Brockhaus, FRIEDRICH ARNOLD, the founder of the well-known firm of Brockhaus in Leipzig, and publisher of the Conversations-Lexikon, was born at Dortmund, May 4, 1772. In 1802 circumstances led him to Holland, but he returned to Germany in 1810, and in the following year commenced business in Altenburg. Before this, however (in 1808), he had purchased the copyright of the Conversations-Lexikon, which had been commenced by Löbel in 1796, and was completed in 1811. In 1812 a second improved edition of the work was commenced under the supervision of Brockhaus as editor. In 1817 his business had so increased that he found it necessary to leave Altenburg for Leipzig, where, in the following year, he commenced book printing in addition to book-publishing. Through all the enterprises of Brockhaus as a publisher, a zealous devotion to the cause of liberty and general enlightenment may be traced. He died August 20, 1823. See his Life and Letters (3 vols. 1872-81). The business was afterwards carried on by his sons Friedrich (1800-65) and Heinrich (1804-74); from 1850 by the latter alone, and now by Heinrich-Rudolf and Heinrich-Eduard, his sons. The Conversations-Lexikon has continued to be a conspicuous success; its 13th ed. (for the first time illustrated), in 16 vols., was published, with a supplementary volume, 1882-87. The 4th ed. of an abridged edition of the work was published in 1885 in 2 vols. Another publication, issued by the house (since 1831), is the monumental work, Allgemeine Encyclopädie der Wissenschaften und Künste of Ersch and Gruber, begun in 1818, and still unfinished (168 vols. up to 1888).
HERMANN BROCKHAUS, third son of F. A. Brockhaus, was born at Amsterdam, January 28, 1806; studied at Leipzig, Göttingen, and Bonn, and lived successively in Copenhagen, Paris, London, and Oxford. From 1848 till his death, he held at Leipzig the chair of ordinary professor of the Sanskrit Language and Literature. Among his several works on oriental literature may be mentioned the edition of the Fables of Somadeva, Kathâ Sarit Sâgara (1839-66); of the Persian version of the 'Seven Wise Masters' (1845); and of the 'Songs of Hafiz' (1854-60). He died at Leipzig, January 5, 1877.