Johannes Gutenberg Life - World of Biography

Johannes Gutenberg Johannes Gensfleisch Zum Gutenberg was born at the end of the 14th century in the city of Mainz, in Germany. While many put his year of birth as 1397, no concrete proof of this is available. His father Friele Gensfleisch had inherited a house named Zum Gutenberg and had attached the sobriquet to his name. His father was one the four accountants of the city and a person of ample means and good standing. His mother, Else Werich was the second wife of Friele and the daughter of a rich merchant. Johannes had an elder brother and sister.

Mainz, in those days, was a fairly big city full of life and activity. Trade, religion, craftsmanship seemed to have been an integral part of the city's lifestyle. A child growing up in such an atmosphere had much to learn. It appears that Johannes also received some formal education either in school or through private tuitions.

Politically, Mainz was a hotbed of activity. The city's nobility and guild (an association of craftsmen and artisans) were engaged in a constant struggle for political power over the city. The guild had no sympathy for the patricians’ demands for concessions in taxes to enable them to maintain their lifestyles. Members of the nobility who were hit hard by the taxes left the city in 1411. Friele Gutenberg was amongst them. It is not clear whether his family accompanied him. In any case he returned two years later, by which time a partial political settlement had been reached.

The patricians of Mainz, the class to which Gutenberg belonged, were a proud lot with confidence born of a longstanding ancestry of wealth and culture. They were open-minded and their horizons were constantly being widened by travel and contact with people from various countries and races. Such exposure might have helped Gutenberg develop his thinking and personality in his formative years and given him the confidence to stake his time, effort and money on a path-breaking invention. The Mayor of Mainz was one of his close relatives.

Gutenberg lost his father in 1419. Johannes by then had almost decided upon his intended field of work. Religion and scholarly studies, the two respected professions for his class of people, did not seem to attract him. Learning or practicing a craft was not thought appropriate enough for the patricians then. However, Johannes was drawn towards this very field. Mainz had then many goldsmiths of repute and it was a flourishing center for metal workmanship. His father belonged to the fellowship of coiners, which supplied gold to the archbishop for minting coins. This fraternity, surprisingly, was the exclusive domain of the patricians to such an extent that Johannes was not allowed entry as his maternal grandfather belonged to the trading class. Looking to his patrician background with its strong class bound traditions, speaks volumes of Gutenberg’s genuine interest in the subject that he chose to devote to printing innovations.

The political instability appears to have driven Gutenberg away from his native city in 1428. He reached Strasbourg where his name is mentioned in the tax records. He appears to have been reasonably well off.

Johannes Gutenberg Gutenberg seems to have had an industrious bent of mind. Though he lived in St. Arbogust, a suburb of Strasbourg, he never became a citizen of that place. His profession too was variously classified as ‘semi-patrician’, ‘semi-craftsman’ and ‘who serves with no-one’ in his tax returns. From what we can get of his life, he is revealed not as a dreamy, impractical inventor but rather a person who is quick witted and active, capable of protecting and fighting for his interests and also capable of vengeful behavior.

A good example of the last was when he had the leader of the guilds arrested in Strasbourg on a technicality. The case went in Gutenberg’s favor but he graciously agreed not to press charges if the sums due to him by the Mainz government be paid to him together with the arrears.

Though Mainz records show Gutenberg as unmarried, court records in Strasbourg reveal his name as an accused in a breach of promise case in 1436, filed by one Ennelin Zu der Isedrin Tur. The lady in question belonged to a respectable family. One theory holds that the case was won by the lady and a divorce immediately granted on Gutenberg’s plea and this made him eligible for a remarriage.

In an offshoot of this case Gutenberg was convicted of slander against one of the witnesses and was made to pay a fine for it.

As court records are the major source of information of that period, we know more of Gutenberg’s problems and disagreements than we do of his daily life.