Bruno Gmünder Verlag

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The Bruno Gmünder GmbH was founded in 1981 in Berlin media companies, the media for gay produced men and was one of the global leaders in this area. The company had set itself the goal of producing books for gay men that are needed for the development of a gay self-confidence and lifestyle. Bruno Gmünder was the majority shareholder until 2011 . After filing for bankruptcy in May 2014, Bruno Gmünder bought the Gmünder Group again as a minority shareholder together with the lawyer Frank Zahn . It was continued as Bruno Gmünder GmbH. This GmbH also filed for insolvency in March 2017. The Bruno Gmünder Verlag was finally taken over by Salzgeber Medien and is continued there as the Bruno Books brand of the Salzgeber book publishers .

Publishing concept

In addition to gay fiction and non-fiction, the overall program included travel guides , photo books , guides, comics , art books and various monthly magazines . The group produced between 120 and 150 new titles per year with around 80 permanent employees (2003: 40) and sold them worldwide. The media group had a workforce of around 100 people. The market in Germany accounted for about 25 percent of sales, the largest foreign market was the United States .

The most important titles were the travel guides of the Spartacus Travel Guides series with the main product Spartacus International Gay Guide , which was also published as a regional edition for Berlin as Spartacus Berlin Gay Guide (formerly Berlin from the back ), photo books by Rick Day , Mark Henderson , Tom Bianchi , Howard Roffman , Bel Ami , Hot House Entertainment , comics by Joe Phillips , Mioki , Zack as well as the monthly lifestyle magazine men and the erotic magazines Dreamboys and Macho and Porn Up .

The gay retail group Bruno’s was associated with the company . In addition to the gay publications mentioned, etc. a. also to purchase gift items , underwear and sextoys .

history

With the participation of Christian von Maltzahn (1956–1997), the Eisenherz bookstore (formerly Prinz Eisenherz Buchhandlung) was opened in Berlin in November 1978 . From 1979 Bruno Gmünder (* 1956) was also part of the Eisenherz team. In 1981, the two then 25-year-old friends founded the publishing house under the motto:

"We are homo, we make homo and we want to help homo to get a book."

Bruno Gmünder says of the company's philosophy:

“We never saw ourselves as a company that makes books that educate people about homosexuality. We always wanted to make books for ourselves. We have always said we have to do the media we lack. "

- Bruno Gmünder : Männer Aktuell 7/2006 p. 35

And about his personal motivation:

“I think that's just curiosity. Curiosity about life, about the unknown. As a gay person in particular, I've learned that it's important to always go one step further. And that's actually what characterizes my life. In this respect, despite the loss of my partner and many other loved ones, I have always found every change to be a challenge to dare to do something new and to tackle things more intensively. "

- Bruno Gmünder : Männer Aktuell 7/2006 p. 35

Book series cities from behind

In a backyard they were working on their first book project, a city guide about gay Berlin. The friend Berthold Spangenberg , owner of Heinrich Ellerman Verlag , had the idea for a series with the title from behind . The first edition of 5000 pieces, which was even delivered to the Berlin scene, was sold out within four weeks at a price of DM 10 . In the spring of 1982 Munich appeared from behind and shortly afterwards Hamburg from behind . The publisher Rosa Winkel had been a gay publisher for a long time, but Gmünder and Maltzahn lacked certain products there. In the same year they published Der fromme Tanz , Klaus Mann's early gay novel, through Spangenberg's mediation . Also in 1982, together with Michael Föster and Theo Düppe, they founded the magazine Torso , which offered a mix of lifestyle and politically committed journalism and was discontinued two years later. In 1983, doctors, journalists, bar owners and Bruno Gmünder founded Deutsche AIDS-Hilfe to create an organization so that other media would not work against but with gays in relation to AIDS.

The production and sales opportunities were not optimal. Finding print shops alone was difficult. It was often said that they had trainees and therefore couldn't print something like that. Back then, it wasn't about sex or porn, but gay content alone was enough. Conservative media completely refused to advertise, and liberal media such as Die Zeit or Der Spiegel were reluctant not to appear as promoters of the "gay thing". Hilde von Lang, partner of Zeit editor Gerd Bucerius , even wrote the rejection - apparently because of the embarrassment - with her own hand, including many typing errors. There was also hardly any gay literature in the book trade and there were only a few gay bookshops in the big metropolises. Despite these adversities, the publisher grew by advertising in the scene's own media, distributing flyers and setting up a mail order business. Due to the increasing lack of space, the publishing house moved several times within Berlin in the following years.

The annual Spartacus was added to the publishing program in 1986 and by 2006 1.5 million copies were sold. From 1987 the publisher oriented itself internationally. In the same year the first issue of Men appeared . Conceptually slightly changed, the magazine appeared from 1989 under the name Männer aktuell , but in October 2007 it returned to the original title. In 1988, Bruno’s store opened in Berlin, of which there were two each in Berlin and Cologne in 2006, and one each in Hamburg and Munich. In 1997 Gmünder's partner Maltzahn died of the consequences of AIDS.

Since 2004, long-time employee Michael Taubenheim has been co-managing directors of the publishing house and trade with Gmünder. On June 3, 2011 Bruno Gmünder sold the majority of his shares in the company to Tino Henn, Nik Reis and Michael Taubenheim. Henn became chairman of the management board.

kreuz.net

In October 2012, the Bruno Gmünder Group offered a “ bounty ” of € 15,000 for information that led to the investigation and final conviction of the operator of the right-wing extremist and homophobic blog kreuz.net . The Roman Catholic theologian David Berger took over the coordination of the resulting Stop kreuz.net campaign . In a letter to the German Bishops' Conference , the group asked them to support the action.

While the German Bishops 'Conference refused to support, the Roman Catholic Church in Austria and the Swiss Bishops' Conference worked together with Berger. In October and November 2012 connections between kreuz.net and the network of Catholic priests emerged. On December 2nd, 2012 kreuz.net was shut down for reasons unknown to the public. Based on the information received, Berger assumes that people in the service of the Roman Catholic Church are behind kreuz.net .

In the course of a raid against two Catholic priests in Austria, who were also active on gloria.tv , the computer from kreuz.net was discovered and confiscated in August 2013. The two priests received criminal charges and were withdrawn from their churches, but remained at large. The publisher described the campaign as a success on its website.

Bankruptcy proceedings

On May 28, 2014, the Bruno Gmünder Group filed for insolvency at the Charlottenburg District Court . According to the then managing director Henn, the bonus suspended as part of the Stop kreuz.net campaign should not be included in the bankruptcy estate and should continue to be available for payment. On November 1, 2014, Frank Zahn took over the business from the bankruptcy and continues to run it with a focus on publishing. After the bankruptcy was averted, it was announced on December 2, 2014 that the donations had been incorporated into the bankruptcy estate; Gmünder agreed that his share of € 10,000 would continue to be available as a reward to the person who led to the conviction of the kreuz.net operator.

Conflict with the German AIDS Aid

In December 2014, Deutsche AIDS-Hilfe canceled its advertising campaign in the magazine Männer, published by Bruno Gmünder Verlag, and justified this with alleged right-wing populist and discriminatory statements by editor-in-chief David Berger in August and November of that year. The Bruno Gmünder Verlag initially stated that it would not distance itself from Berger and stick to him, which earned the publisher negative criticism from the queer.de website . On February 1, 2015, however, Berger was dismissed as editor-in-chief by men without notice.

Web links

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  1. ↑ Börsenblatt, November 26, 2014: Zahn and Gmünder take over ( Memento from December 4, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ Bruno Gmünder GmbH files for Insolvency Queer.de on March 20, 2017
  3. ↑ Bruno Gmünder GmbH in restructuring on m-maenner.de from March 20, 2017
  4. ↑ Queer.de opens insolvency proceedings against Bruno Gmünder Verlag on June 5, 2017
  5. ↑ Queer.de: After taking over the book division of the insolvent Bruno Gmünder Verlag, Edition Salzgeber from Berlin is now also the majority shareholder of the Hamburg Männerschwarm GmbH
  6. ↑ About us. In: BrunoBooks.com. Salzgeber book publishers, accessed on March 16, 2020 .
  7. ↑ Mounia Meiborg: The change preacher . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung of July 11, 2013, p. 29. Online at sueddeutsche.de.
  8. ↑ Tanja Laninger: The upswing is pink , Welt online, June 29, 2003
  9. ↑ a b Andreas Marschner: Curiosity about the unknown (25 years of Bruno Gmünder Verlag), Männer aktuell , July 2006, p. 34 f.
  10. ↑ Shop
  11. ↑ Bruno Gmünder Verlag: “Kopfgeld” for information about kreuz.net ( Memento of the original from October 15, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.brunogmuender.com
  12. ↑ Pray for us Süddeutsche Zeitung of October 12, 2012
  13. ↑ From heaven and hell - who is behind kreuz.net? , Kulturzeit , 3sat , November 30, 2012
  14. ↑ Stefanie Schütten: Are church people behind the homophobic website? , Zeit Online , October 31, 2012
  15. ↑ Rudolf Neumaier, Frederik Obermaier : In the name of the Lord . Page 1, Page 2, Page 3.Süddeutsche Zeitung , November 17, 2012
  16. ^ Rudolf Neumaier: New references to the operator of the Hetzseite , Süddeutsche Zeitung, November 22, 2012
  17. ↑ Birger Menke: Priester admits text deliveries to kreuz.net , Spiegel Online , November 27, 2012
  18. ↑ kreuz.net is offline , Süddeutsche Zeitung, December 2, 2012
  19. ↑ David Berger: "The traces of kreuz.net are condensing" , queer.de, October 11, 2012
  20. ↑ Computer confiscated from kreuz.net , Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger , August 10, 2013
  21. ^ State police searched offices of "gloria.tv" in Vienna , kath.net , August 10, 2013
  22. ↑ a b Timo Henn, David Berger: We can do it ( Memento of the original from September 11, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Website of the Bruno Gmünder Verlag, June 3, 2014  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.brunogmuender.com
  23. ^ Monthly magazine men: Bruno Gmünder Group: Insolvency petition. Path for a new beginning ( Memento from December 17, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  24. ↑ Restart with Bruno Gmünder ( Memento of the original from November 7, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on brunogmuender.com  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.brunogmuender.com
  25. ↑ Bruno Gmünder: Addendum to the Stopptkreuznet campaign ( memento of December 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), men , December 4, 2014
  26. ^ Norbert Blech: Donations against kreuz.net ended up in Gmünder insolvency assets, queer.de, December 2, 2014
  27. ↑ Tatjana Kerschbaumer: Dispute over the editor-in-chief of "Männer" - Too right to be gay? , Tagesspiegel from December 10, 2014
  28. ↑ Gmünder-Verlag fires David Berger. In: queer.de. February 2, 2015, accessed February 20, 2015 .
  29. ↑ Jan Feddersen: Gay magazine "Men": David Berger dismissed without notice. In: taz.de . February 4, 2015, accessed February 20, 2015 .
  30. ↑ The gay shift to the right. the daily newspaper of February 3, 2015