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This Leipzig firm was founded by at least 1843, and remained in the same family for its 100 year existence. From 1857 Heinrich Ludwig Julius Leede was a partner in the firm, and in 1884 Johannes Hermann August Gustav Leede became the “Prokurist”.
Following Heinrich Ludwig Julius Leede’s death in 1905, his sons Ernst Richard and Johannes Hermann August Gustav became the legal owners. Thirty years later Johannes Hermann August Gustav quit the company and Ernst Richard became sole owner and manager, followed in 1938 by Ernst Richard’s son Johannes Fritz Leede becoming joint owner and manager (persönlich haftender Gesellschafter). Sadly, as with many Leipzig publishers the destruction of their premises in the aerial bombings of 1943-45 brought about the death of the company. Thus, it was that on 4th December 1943 their premises were destroyed and the firm never functioned again, being officially dissolved in 1959.
Leede was a small publisher, only publishing about 150 items in its first 60 years as documented in Hofmeister's Monatsberichte. In the early days it published Molique, Mendlessohn, and other composers for the piano. In the last 40 years of the 19th century its catalog contained mainly piano music and songs (including an 1886 publication of over 25 Neapolitan songs provided by Società musicale napolitana). The 1890s saw many piano pieces by Germer, Schwerzel, Werner, and B. Seifert. From the late 1890s they published many works by August Bungert.
