ROLUL LIBRARILOR ARĂDENI FRAȚII BETTELHEIM LA DEZVOLTAREA CULTURII ÎN BECICHERECUL MARE
THE ROLE OF THE ARAD BOOKSELLERS GEBRÜDER BETTELHEIM ON THE CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT IN VELIKI BEČKEREK

Summary/Abstract: Just before the outbreak of the Hungarian Revolution in 1848, which historiography also calls the Reformation Age due to the awakening of national consciousness, development of civil society and culture, in Veliki Beckerek, headquarters of Torontal County, in May 1843 the brothers Bettelheim opened their company (the first bookstore in the city), called Arad book-publishing house Gebrüder Bettelheim. In a very short time, they started a literary publishing house in the town on Begej, the first private lending library (1852), which became a reliable supplier to the Veliki Beckerek's civic readership, advertising that they can obtain any printed book, newspaper or magazine in the area. The county procured through it office supplies for the county administration. The activity of the Bethlehem family was significant and pioneering in that in 1843 there was no printing house, publishing activity or public library in Veliki Beckerek, so in the middle of the 19th century this company was the leader in spreading the culture of books, written words and enlightenment in the city, including and connecting by their activity mentioned provincial cultural milieu on the edge of Hungary to the European cultural and literary trends. This paper tends to presents precisely this praiseworthy, largely unknown cultural role of the Bettelheim brothers to promotion and development of the book in Banat.

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