Hans Weinreich

Hans Weinreich was a 16th century publisher and printer. He was a native of Danzig, today’s Gdańsk, but printed most of his work in Königsberg, today’s Kaliningrad. His first works were issued in either 1512 or 1513 in Danzig where he continued to work until 1524 when he set up a printing press in Königsberg. His shop was located by the castle steps in the city's Old Town. Königsberg had a paper mill that lowered the cost of paper for Weinreich’s publications, and for two decades he had no competition.

Weinreich printed mostly reform literature, for the German population and also in Polish. The result f his activity was that Königsberg became an exporter to other German ports and to the Polish-speaking inhabitants of the Prussian hinterland and the Polish Kingdom.

He also printed the first Lithuanian language and Old Prussian language books, with the former being a translation of Martin Luther's Catechism by Martynas Mažvydas.