Arena publishing house

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Arena publishing house

logo
legal form GmbH
founding 1949
Seat Wurzburg
management Alexandra Schönleben
Branch Book publisher
Website www.arena-verlag.de

The Arena Verlag is a German publishing house for children's literature, based in Würzburg . It was founded on September 19, 1949 by Georg Popp and is now part of the Braunschweig Westermann Group .

Publishing history

Georg Popp (1928–2004) founded Arena Verlag on September 19, 1949. At the age of 21, he was the youngest independent publisher in the young Federal Republic of Germany and headed the publishing house for 30 years.

By 1955 around 60 books had appeared with a total print run of around 750,000 copies. Georg Popps' publishing work concentrated on books for young people and non-fiction for young people and (young) adults. Carlo Schmid , Franz Josef Strauss , David Ben-Gurion and Heinrich Harrer , for example, shaped the non-fiction program as authors .

Georg Popp also saw a business area in the book trade: he rebuilt a commercial building in the badly damaged city center of Würzburg and founded the Arena bookstore, which he sold in 1979 when he retired from the publishing business.

In 1958, Arena Verlag, as a pioneer in the industry, introduced a paperback program for children and young people.

The publishing house was enlarged with the takeover of the Georg-Westermann-Jugendbuchverlag. According to statistics for the 25th anniversary of the publishing house, 650 books and 360 paperback books had been published by 1974. At the time, 50 titles were on the best or shortlist of the German Youth Book Prize (today: German Youth Literature Prize ).

In 1979, the Westermann Group , based in Braunschweig, took over Arena Verlag, but the publishing house remained in Würzburg. From 1980 Hans-Georg Noack , himself the author of numerous books, took over the management of the publishing house . Authors such as Tilman Röhrig , KNISTER and Jo Pestum were added under his direction, and their books are still available from Arena Verlag today. Noack managed the publishing house until his retirement in 1990.

In 1981, Arena was the first publisher to develop the first-reading series “ Edition Bücherbär ” (today: “Der Bücherbär”), an educational , multi-level learning concept, initially for the paperback program, and later as an independent series. The so-called “Book Bear Reading School” was conceived in collaboration with Peter Conrady . The books in the Bücherbär series have sold around 10 million copies so far.

When Westermann took over the Zürcher Benziger Verlag in 1987, its children's and youth book program was integrated into the Arena program. In 2000, Arena Verlag took over the program of the traditional Ensslin Verlag , founded in 1818 . The program focuses on horse books, topics relating to animals and nature, and educational games .

When Hans-Georg Noack retired in 1990, Jürgen Weidenbach took over the management of the publishing house. He headed the publishing house until 2002. His successor was Albrecht Oldenbourg , who managed the publishing house until the end of September 2017. Alexandra Schönleben has been running the publishing house since October 2017 .

In 2006 Arena started its own audio book program under the label "Arena audio".

Program areas

  • Cardboard picture book
  • Picture book
  • Horse book
  • First reading book
  • Children's book
  • youth book
  • Paperback
  • Non-fiction
  • Employment / educational game
  • Christmas book
  • Easter book
  • Audio

Well-known authors and illustrators

Prizes and awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Pleticha / Launer: What they liked to read. Würzburg: Arena 1999.
  2. Article in: City of Würzburg (HG): Würzburg today, issue 83, p. 14, Würzburg: Echter 2007.
  3. ^ Archive of the German Youth Literature Prize
  4. ^ Archive of the German Youth Literature Prize
  5. ^ Archive of the German Youth Literature Prize
  6. ^ Archive of the German Youth Literature Prize
  7. ^ Archive of the German Youth Literature Prize
  8. ^ Archive of the German Youth Literature Prize
  9. ^ Archive of the German Youth Literature Prize
  10. winners history under www.das-syndikat.com