Old Berlin publisher Lucie Groszer
The Altberliner Verlag Lucie Groszer ( Altberliner Verlag since 1979 ) was a publishing house in Berlin-Mitte . Im from folk - dominated and party publishers own book market of the GDR, he was next to the Alfred Wood publishing one of the few private children's books publishers .
The bookseller Lucie Großer (1914–1997) had acquired the Breitkreuz'sche bookstore in 1943 at Neue Schönhauser Strasse 8 in the old Scheunenviertel in Berlin and had been running the business since August 1944 as an old Berlin bookstore . On June 1, 1945, with the provisional approval of the Soviet headquarters, in addition to the bookstore , Großer founded the old Berlin publishing house Lucie Groszer , the first children's book publisher in post-war Germany. (The spelling of the name with “sz” resulted from the lack of a capital letter ß .) The publisher received a fully valid license in February 1947.
Großer had her first publishing successes with illustrated editions of the Grimm Brothers' fairy tales , including Little Brother and Sister (1945) and The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs (1947). The publisher's biggest bestseller was the novel The Sons of the Great Bear by Liselotte Welskopf-Henrich, first published at the end of 1951 . From 1962 to 1963 a version of the novel was expanded to three volumes, and from 1972 to 1974 the final version was published in six volumes. The novel was translated into 18 languages and filmed in 1965 by DEFA under the direction of Josef Mach .
The publisher's first editor in 1950 was Johannes Bobrowski , who had returned from a Soviet prisoner of war in 1949. A 1954 version of Gustav Schwab's The Most Beautiful Sagas of Classical Antiquity , edited by Bobrowski, was another publishing success. When Bobrowski moved to Union Verlag Berlin in 1959 , the picture book author Alfred Könner (1921–2008) took over his position and remained chief editor of the Altberliner Verlag until 1986 . In addition to Welskopf-Henrich and Könner himself, the publisher's authors included Werner Legère , Ruth Kraft , Hertha Vogel-Voll , Werner Quednau , Walter Krumbach , Irmhild Proft , Ehm Welk , Karl-Heinz Appelmann and Günther and Ingeborg Feustel . Among the illustrators were artists such as Ingeborg Friebel , Heidrun Hegewald , Karl Fischer , Klaus Ensikat , Rolf Xago Schröder and Manfred Bofinger .
In the 1960s, the already tight paper contingent for the private publisher, which had previously published 10 titles per year, was cut down so much that the publisher's profile had to be switched to picture books (with fewer pages). From then on, an average of 7 titles appeared per year.
After Großer had already considered selling her publishing house to HV Verlage in the mid-1970s , it was finally sold in October 1979 to the children's book publisher in Berlin , headed by Fred Rodrian (and thus to the SED ). The name was changed to Altberliner Verlag ; Gerhard Dahne (previously employed by HV Verlage ) became the new publishing director . Lucie Großer worked at the publishing house until 1982 and then retired. The nationalization was accompanied by a greatly increased paper quota, so that 80 titles could now be produced per year, including children's books by Christoph Hein , Martin Karau , Irina Liebmann , Gerhard Schöne , Richard Pietraß , Bodo Schulenburg and Thomas Rosenlöcher .
After the fall of the Berlin Wall , the publishing house was sold in May 1990 from the PDS party assets to Altberliner Verlag GmbH (founded by some employees of the publishing house) ; the publishing house was also transferred. Gerhard Dahne remained the publishing director and also became managing director. However, since the Treuhandanstalt did not have a permit for the sale , the publishing house was administered by the Treuhand in 1992 and was sold in 1993.
In the last phase of the publisher's existence from 1993 to 2003, books by Christa Kozik , Konstanze Hupe , Martina Dierks , Kemal Kurt , Sobo , Andreas Schlueter and Franziska Groszer (the publisher's daughter-in-law) were published. In August 2003 the publisher filed for bankruptcy ; the paperback rights had already been sold to dtv beforehand . In 2005 the publishing house was revived for a short time, but now based in Munich and later Leipzig ; In September 2008 bankruptcy was finally declared.
literature
- Brit Holland: The private children's and youth book publishers "Altberliner Verlag Lucie Groszer" and "Alfred Holz Verlag" . In: Thomas Keiderling, Lothar Poethe, Volker (Hrsg.): Leipziger Jahrbuch zur Buchgeschichte . tape 12 . Wiesbaden 2003, ISBN 3-447-04827-1 , p. 195-229 .
- Franziska Groszer : 60 years old Berlin publishing house. A chronicle . Altberliner Verlag, Leipzig / Munich 2005, ISBN 3-86637-301-5
- Christoph Links : The fate of the GDR publishers. Privatization and its consequences . Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-86153-523-2 (= Univ. Diss., HU Berlin 2008)
Web links
- Berlin Mitte History - Neue Schönhauser Strasse 8
- Urban renewal coordination office: Neue Schönhauser Straße 8 before the renovation (photo)
Coordinates: 52 ° 31 ′ 29.4 " N , 13 ° 24 ′ 13.7" E