Friedrich Justin Bertuch

He lost his mother aged 15 and grew up in the house of his uncle Gottfried Matthias Ludwig Schrön (a member of the Weimarer Rat der Landschaftskasse).

In 1773 he returned to Weimar for health reasons, though he maintained contacts with the court kapellmeister Ernst Wilhelm Wolf and his wife, the daughter of the famous Konzertmeister Franz Benda, as well as with the acting couple Friederike and Abel Seyler, the actor Konrad Ekhof and the professor at the gymnasium Johann Karl August Musäus.

Bertuch's goal was that any interested persons, whatever their social standing, might have the chance to gain technical crafts skills and training for their talents.

In 1775 he became private secretary to the duke and held that role until 1787, during which time he participated in the Weimar Masonic lodge Amalia zu den drei Rosen.

The Journal des Luxus und der Moden, published by Bertuch from 1786, not only praised artificial flowers but also the technical innovations and reading matter on maintenance and instruction, and is considered as the first pictorial periodical in Europe.

In 1793 Bertuch himself defined this art business in a magazine as being "an infallible means of encouraging German industry and spreading food and prosperity among us".

Here again practically applied Enlightenment ideas pointed to a kind of free market economy Bertuch was just such a private citizen who attained national and European influence above and beyond "local usefulness and effectiveness".

Goethe contributed to the eulogy, given by Friedrich von Müller, chancellor of the duchy of Saxe-Weimar Bertuch died in 1822 at the age of seventy four.