This monograph is dedicated to Julius Heinrich Zimmermann (1851-1923), a talented and art-loving businessman who, within a few decades, turned a modest St. Petersburg music business into a powerful transnational corporation with Leipzig as its headquarters. In his professional career, Zimmermann crossed national borders and in his business activities he linked different societies and cultures.
Research into Zimmermann's activities brings cross-border cultural transfers and networks into focus. This offers the opportunity to trace exchange processes and reconstruct personal and institutional networks.
Using various materials from Russian and German archives, museums and libraries, the author traces the Zimmermann Group's business processes in the areas of music publishing and musical instrument making. A number of documents are analysed here for the first time, including business correspondence with prominent composers such as Milij Balakirev and Nikolaj Medtner. Zimmermann also maintained informative contacts with the buyers of his musical instruments, who came from almost all social classes, including aristocrats and professional musicians, but also amateurs from the furthest reaches of the Russian Empire.
