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Oscar Brandstetter was a major Leipzig printer for nearly 150 years, outlasting most of its competitors.
The company had its origins in the Leipzig-based publishing company founded by Friedrich Wilhelm Garbrecht (d.1874) in 1862. Oscar Brandstetter acquired and renamed the company in 1880. Otto Säuberlich (1853-1928) was the link between the two companies. He was a junior clerk in Garbrecht, organised the sale to Brandstetter, and became Prokurist (chief administrator) in the new firm. He was also related by marriage to the new boss, since his wife was Brandstetter's sister-in-law.
Oscar Brandstetter introduced many revolutionary printing technologies, which helped the firm, like its competitor C.G. Röder, to grow rapidly, and by 1939 the firm employed nearly 2,000 people. Between the wars it became both a printer and a publisher, by acquiring Tauchnitz, Jakob Hegner, and Verlag der Juristischen Wochenschrift J.W. Moeser.
Damaged during World War II, the firm's facility was disassembled and expropriated. Wolfgang Brandstetter, the founder's son, re-established the company in Wiesbaden where it specialized in technical and scientific publications. However, the harp in the firm's eagle logo was a reminder of Brandstetter's musical past.
Finally in 2022, the company ceased trading after 72 years. It sold its rights to technical dictionaries to the online publisher Anja Hagel Verlag.
