The American Cyclopædia (1879)/Becker, Rudolf Zacharias

BECKER, Rudolf Zacharias, a German author, born at Erfurt, April 9, 1752, died March 28, 1822. He studied theology at Jena, and became a teacher and journalist at Dessau, and eventually at Gotha, where the wide circulation of his writings led him in 1797 to establish a publishing house. Over 500,000 copies of his Noth- und Hülfsbüchlein, oder lehrreiche Freuden- und Trauergeschichte des Dorfes Mildheim (Gotha, 1787-'98), were sold within a few years in Germany and in foreign translations. He made a valuable addition to German art by his edition of Holzschnitte alter deutscher Meister (1808-'16). In 1814 appeared Becker's Leiden und Freuden in siebenzehnmonatlicher französischer Gefangenschaft, a narrative of his imprisonment by the French (1811-'13) on account of his alleged conspiracy against Napoleon.