Eugen Salzer-Verlag

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Original signet from Eugen Salzer-Verlag from 1891. Inscription: “For time and eternity”. Illustrator: Georg Barlösius (1864–1908).

The Eugen Salzer publishing house was a publishing house in Heilbronn . It was founded in 1891 by Eugen Salzer (1866–1938) and was family-owned until 1999. The focus of the publishing house was on Swabian authors who u. a. were presented in various yearbooks and anthologies, on religious literature as well as on literature of the Baltic Germans . In addition, Salzer published a successful paperback series (last continued as a small series ) with over 300 titles. The entire publishing program at the time of its existence comprises around 2000 titles. The highly acclaimed successes in the publishing program in the early 20th century included the anthology series Der Süd, published from 1909, with contemporary prose from the southern German-speaking area and the yearbook Von Schwäbischer Scholle , published from 1913 . Individual successful titles were the New Testament in the language of today by Friedrich Pfäfflin , which was published in the 1930s and reprinted several times, and two books by Else Hueck-Dehio from the 1950s, each with a circulation of more than 900,000 copies. Well-known authors who have been published by Salzer also include Hermann Hesse , Theodor Heuss , Siegfried von Vegesack and Amei-Angelika Müller .

history

Founding of the publishing house in 1891 and the first years

After working in Basel and Berlin, the young bookseller Eugen Salzer from Heilbronn founded the publishing house named after him in Heilbronn on October 1, 1891, which initially primarily published works by Swabian authors. In terms of content, the focus was on the history, literature and humor of the homeland, evangelical-theological as well as socio-political and philosophical topics. The first publishing house was located at Salzer's place of residence on Heilbronner Herbststrasse, the printing of the publishing house products took place mainly in Heilbronn and Stuttgart.

As the publisher's logo, Salzer chose the signet of a sower in a field in front of the silhouette of Heilbronn's Kilian Church , to which the motto For time and eternity was attached in a banner . The original signet was designed by Georg Barlösius and went through various changes over time, but the sower always remained the dominant motif. In addition to Barlösius, Otto Rauth and Heinrich Seufferheld initially worked on the illustration of the books .

The Heilbronner Umgebung and Untere Neckarthal as far as Heidelberg (1892) and the first volume of the Heilbronner Stadtchronik by Friedrich Dürr (1895) were among the publisher's first local history publications . With the “literary yearbook” Hie gut Württemberg allewege (1898) Salzer published an anthology of Swabian writers for the first time . In the same year Salzer also published the anthology of the French poets of the 19th century Les Poètes Francais by August Reitzel . Salzer also spread French literature with the journal L'Echo littéraire, which appears 24 times a year . The Heilbronn pastor Karl Alexander Staehle (1851–1910) stands out among the storytellers of the first years of publishing . He wrote several historical novels published by Salzer under the pseudonym Philipp Spieß .

Expansion with anthologies and paperbacks

After Eugen Salzer married his wife Elise (1875–1972) in 1903, he and his family moved from Herbststrasse to Heilbronner Gartenstrasse. At that time the publishing program was greatly expanded. Numerous local novels by authors such as Richard Weitbrecht , Albert Geiger , Anna Schieber , Auguste Supper and Fritz Philippi have now appeared . Together with the bookkeeper , Salzer published a “literary Christmas round-up for the evangelical house” from 1902 to 1913. The Heilbronn editors Theodor Heuss and Ernst Jäckh supplied specialist books on local history and social issues. Salzer also expanded the publishing program to include popular scientific works such as the natural science lectures (1907–1910) by the Kiel botanist Johannes Reinke .

In 1909, Salzer founded a new anthology with contemporary Swabian prose , later called The South , with the poet Sieben Schwaben . The first authors included Ludwig Finckh , Caesar Flaischlen , Hermann Hesse , Heinrich Lilienfein , Anna Schieber , Wilhelm Schussen and Auguste Supper . Theodor Heuss wrote the foreword to the successful and internationally recognized debut from 1909. With the second volume, Salzer expanded the range of authors to include the entire southern German-speaking area and included Swiss authors such as Carl Albrecht Bernoulli and Ernst Zahn in the selection. Later episodes in the series were devoted to German-language literature from Hungary and poets from Baden.

In 1912, Salzer founded the pocket library of German poets with inexpensive paperback editions of works by mainly Swabian authors with Anna Schieber's story And hadn't the love . The pocket library appeared until 1931, at that time comprised 73 titles and had a total circulation of 1.6 million copies. The series was continued in a different form from 1934 as Salzers Volksbücherei and most recently from 1984 as Salzers Kleine Reihe . A total of around 300 titles were published, including Hermann Hesse's collection of poems, Music from the Lonely , the stories Vom Wegesrand by Auguste Supper and the stories Sisto e Sesto by Heinrich Federer .

From 1913 to 1920 and again in 1922 and 1938 the yearbook Von Schwäbischer Scholle was published , with which Salzer had set himself the goal of depicting “the entire spiritual life of our homeland”. For those yearbooks, Salzer once again resorted to authors such as Schieber, Jäckh, Heuss and Finckh, but also enriched the content with articles on arts and crafts, music, religious life and reports from the Schiller Association .

After the outbreak of World War I , Salzer started the Lieb Vaterland series of magazines with patriotic field letters . In the further course of the war there was a series of front reports by Wilhelm Mießner , Richard Volderauer , Viktor Jungfer , Carl Busse , Kurt Küchler and others, as well as the series of magazines, Consoling Solitude, founded in 1916 .

Time of the Weimar Republic

From that time on, Salzer also published numerous historical-critical religious works, including the main work Life of Jesus, the Unbeliever by the Catholic theologian Joseph Wittig . Other Christian authors at Salzer included Johannes Steinweg , Else Zurhellen-Pfleiderer , Tim Klein , Lina Neumeyer and Otto Scriba . Posthumously, Salzer also published numerous stories and reflections by Hermann Oeser, who died in 1912, until 1920 .

In 1918 Salzer acquired a building in Heilbronn's Titotstrasse 5 as a publishing house and residential building. Through Hermann Hesse, whose father came from Estonia , the Salzer-Verlag opened up to poets from the Baltic region in the 1920s . My uncle Hermann by Monika Hunnius is one of Salzer's outstanding Baltic writings . What is meant is her uncle Hermann Hesse, grandfather of the author of the same name. Salzer's other Baltic works include the six-volume epic Under the Changing Moon by Mia Munier-Wroblewska and writings by Traugott Hahn , Alexander Eggers and Helene Hoerschelmann .

Art books by Karl Stirner and Rudolf Sieck also appeared in the 1920s , and the Heilbronn caricaturist Ipf ( Hermann Siegmann ) published two caricature volumes in 1927 and 1931.

time of the nationalsocialism

In 1929 Fritz Salzer (1904–1943), son of the publisher's founder, joined the publishing house. As early as 1932, the publishing house supported the coming rulers with the publication of the book What we expect from National Socialism with contributions from August Winnig , Gustav Steinbömer , Ferdinand Plate , Hanns Johst and others. Even after 1933, the publisher's program featured a number of National Socialist titles, including Die deutsche Mutter (1933) by Magda Goebbels , the Runic Primer (1935) by Kurt Renck-Reichert or the "Heldenkampf" of SM Emden (1935) by Jan Feuga . At the same time, Salzer-Verlag also suffered from censorship by the National Socialists, as the titles Amaryllis by Anna Schieber and Jewish Legends by Else Schubert-Christaller were banned.

Basically, the Salzer-Verlag continued its previous publishing program with a focus on Swabian literature and religious writings, even during the time of National Socialism . The most significant publication that time came the New Testament in the language of today by Friedrich Pfäfflin , father Fritz Pfäfflins, the 1934 Salzer-daughter married. The work is related to the 400th anniversary of the complete translation of the Bible by Martin Luther in 1934 and appeared in several parts from 1933 to 1937 as well as in a first complete edition in 1939. Other Christian authors from the 1930s at Salzer were Friedrich Held and Paul Jaeger , Julie Schlosser , Alexander Reuss , Gustav Schüler and Hans Voelter . In 1937, under the editorship of Pastor Rudolf Daur , Salzer began a series of reports on the working weeks of the Köngener Kreis . The Salzer publishing almanacs of the 1930s each had lines from hymns as titles.

The last work in which the previous publisher Eugen Salzer was involved is Stiftsköpfe (1938) by Ernst Müller , an intellectual history of the Tübingen monastery . Eugen Salzer died on April 2, 1938; Theodor Heuss wrote the obituary. Under his son Fritz Salzer, who had been with the publishing house since 1929, the Salzer-Verlag brought out a number of nostalgic titles, including a new edition of Leonhart Fuchs' New Kreüterbüchlein (1935), great-grandmother's cookbook (1936) and great-grandmother's home remedies (1938) . The writers and editors at that time were the former columnist of the Neckar newspaper , Hans Franke , and the writer and alchemist Alexander von Bernus .

During the Second World War , publishing production declined rapidly due to the war-related shortage of paper. After twelve new publications were published by Salzer in 1939, there were eight in 1940, two in 1941, and one each in 1942 and 1943. Publisher Fritz Salzer volunteered for the Wehrmacht and died in Tunisia in 1943. The book, which was still published by Salzer in 1943, is a volume of poetry dedicated to him with the title Death for the Fatherland . During the air raid on Heilbronn on December 4, 1944, the publishing house on Titotstrasse was destroyed.

New beginning after the Second World War

After the Second World War, Elise Salzer, widow of the publisher's founder, tried to make a new start in her new place of residence, Calw . In 1940, the Salzer-Verlag had published the anti-Semitic work Die Judenfrage in Heilbronn by Götz Krusemarck as a commission publisher for the Heilbronn City Archives , which initially hindered the re-admission of the Salzer-Verlag in the American occupation zone. Attempts were made to sell some remaining copies from the publishing program that had survived the war, but the publisher's name was not allowed to be recognizable in the trade.

It was only Fritz Pfäfflin, the publisher's son-in-law, who succeeded in re-licensing the publisher in 1948 at his place of residence in Würzbach in the French occupation zone. The resumption of the publishing business then began with a mailbox address in Stuttgart and a makeshift publishing warehouse in Weinsberg . In addition to re-releases of pre-war titles, new titles and a. by Ernst Rietschel , Otto Linck , Elsa Bernewitz and Reinhold Schneider . In 1949 the Pfäfflin translation of the Bible was published again.

In 1950, the publisher's youngest son, Hartmut Salzer (1916–1993), took over the publishing house, and from 1956 moved back to the original address in Heilbronn's Titotstrasse. Hartmut Salzer expanded the Volksbücherei series with new authors and reissued numerous old publisher titles (including works by Hesse, Hunnius and Oeser). In 1956 the publishing program comprised 92 titles. In addition to works by new authors, there were also new publications by authors from the pre-war program, including Anna Schieber, Elsa Bernewitz, Auguste Supper and cartoonist Ipf. Initially, Hans Franke continued to work as a lecturer, who himself published two volumes of poems and novels in 1953 and 1961. He was followed in 1954 by the editor Agnes Kauffmann . AW Sauter worked for the publisher as a graphic designer in those years .

In addition to the regular publications and its public library, the Salzer-Verlag also established the seven-star series in the 1950s with bound editions of successful novels at reduced prices.

The most successful Salzer author of the 1950s was Else Hueck-Dehio (1897–1976), whose volume of short novels Ja, then ... (1953) and whose story Tipsys special love story (1959) each achieved a circulation of over 900,000 copies. She was followed by Christel Ehlert , whose book Wool from the Fences (1963) sold 236,000 times. Other important publications by Salzer include the anthology Arms of Light with Words from the Works of Albert Schweitzer , which, after its first publication in 1940, was published several times after the Second World War.

The program of the 1950s and 1960s essentially continued the previous publishing line, in which, in addition to Swabian or local history authors, Christian literature and authors from the Baltic States in particular dominated. The local history work with the highest circulation in the 1960s was the new edition from 1964 of Theobald Kerner 's Das Kernerhaus und seine Guests , written as early as 1881 . Salzer dedicated a few more publications to Justinus Kerner's circle . The religious authors of the post-war decades included Alwine Flügge , Peter Sulzer , Hermann Maas , Johannes Weidenheim , Walter von Hollander and Christian Ryke . Baltic German literature was mainly represented by Siegfried von Vegesack , whose older works were reissued by Salzer and supplemented with new publications and a speech record. Another focus in the publishing program will be displaced authors from the former German eastern regions, including Werner May , whose story Otto, my artist by God's grace (1956) was published in 170,000 copies and who published several other works by Salzer, Elisabeth Richter , who published by Salzer under the pseudonym Lise Gast , Susanne von Baibus , Eva Bartoschek-Rechlin , Angela von Britzen and Hellmut Walter . In the 1960s, titles by Edith Biewend , Waldemar Augustiny , Maria Hanau-Stachwitz , Rose Planner-Petelin and Edith Krispien followed .

The publisher in the late 20th century

In 1970 the publishing house founded the series Salzers Großdruck-Bibliothek with works in large print for people with impaired vision. The authors of the series include a. Jo Mihaly , Anna Schieber, Mia Munier-Wroblewska, Werner May, Siegfried von Vegesack and Ina Seidel . A total of 29 volumes were published in the series until 1982, then it was suspended until 1989 due to low demand. In 1984 the publisher also founded the series of Salzer's cheerful stories breviary with humorous writings.

Hartmut Salzer's daughter Barbara Salzer-Grethe (* 1955) joined the publishing house in 1981. In that year the publishing house was awarded the White Sheep at the Frankfurt Book Fair for its “assortment-friendly and cooperative behavior”.

The Volksbücherei series, which emerged from the pocket library , was continued in 1983 with Volume 251 as Salzers Kleine Reihe , which mainly allowed Swabian authors to have their say. The small series featured works by Martha Arnold-Zinsler , Susanne Butenwyk , Christine Kowalczyk and others. In the area of ​​Swabian literature, in addition to various successful titles by Amei-Angelika Müller, there are also the memories of young people by Robert Kieser (1973), several humorous volumes by Martha Arnold-Zinsler under the pseudonym Frida I. Dipfele and the books by Klaus Christian Wanninger , Rainer Moritz , Rolf Becker , Claudia Keller , Willi Bidermann , Rosmarie Bog and Hartmut Ronge should be mentioned.

In the 1980s, Salzer-Verlag also increasingly turned to historical novels. The Salzer authors of this genre included Harald Cyran , Reinhard Schmoeckel , Helmut Höfling , Jutta Hecker , Marianne Wintersteiner with novel biographies, Jetta Sachs with her Leocadie trilogy, Erika Petersen with her Moorburg trilogy and Harald Anderson .

Several successful titles from the Salzer publishing program, such as the Moorburg saga by Erika Peters or Ein Stück Speck für Frau Doktor by Natalie Anthes , were published as paperback editions by dtv and Rowohlt . Tipsy's special love story from Else Hueck-Dehio was licensed as Tippie se Liefde in South Africa. Conversely, Salzer has acquired the licenses for a number of foreign works, including those of two Dutch publishers, for the German market.

For the 100th anniversary in 1991, more than 2000 titles were counted that had been published by Salzer since the publishing house was founded. 17 new publications appeared in the anniversary year.

After the publisher Hartmut Salzer's death in 1993, his widow Sibylle Salzer continued the publishing house for a few years. On April 1, 1999, she stopped publishing in Heilbronn. At the same time, she sold part of the publishing program to the newly founded Salzer Verlag GmbH in Bietigheim under the direction of Barbara Salzer-Grethe and Thomas Bez. On January 1, 2002, the Ernst Kaufmann publishing house from Lahr took over the Bietigheimer Salzer Verlag.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jacobi (see literature) wrongly writes Wilhelm Seufferheld on p . On the title page by Philipp Spieß: Der Heiligenpfleger von Gruppenbach , published by Salzer in 1902, reads correctly, however, “Book decorations by H. Seufferheld.”
  2. ^ Ernst Kaufmann buys Salzer Verlag . buchmarkt.de , October 17, 2001

literature

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