Gütersloher publishing house

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gütersloher publishing house
logo
founding   April 18, 1959
Seat   Gutersloh
publisher   Thomas Rathnow
Publisher number   579, 7811
Publishing group   Random House
genus   Fiction , non-fiction
Website   www.gtvh.de

The Gütersloh publishing house (formerly Gütersloh publishing house Gerd Mohn ) is a German book publisher based in Gütersloh . He continues the publishing work founded by Carl Bertelsmann in 1835 , the religious part of which has been published by Rufer Verlag since 1939 and was renamed Gütersloher Verlag in 1959. The publishing house has been fully part of the Munich publishing group Random House since 2002 and employs 25 people. Sigrid Fortkord has been responsible for on-site publishing management since November 2017 .

history

Gütersloher publishing house
Gerd Mohn (1959)

C. Bertelsmann Verlag , founded in 1835, experienced extraordinary growth in the 1950s after the founding of the book club “Lesering” (later called “Club Bertelsmann”), which prompted Reinhard Mohn , who led the publisher in the fifth generation, to establish C. Bertelsmann KG to create, which would act as a holding company for the various businesses of his company and from which the Bertelsmann group later emerged. In the course of the restructuring, the then publishing house was divided into three areas: The "Sigbert Mohn Verlag" for literature, art, contemporary history and books for young people, the "C. Bertelsmann Verlag ”for advice and non-fiction books and the“ Gütersloher Verlagshaus ”for religious and theological-scientific literature. As a basis, the latter took over the program of the Rufer Verlag , which had been acquired in 1939 as a result of Nazi politics and since then has continued Bertelsmann's theological and religious program. In 1951 Heinrich Mohn handed over management to his youngest son, Gerd Mohn, who renamed the publishing house in 1959 as Gütersloher Verlagshaus Gerd Mohn .

The Gütersloh publishing house initially operated in the legal form of a sole proprietorship . In 1967 the Bertelsmann headquarters moved to new premises in downtown Gütersloh. As the only publishing house under the Bertelsmann umbrella, the Gütersloh publishing house did not become part of the Bertelsmann publishing group created in 1968 , although it maintained close economic relationships with it. It was not until the 1980s that the Gütersloh publishing house was also assigned to Bertelsmann's publishing division. After the publishing house was converted into a limited liability company in July 2000 , it has been part of the Random House publishing group since 2002.

program

The Christian narrator

The Gütersloher publishing house continued the publishing work of Carl Bertelsmann . This developed in a short time through his religious book and magazine publications, sacred song and trombone books, which were supposed to support the "Minden-Ravensberg revival movement " that was created in the 19th century . The most successful title was the Kleine Missionsharfe edited by Johann Hinrich Volkening , which had 86 editions by 1941 and was distributed millions of times.

Under the direction of Heinrich Bertelsmann, son-in-law Johannes Mohn and Heinrich Mohn , in addition to fiction and educational titles, Protestant-theological topics also played a decisive role. Heinz Hunger's writings on Christian sexual morality and education were published by the late 1960s . H. Hunger represented a theological-conservative orientation ( German Christians ). Under Gerd Mohn, the publishing house opened up to theological-liberal and social issues. Ecumenical and feminist theology, world religions - especially Judaism -, Third World issues, religious education and sex education supplemented the previous areas. Overall, the program to this day can mainly be assigned to the areas of religion and society. In addition, a collaboration with the churches developed. For example, most of the memoranda of the Evangelical Church in Germany are published in the Gütersloh publishing house. The Protestant hymn book still plays an important role in the program. In addition, the complete works of Dietrich Bonhoeffer , Martin Buber and Janusz Korczak as well as the editions of works by important reformers appear here .

In 1976 the brand GTB Siebenstern for paperbacks was launched, under which works by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Ernesto Cardenal and Elisabeth Kübler-Ross were published. With the acquisition of Kiefel Verlag , which was part of the Gütersloh publishing house from 1988 until it was closed at the end of 2003, gift books and calendars were added to the portfolio. In 1993 the Christian Kaiser Verlag was taken over, whereby the program was again expanded to include works by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. In 1999, the Quell Verlag from Stuttgart with authors such as Johannes Kuhn , Jörg Zink and Klaus Berger went to the Gütersloh publishing house.

Since 2004 the publishing house has been publishing exclusively under the name Gütersloher Verlagshaus. At the same time, a program for non-fiction books on socio-political and value-oriented topics was set up as a further pillar alongside the theological non-fiction and specialist books. In 2009 the Gütersloh publishing house was in second place behind Rowohlt in a nationwide comparison of publishers , but with around 60 novelties it was still one of the smaller publishers.

According to its own statement, the publisher is still primarily oriented towards the publication of works in printed form. Although all titles, with the exception of illustrated books , are now published as e-books , these only contributed five percent to sales up to 2013 . An exception are some magazines from the Gütersloh publishing house, which are also made available via an online platform from De Gruyter . In 2017, the Gütersloh publishing house focused on non-fiction and opened up to new target groups. With the relaunch in 2017, the “vision of a new world” should shape the publishing program.

criticism

In 2008, the Gütersloh publishing house came under fire with the Schwarzbuch Waldorf , which observers classified as the “most brutal possible investigation”, which would fall by the wayside. The Federation of Independent Waldorf Schools obtained before the Stuttgart Regional Court that the publisher was not allowed to deliver the book. The association saw the "line between admissible journalistic representation and unobjective disparagement" exceeded, while the publisher regretted the escalation of the dispute and stated that the other side had not accepted the offer of a clarifying discussion. A court settlement between the two parties had previously been reported, in which the Gütersloh publishing house was not allowed to insist on the controversial passages and the Federation of Waldorf Schools had to bear a third of the costs of the proceedings .

In 2012 the Gütersloh publishing house published the black book WWF by the German journalist Wilfried Huismann , which dealt with questionable business practices of the World Wide Fund For Nature . The organization criticized that the book contained false statements of fact and resisted the distribution of the work. Thereupon various dealers took the black book WWF out of the program, among other things Amazon and Weltbild stopped selling. The Random House publishing group, in turn, criticized the legal measures taken by the WWF. Initially, the dispute was heard before the Cologne Regional Court , and later the parties reached an out-of-court settlement. In the course of this, 21 text passages were deleted or changed, for example relating to the “round tables” between WWF and Monsanto . The changes were distributed from the third edition , older prints could continue to be sold without restriction.

literature

  • Günther Hadding (Ed.): 150 Years of Bertelsmann: 1835–1985 . The history of the publishing company in texts, images and documents. Bertelsmann, Munich 1985, ISBN 3-570-09999-7 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b company register. Federal Gazette, accessed on March 10, 2014 (Gütersloh District Court, HRA 2146 and HRA 3504).
  2. ↑ Thomas Rathnow restructures the Penguin division. In: Book Market. March 9, 2017, accessed December 1, 2017 .
  3. ↑ Profile view: Gütersloher Verlagshaus. In: Address book for the German-speaking book trade. MVB Marketing and Publishing Service of the Book Trade, accessed on November 10, 2014.
  4. ↑ a b Börsenblatt for the German book trade . November 18, 1988, p. 3427 .
  5. ^ A b Thomas Lehning: The media house . Past and present of the Bertelsmann group. Fink, Paderborn / Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-7705-4035-8 .
  6. ↑ Gütersloher publishing house now only “organizationally” at Random House. In: BuchMarkt. February 18, 2002, accessed April 9, 2014 .
  7. ↑ Karsten Huhn: Books - The trend goes to pious praline , ideaSpektrum , Wetzlar October 11, 2017, pp. 24-27
  8. ↑ Sigrid Fortkord takes over the publishing house management of the Gütersloh publishing house. In: Book Market. November 9, 2017, accessed December 1, 2017 .
  9. ↑ Volker Ackermann, Torsten Groth, Markus Plate, Arist von Schlippe: Large German family businesses . Generational succession, family strategy and corporate development. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2011, ISBN 978-3-525-40338-9 .
  10. ↑ a b Ludger Osterkamp: Bertelsmann mourns Gerd Mohn . Reinhard Mohn's brother died on Tuesday. In: New Westphalian . September 26, 2008.
  11. ^ A b Otfrid Seippel: 150 Years of Religion and Theology at Bertelsmann 1835–1985 . Gütersloh publishing house Gerd Mohn - Gütersloh. In: Booksellers Today .
  12. ^ Jan Philip Holtmann: Path dependency of strategic decisions . A case study using the example of the Bertelsmann Book Club Germany. Kölner Wissenschaftsverlag, Cologne 2008, ISBN 978-3-937404-57-8 .
  13. ↑ Helen Müller, Thorsten Strauss: 175 years of Bertelsmann . A future story. Bertelsmann, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-570-10175-9 .
  14. ^ Gloria Reyes-Morawski: The City Library Gütersloh GmbH . Cooperation attempt between media company and municipality. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1983.
  15. ↑ Business register. Federal Gazette, July 4, 2000, accessed on March 10, 2014 (Gütersloh District Court, HRB 3982).
  16. ↑ Random House brings Gütersloher Verlagshaus, Kösel and Gerth Medien together under the direction of Ralf Markmeier. In: BuchMarkt. January 25, 2006, accessed April 9, 2014 .
  17. ↑ Matthias Gans: Tradition with a fresh coat of paint . Gütersloher publishing house has repositioned itself for the Frankfurt Book Fair. In: New Westphalian . October 18, 2005.
  18. ↑ Memoranda and guidance. Evangelical Church in Germany, accessed June 30, 2014 .
  19. ^ Hans-Jürgen Jakobs, Uwe Müller: Augstein, Springer & Co. German media dynasties. Orell Füssli, Zurich 1990, ISBN 3-280-01963-X .
  20. ↑ Gerd Mohn. In: BuchMarkt. September 26, 2008, accessed April 10, 2014 .
  21. ^ History. From the beginnings till now. Gütersloher Verlagshaus, accessed on March 22, 2016 .
  22. ^ Christian Kaiser Verlag. In: Historical Lexicon of Bavaria. Retrieved April 11, 2014 .
  23. ↑ Company. In: Evangelisches Gemeindeblatt für Württemberg. Retrieved May 2, 2014 .
  24. ^ Jeanette Salzmann: Debate potential expanded . How a small publisher is now bringing bestsellers to the book market. In: New Westphalian . October 15, 2008.
  25. ^ Jeanette Salzmann: A flair for bestsellers . Gütersloher publishing house in second place in a nationwide comparison of publishers. In: New Westphalian . October 9, 2009.
  26. ↑ Stefan Brams: Values ​​are at the center . The Gütersloher publishing house believes in the future of the printed book. In: New Westphalian . October 6, 2010.
  27. ↑ Stefan Brams: Behind the facade of a luxury hotel . Gütersloh publishing house brings 55 titles in autumn. In: New Westphalian . October 8, 2013.
  28. ↑ Gütersloher Verlagshaus offers six electronic journals on the De Gruyter platform. In: BuchMarkt. June 20, 2013, accessed May 2, 2014 .
  29. ↑ Interview with Ralf Markmeier, Gütersloher Verlagshaus. New concept. In: Börsenblatt. February 24, 2017. Retrieved March 17, 2017 .
  30. ↑ Dorion Weickmann: Dilettante on Steiner's footsteps . In: The time . No. 38 , 2008 ( zeit.de [accessed on May 2, 2014]).
  31. ^ Controversy over the "Black Book Waldorf". In: The press. September 18, 2008, archived from the original on August 31, 2017 .;
  32. ^ A. Kissler: Revenge of the Anthroposophists. May 17, 2010, accessed May 2, 2014 .
  33. ↑ Gütersloher Verlagshaus and Bund der Waldorfschulen conclude settlement. In: BuchMarkt. October 21, 2008, accessed May 2, 2014 .
  34. ^ Wilfried Huismann: Black Book WWF . Dark shops under the sign of the panda. 1st edition. Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 2012, ISBN 978-3-579-06675-2 .
  35. ↑ Lars Langenau: The dark side of the panda. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. May 28, 2012, accessed March 22, 2014 .
  36. ↑ Sustainable false statements. World Wide Fund for Nature, accessed March 22, 2014 .
  37. ↑ WWF pushes critical book off the market . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung . June 2, 2012 ( faz.net [accessed March 22, 2014]).
  38. ↑ Law firm takes action against "Schwarzbuch WWF". In: Börsenblatt . June 3, 2012, accessed March 22, 2014 .
  39. ↑ Hannes Hintermeier: "Black Book WWF" remains available. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . June 16, 2012, accessed March 22, 2014 .
  40. ↑ Lars Langenau: When credibility suffers. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . June 14, 2012, accessed March 22, 2014 .
  41. ↑ Lars Langenau: The WWF has to put up with criticism. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. June 15, 2012, accessed March 22, 2014 .
  42. ↑ WWF and author agree. In: Focus Online . July 25, 2012, accessed March 22, 2014 .
  43. ↑ Sebastian Erb: "Black Book WWF" defused. In: the daily newspaper . July 25, 2012, accessed March 22, 2014 .
  44. ^ Wilfried Huismann: Black Book WWF . Dark shops under the sign of the panda. 3. Edition. Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 2012, ISBN 978-3-579-06631-8 .
  45. ↑ Dispute "Black Book WWF" enclosed. In: book report. July 25, 2012, accessed March 22, 2014 .

Coordinates: 51 ° 54 ′ 39.6 ″  N , 8 ° 25 ′ 12.5 ″  E