Johann Christian Koppe was born as the son of a pastor of the same name. Around 1739 he came to Rostock and acquired a bookstore there, which he ran until his death. In the years between 1747 and 1756 he translated Description de la Chine et de la Tartarie chinoise by the French Jesuit Jean-Baptiste Du Halde into German. In 5 volumes with more than 2,600 pages, he brought the latest information about China to the countries of the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation. This was an extraordinary financial feat for him, so that he had to refrain from sting many pictures and maps that were present in the editions of France, the Netherlands and Great Britain.