Barbara Laugwitz

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Barbara Laugwitz (born January 12, 1971 in Berlin ) is a German publisher . Since 2019 she has been the Publishing Director / Chief Publishing Officer (CPO) of Ullstein Buchverlage in Berlin. There she became managing director in the summer of 2019. From 2014 to 2018 she was the publishing director of Rowohlt Verlag, which is part of the Holtzbrinck Group . Her release at the end of August 2018 led to author protests and legal disputes. With effect from August 1, 2020, Laugwitz will be the publishing director at dtv .

Live and act

Training and first professional positions

Barbara Laugwitz studied Classical Philology at Oxford University . She started out in the publishing industry with an internship at Droemer Knaur . She then worked as an editor at Ullstein Verlag . In 2005 she moved to Rowohlt's department for paperback non-fiction. In 2012 she took over the management of the entire paperback division there. As Alexander Fest's successor , she became Managing Director of Rowohlt Verlag in 2014. Under her leadership, authors such as Jan Weiler and Eckart von Hirschhausen were brought to Rowohlt and the publishing house was economically successful.

Termination at Rowohlt

Barbara Laugwitz's contract ended at the end of 2018, although she was the most successful publisher in the first half of 2018, based on bestseller placements in both fiction and non-fiction. Florian Illies became the new managing director at Rowohlt in January 2019 . The termination was justified with "different ideas about the way forward". The procedure with timely termination with immediate release including a ban on contact with authors and employees as well as immediate blocking of the e-mail account was commented by the editor-in-chief of the Börsenblatt as clearly different from the industry standard.

In the Süddeutsche Zeitung , the reason for termination was assumed that Laugwitz had carried out her successful work in the background and did not generate any attention for the publisher. The publisher and literary agent Elisabeth Ruge suspected in an interview that the decision could also have something to do with the fact that Barbara Laugwitz is a woman. The specialist magazine Buchreport listed several publishers who were leading large German publishers at the time. According to the news magazine Der Spiegel , personal differences between the director of the Holtzbrinck book publishers Joerg Pfuhl and Barbara Laugwitz were the reason for their termination. In an interview in October 2019, Barbara Laugwitz said in retrospect that her dismissal had probably been carried out since autumn 2017.

Support from authors

Well-known writers from the publisher were appalled by the termination, documented in the FAZ on September 9, 2018. Elfriede Jelinek , Daniel Kehlmann , Eckart von Hirschhausen and the American writers Paul Auster , Siri Hustvedt and Jonathan Franzen expressed incomprehension and criticism. 22 other Rowohlt authors wrote an open letter to Stefan von Holtzbrinck and Joerg Pfuhl , the CEO of the Holtzbrinck book publishers, including Thomas Melle , Eugen Ruge , Margarete Stokowski , Heinz Strunk and David Wagner . It was published on September 12, 2018 in taz and on Spiegel Online . The signatories were particularly angry about the ban on contact. Another open letter from authors followed on September 30 in the FAS , complaining about Pfuhl's lack of response to the allegations.

In a statement dated October 1, 2018, the group protested against the "sometimes violent personal allegations" against Joerg Pfuhl. The obligation of confidentiality and the ban on contact with other employees and authors for Barbara Laugwitz was "in no way intended as a permanent ban on contact". At Laugwitz's request, the Berlin Regional Court issued an interim injunction on September 27, 2018 , in which Joerg Pfuhl "prohibited certain formulations in connection with confidentiality regulations relating to the dismissal of the managing director Barbara Laugwitz". The dispute was settled in October 2018.

Return to Ullstein

Laugwitz moved to Ullstein Buchverlagen as Publishing Director / Chief Publishing Editor (CPO) in January 2019 . In May 2019, the company announced that it would take over as managing director of Gunnar Cynybulk for the summer of the year.

Publisher at dtv from August 2020

On August 1, 2020, Laugwitz will take over the publishing management at dtv . She will succeed Claudia Baumhöver .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Torsten Casimir: The failed separation. In: boersenblatt.net . September 12, 2018. Retrieved September 12, 2018 .
  2. ↑ Barbara Laugwitz leaves Ullstein , deutschlandfunkkultur.de, published and accessed on June 9, 2020.
  3. ↑ a b c Karin Janker: Profile - Barbara Laugwitz. In: Süddeutsche.de . September 11, 2018, accessed September 12, 2018 .
  4. ↑ Michael Köhler: Throwing out Rowohlt publisher Laugwitz: "This decision is more than astonishing" - an interview with Helmut Böttiger. In: Deutschlandfunk broadcast “Culture Today”. September 10, 2018, accessed September 12, 2018 .
  5. ↑ Tamara Weise: "Such successes also mean something internally, for the employees". In: boersenblatt.net. July 12, 2018, accessed on September 17, 2018 (interview with Barbara Laugwitz).
  6. ↑ Holtzbrinck book publishers: Florian Illies becomes the publisher of Rowohlt Verlag. In: Zeit Online . August 29, 2018. Retrieved September 12, 2018 . Florian Illies creates a program for Rowohlt. In: boersenblatt.net . August 29, 2018. Retrieved September 12, 2018 .
  7. ↑ Change of publisher at Rowohlt causes unrest. In: Spiegel Online. September 12, 2018, accessed September 14, 2018 .
  8. ↑ Torsten Casimir: The failed separation. September 12, 2018, accessed September 14, 2018 (comment).
  9. ^ Resignation from Rowohlt boss Laugwitz: "Good worker, popular with the authors" , Elisabeth Ruge in conversation with Anke Schaefer on deutschlandfunkkultur.de, broadcast on September 13, 2018, accessed on September 14, 2018.
  10. ↑ Feminist remote diagnosis. In: buchreport.de . September 12, 2018. Retrieved September 12, 2018 .
  11. ↑ Tobias Becker, Sebastian Hammelehle, Ulrike Knöfel, Nils Minkmar, Claudio Rizzello, Claudia Voigt, Volker Weidermann: Die rausgekippte Frau. Rowohlt's crisis . In: Der Spiegel No. 38, September 15, 2018, pp. 122–125.
  12. ↑ Claudia Vogt: "I no longer understood the world". The departure of Barbara Laugwitz from Rowohlt caused an industry scandal - in the SPIEGEL interview, she expresses herself publicly for the first time . In: Der Spiegel . No. 42 , October 12, 2019, p. 124 .
  13. ↑ Julia Encke : Throwing out the Rowohlt publisher: A puzzling process. In: faz.net . September 9, 2018, accessed September 12, 2018 .
  14. ^ Rowohlt authors on Laugwitz's dismissal: “Inaudible and unworthy”. In: boersenblatt.net. September 12, 2018, accessed September 13, 2018 .
  15. ↑ Dirk Knipphals: Open letter from the Rowohlt authors. Highly explosive for Holtzbrinck. In: taz.de . September 12, 2018. Retrieved September 12, 2018 . Change of publisher at Rowohlt causes unrest. In: Spiegel Online . September 12, 2018. Retrieved September 12, 2018 .
  16. ^ Dispute about Rowohlt-Verlag: "Ignorance, lack of transparency and ruthlessness". In: Frankfurther Allgemeine Zeitung. September 30, 2018, accessed October 3, 2018 .
  17. ↑ Rowohlt Verlag: "Details on personnel decisions remain confidential". In: buchreport.de. October 1, 2018, accessed October 1, 2018 .
  18. ^ Rowohlt: "Injunction not legally binding". In: buchreport.de. October 2, 2018, accessed October 3, 2018 .
  19. ↑ Laugwitz and Rowohlt come to an amicable agreement . In: boersenblatt.net , published and accessed on October 24, 2018.
  20. ↑ Gunnar Cynybulk leaves Ullstein. In: buchreport.de . May 10, 2019.
  21. ↑ Gunnar Cynybulk leaves Ullstein, Barbara Laugwitz takes over , boersenblatt.net, May 10, 2019, accessed on May 14, 2019.
  22. ↑ Barbara Laugwitz leaves Ullstein , deutschlandfunkkultur.de, published and accessed on June 9, 2020.
personal data
SURNAME Laugwitz, Barbara
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German publisher
DATE OF BIRTH January 12, 1971
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin