic mark or emblem commonly used by commercial enterprises, organizations and even individuals to aid and promote instant public recognition...
of Soennecken
Literature
- Hans Schreiber: Soennecken Alphabete No. 7 (Neue Rundschrift), Verlag Soennecken, Zurich, approx. 1930