The son of , (1826–1909), published the next edition (which is officially the first), entitled , 1857–60, that would only count 15 volumes. To avoid a long-time project, subscribers were promised it would be completed within three years, and all volumes appearing later would be given free. Of course, it was finished right on time. , from the 4th edition (1890) The 2nd edition, '
, appeared 1861–67; the 3rd edition, now from Leipzig, was issued as ' 1874–78; both had 15 volumes. The 4th edition, consisting of 16 volumes, appeared in 1885–90, with 2 supplements of update pages, volume 17 (1891) and volume 18 (1892). The 5th edition had 17 volumes, '''', 1893 to 1897. This edition sold no less than 233,000 sets. The 6th edition, entitled '
, was published 1902–08. It had 20 volumes, and the largest sale of all editions, with 240,000 sets. The First World War prevented an even bigger success. There was also the small 1908 edition, '. The 6th edition of the encyclopedia, and all previous editions, are in the
public domain in Germany, the United States, and all countries where the copyright term of anonymous or pseudonymous works is 100 years or fewer since publication.
World Wars and destruction The 7th and 8th editions were both briefly named '
. The 7th edition counted only 12 volumes, due to the economic depression of the 1920s. It appeared in 1924–30. It came with a condensed single-volume version known as the '. The 8th edition (1936–42) remained incomplete due to wartime circumstances: out of 12 planned volumes only volumes number 1 through 9 plus the
atlas volume number 12 could be issued. Due to its brown binding in addition to the fact that it was filtered through the
Nazi censorship it has come to be known as '''' ("The Brown Meyer"), as
brown became the colour associated with the Nazis. The buildings of the company were completely destroyed by the
bombing raids on Leipzig in 1943–44 and the company itself expropriated in 1946 without compensation. In 1953 the place of business was moved to
Mannheim in
West Germany (); a "" remained in Leipzig.
9th edition and The 9th edition, now from Mannheim, entitled '''' (in 25 volumes), appeared in 1971–79. Just like the first, this final Mannheim edition was the most comprehensive German encyclopaedia of the century. From Leipzig (then in
East Germany) came '''' (1961–64, 8 volumes; 2nd edition 1971–78, 18 volumes), embedded in the
Marxist ideology. ==Merger with ==