Conrad Adolf Hartleben (August 26, 1778 - April 5, 1863) was a German bookshop owner and publisher who founded a company bearing his name that became one of the largest publishers in the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the turn of the 20th century. Hartleben was born in Mainz but in 1802, at the age of 24, relocated to Buda (now Budapest) where he took over a bookstore owned by Sigmund von Ivanics. Two years later, he established his own bookshop and publishing house in Pest. Hartleben displayed a skill with business and was able to expand the bookstore to Vienna and Leipzig, moving the company's headquarters to Vienna in 1844. In 1859, Hartleben co-founded the Austrian Booksellers' Association (Verein der österreichischen Buchhändler). By the time of his death, Hartleben had turned his company into one of the most prominent publishers in the German-speaking world, especially in the Austrian Empire (soon rechristened the Austro-Hungarian Empire). After Conrad Hartleben's death, his great nephew Adolf Hartleben (1835 - 1903) took over the company. The Pest and Vienna branches of the company split, the former focusing on bookselling and the latter on publishing. By 1869, Adolf Hartleben handed management of the company over to a trusted employee, the capable Eugen Marx (1844 - 1934). The bookselling business in Pest was sold off in pieces to rivals or employees and the parent company turned its focus to publishing. Marx imported state-of-the-art printing presses, the most advanced available in Vienna at the time, allowing the company to become a fixture of the publishing scene of the late 19th century German-speaking world, publishing the earliest German translation of Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues under the Sea (20.000 Meilen unter dem Meer). The company was badly hurt by the First World War, during which Marx passed management to his son Richard Marx, who oversaw it until 1947, by which time the Second World War had caused even more damage. In the postwar period, the company was reborn under the leadership of Walter Rob (with the company renamed A. Hartleben, Inhaber Dr. Rob) but never regained its earlier prominence. In 2007, the company was sold but its name remains in its successor, HERA A. Hartleben GmbH, based in Vienna.
