Gottfried Bermann Fischer

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Gottfried Bermann Fischer (originally Gottfried Bermann , born July 31, 1897 in Gleiwitz , † September 17, 1995 in Camaiore , Tuscany ) was a German publisher .

Life

Gottfried Bermann was born in Gleiwitz in Upper Silesia as the son of the Jewish medical councilor Salomon Bermann and volunteered as a war volunteer after completing the humanistic grammar school. After serving as an officer in World War I , he studied medicine at the Universities of Breslau , Freiburg and Munich . He then worked as a surgical assistant in the Friedrichshain hospital in Berlin .

In 1924 he met the older daughter of the publisher Samuel Fischer , Brigitte (called "Tutti", 1905–1991), and married her in February 1926. They were the parents of three daughters: Gabrielle (1926–1972), Gisela (1929–2014 ) and Annette (1931-1996).

Samuel Fischer, the most successful publisher of fiction at the time , had been looking for a successor to run his company since the early death of his son Gerhart in 1913 and won Bermann to join the publishing house in October 1925. Bermann was promoted to managing director three years later and, in view of the increasingly tense political situation, founded an AG for publishing rights in Switzerland as early as 1932 . He brought newly concluded contracts with authors into this working group and thereby protected those concerned from possible attacks by the National Socialists .

In 1932, Bermann appointed Peter Suhrkamp as the editorial director of the Neue Rundschau , who also joined the board in autumn 1933. The publishing work could still be continued after Samuel Fischer withdrew more and more into private life and died on October 15, 1934, as the National Socialists abroad initially tried to keep the impression of a certain liberality alive. Several of the available titles of the house fell victim to the book burning in 1933 . In 1936, Bermann decided to leave part of the company in Germany and sell it under the name of S. Fischer to a publisher that was not a thorn in the side of the Propaganda Ministry . This part should be directed by Peter Suhrkamp and intended for "unencumbered" authors. Bermann wanted to transfer the other part with the critical writers to Vienna and continue it as a GmbH under the name of Bermann-Fischer Verlag . His project was approved by the authorities, and in March he emigrated to Austria with his wife and three daughters. Here he was able to continue to bring out works by authors such as Thomas Mann , Hugo von Hofmannsthal , Hermann Hesse , Mechtilde Lichnowsky and Carl Zuckmayer and keep them on the market.

However, as early as March 1938, when Austria was annexed to the German Reich, Bermann was forced to flee to Switzerland via Italy. In Zurich he met Franz Werfel , who had also fled , and who gave him the idea of ​​settling in Stockholm. Bermann got in touch with the Swedish publishing company Bonnier and obtained permission to set up his publishing house in Stockholm, since the Bonnier company wanted to take a 51 percent share in a new start-up. Bermann was able to bring in the other 49 percent, now under the name Bermann Fischer, through his publishing rights AG from 1932. He published again in Sweden literature by German and Austrian authors such as Martin Gumpert , Karl Otten , Stefan Zweig and Franz Werfel, but without being able to distribute his books in Germany. After an atmosphere arose in Sweden that sympathized with National Socialist Germany and Bermann was taken into “protective custody” for five weeks, the publishing family moved to the United States in June 1940, where Bermann Fischer continued his publishing activities.

After the Second World War , Bermann Fischer initially continued to manage the publishing house from Stockholm, from 1948 together with Fritz H. Landshoff , head of the German-language department of Querido Verlag (1933–1940), as Bermann Fischer / Querido Verlag from Amsterdam; Vienna is also indicated as the place of publication. In 1950 he finally separated from Peter Suhrkamp, ​​who, as planned, had brought the part of the publishing house that remained in Germany through the Hitler era. The authors could choose between Bermann Fischer and Suhrkamp.

Family grave ( honor grave ) in Berlin-Weißensee

Bermann Fischer retired in 1963 and from then on devoted his time to sculpture, most recently to painting. In his last interview he explained: “My life's work was subject to two mandatory tasks: to maintain the publishing house and to continue it according to its tradition, and to protect my family from destruction by Nazi rule. The fact that I succeeded in both [...] fills me with infinite thanks ”(Haufler / Vogel, p. 19). Bermann Fischer died in Tuscany in 1995 and is buried in the Jewish cemetery in Berlin-Weißensee .

Honors

Works

  • Threatened - preserved: the path of a publisher . Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 1994, ISBN 3-596-21169-7 (first edition 1967).
  • Wanderer through a Century . Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 1994, ISBN 3-596-12176-0 .
  • Correspondence with authors . S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2001, ISBN 3-10-021602-4 .
  • Living present: speeches and essays . 2nd edition Classen, Zurich / Stuttgart 1987, ISBN 3-7172-0348-7 .
  • Peter de Mendelssohn (Ed.): Thomas Mann. Correspondence with his publisher Gottfried Bermann Fischer 1932–1955 . Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 1975, ISBN 3-10-048173-9 .
  • Correspondence . With Carl Zuckmayer . Volume 1: Letters 1935–1977 / Volume 2: Commentary. Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-596-17055-5 .

As editor

  • The New Rundschau of June 6, 1945 . Facsimile edition. S. Fischer: Frankfurt a. M. 2001, ISBN 3-10-048184-4 .
  • In Memoriam S. Fischer: December 24, 1859-1959 . zs. with Brigitte Bermann Fischer. S. Fischer: Frankfurt a. M. 1960, ISBN 3-10-050303-1 .

literature

  • Florian Bruns: From Surgeon to Publisher - The Century Life of Gottfried Bermann Fischer (1897–1995) . In: Deutsche Medizinische Wochenschrift 143 (2018), pp. 1866–1870.
  • Irene Nawrocka: Publishing house: Vienna, Stockholm, New York, Amsterdam. The Bermann-Fischer Verlag in exile (1933–1950). A section from the history of S. Fischer Verlag (= Archive for the History of the Book Industry, Volume 53, published by the Historical Commission of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association). Walter de Gruyter, Booksellers Association, Frankfurt am Main 2000 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
  • Daniel Haufler / Sabine Vogel: The last of his tribe. A conversation with Gottfried Bermann Fischer. In: ZEIT Magazin of October 7, 1994, pp. 12-19.
  • Harald Wieser : The poet and the crocodile. Conversation [with Brigitte and Gottfried Bermann Fischer] on the 100th birthday of Samuel Fischer Verlag . In: Harald Wieser: Of masks and people . Volume 2. Zurich, Haffmans Verlag 1991, pp. 273-296; First published in: Der Spiegel 1 (1987) under the title: We have never returned home . (Article online)
  • Bermann Fischer, Gottfried. In: Lexicon of German-Jewish Authors . Volume 2: Bend Bins. Edited by the Bibliographia Judaica archive. Saur, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-598-22682-9 , pp. 208-213.

See also

Web links

notes

  1. ^ SPIEGEL ONLINE, Hamburg, Germany: DIED: Gottfried Bermann Fischer - DER SPIEGEL 39/1995. Retrieved July 16, 2017 .
  2. ^ Munzinger-Archiv GmbH, Ravensburg: Gottfried Bermann Fischer - Munzinger Biographie. Retrieved July 16, 2017 .
  3. ↑ z. B. Zweig, Marie Antoinette. Portrait of a medium character. The persecution-based uncertainty about the place of publication leads to a licensed edition of the Stuttgart library in 1949 naming both places of publication for BF: Amsterdam for the licensor, Vienna for the first print after the war (1948)
personal data
SURNAME Bermann Fischer, Gottfried
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bermann-Fischer, Gottfried
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German publisher
DATE OF BIRTH July 31, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Gliwice
DATE OF DEATH 17th September 1995
Place of death Camaiore , Italy