Main association of the Austrian book trade

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The Main Association of the Austrian Book Trade (HVB) is the interest group of the Austrian book trade . Through its sub-associations, it represents the interests of bookstores, publishers , second-hand bookshops , wholesalers (book wholesalers) and publishing house representatives . Organizationally, it is an Austrian association with voluntary members. The headquarters of the association is the Palais Fürstenberg in downtown Vienna .

history

The association was founded as an association of Austrian booksellers at the General Assembly of Austrian Booksellers, which met in Vienna from October 24th to 26th, 1859, after an application to found an association that had been made in 1845 had been rejected by the then government. The committee of civil booksellers in Vienna , founded in 1807, had invited to the meeting with the aim of "negotiating and promoting the common interests of the Austrian book and art trade, including the music and map trade" ( Rudolf Lechner ) at the opening of the founding negotiations . Founding members were 86 retailers and publishers from all parts of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy . The statutes were based on those of the Börsenverein der Deutschen Buchhandels , the general meeting should be held every three years, with a book exhibition being held at the same time.

After Austria was annexed to the Third Reich in March 1938 , the Reichsschrifttumskammer moved into the association's own "book trade house". With a circular dated August 13, 1938, the association, now called the Association of Viennese Book, Art and Music Dealers after several changes of name , was declared dissolved and was transferred to the Reich Chamber of Literature. On September 25, 1945, ten days after moving back into the book trade, a provisional board of directors was formed in a first meeting after the Second World War .

On November 24, 1947, the constituent general assembly of the Association of Austrian Book, Art and Music Dealers took place in the ballroom of Vienna's Old Town Hall , attended by 226 members. The association was organized in sections for publishers, retailers, commission agents, wholesalers and distributors, libraries and reading circles, as well as for newspaper and magazine dealers.

In 1950 the association became an association, and in 1965 it was renamed for the last time to its current name.

Today the association is divided into the following professional associations: Austrian Booksellers Association, Austrian Publishers Association, Association of Austrian Book Wholesalers, Austrian Association of Representatives and Association of Austrian Antiquarian Booksellers .

Members are 490 publishers, bookstores, second-hand bookshops, deliveries and publishers' representatives.

Club headquarters

  • In 1886 the association moved into "its first company premises" (HVB) at  9 Himmelpfortgasse .
  • From 1901 the association was located at Blumenstockgasse 5.
  • 1925 Relocation to the Heinrichshof opposite the Vienna State Opera.
  • In 1927 the predecessor organization of the HVB bought the Viennese Palais Fürstenberg in Grünangergasse and set up the “Austrian Book Trade House” in it.
  • In 1933, the association moved into the book trade itself.

Club magazine

The first edition of the Austrian bookseller correspondence appeared on February 1, 1860 . In this organ of the association, in addition to the notifications of the association and the placement of advertisements, the new publications of the monarchy were also regularly listed. These editions are therefore of particular bibliographical value. The editors included Anton Einsle and Carl Junker , who wrote numerous writings relevant to historical book research.

In 1922 the club newspaper was renamed to Anzeiger for the book, art and music trade .

After the annexation of Austria in March 1938, the Anzeiger was discontinued in August.

On August 1, 1945, the first number after the Second World War was published.

The indicator has since the trade magazine for the Austrian book industry and is aimed at booksellers, publishers, representatives, delivery and antiquarians. The industry magazine appears monthly with a circulation of 1,500 copies.

Founding members

Companies that have been members of today's HVB since the association was founded in 1859:

Economic policy work

In October 1859 the "Association of Austrian Booksellers" was founded in Vienna. The 86 retailers and publishing houses who had traveled from all parts of the monarchy decided that this should negotiate and promote the common interests of the Austrian book and art trade. Since then, the main association has represented the Austrian book industry under changing names and in different compositions, supports its external presence and is committed to providing the best possible economic and political framework for its member companies. The association's main concerns are maintaining fixed book prices and fair copyright law.

Fixed book prices

Price maintenance, in particular, has been an important topic since the association began. The arguments against “slinging” formulated more than 200 years ago are still brought up today in price-fixing discussions: A functioning publishing system can only exist if booksellers can also make a living in less favorable locations. And only if the publishers rely on the appropriate sales channels will they be able to publish new publications at reasonable prices for the readers and reasonable fee conditions for the authors. The fixed price of books is therefore a necessity to protect this cultural asset and to preserve the cultural diversity of our society. After extensive lobbying efforts, the main association finally achieved that on June 6, 2000, the still valid law on price maintenance of books was passed unanimously in the National Council. The last act in the effort to maintain price maintenance was the procedure before the European Court of Justice, in which on April 30, 2009 the European Court of Justice judged the import clause of the Austrian price maintenance law to be unlawful, but did not question the national fixed book prices, but reaffirmed in their foundations. The import clause was quickly adapted to EU requirements: On July 8, 2009, the Austrian National Council passed the amendment to the Book Price Fixing Act with the votes of all parties and, after confirmation by the Federal Council, the new regulation finally came into force on August 1, 2009.

copyright

The “fight” for fair copyright is becoming more protracted due to globalization and digitization. Questions arise in this area that cannot be answered at national level alone. The Central Association of the Austrian Book Trade, together with European publishers' associations and international publishers, submitted objections to the New York court against the Google settlement, as it violated the basic principles of European copyright law. In addition, the planned regulation was not acceptable from the perspective of the publishers concerned and their authors, as the database created for the settlement is faulty and the agreed compensation payments for books that have already been digitized would have been disproportionately low. Even the settlement, which had been renegotiated against the background of the numerous objections raised, could not resolve fundamental problems, which is why the main association raised objections again at the beginning of 2010 and also spoke out against this settlement. In March 2011, the responsible judge Denny Chin found the Google Book Settlement to be unfair and inappropriate and rejected it. Now it remains to be seen how the comparison parties want to proceed.

Cultural policy work

A cultural and social mandate is linked to the political commitment to the book. That is why the main association began early on to set up advertising measures for the book industry, as reported in the Austrian Bookseller Correspondenz (today's Anzeiger ), which was first published in 1860 .

From the book week to the BUCH WIEN

In 1873 the association took part in the then world exhibition in Vienna with an exhibition of Austrian book production and in 1948 the Austrian Book Week was held for the first time , which since autumn 2008 has been pointing new paths into the future with BUCH WIEN . For the third edition of BUCH WIEN and the reading festival week in 2010, the association acted as the sole organizer for the first time and thus had the opportunity to design the fair even more according to the wishes of the industry and at the same time to gear it more clearly to the reading public. BUCH WIEN in November 2015 was able to set a new audience record with 40,000 visitors.

Commitment to the book

In addition to this largest book event in Austria and participation in the most important international trade fairs, the main association has a number of other activities - such as campaigns for the UNESCO World Book and Copyright Day or the renowned competition “The Most Beautiful Books in Austria” - which make the book the most important Positioning medium for education and entertainment, knowledge and creativity. The main association's goal of waking up the enthusiasm for books among a wide range of readers and keeping them alive is also served by awarding important prizes. The main association, together with the cultural department of the City of Vienna, has endowed the City of Vienna's Leo Perutz Prize for crime literature and awards one of the most important cultural prizes in the republic, the Austrian book trade's honorary prize for tolerance in thought and action. In 2016, the Main Association of the Austrian Book Trade will host the Austrian Book Prize for the first time in cooperation with the Federal Chancellery of the Republic of Austria and the Vienna Chamber of Labor . The prize, endowed with a total of 45,000 euros, recognizes the quality and independence of Austrian literature. The Austrian Bookstore Award, endowed with a total of 50,000 euros, has been awarded since 2017 .

The website www.buecher.at provides up-to-date information from the book industry as well as the activities and services of the Central Association of the Austrian Book Trade.

Chairman and President

Chairperson

1895 to 1909 according to the board of the chairpersons (in brackets company affiliation):

President

from 1945

  • 1945–1947: Wilhelm Frick
  • 1947–1949: Robert Stein
  • 1949–1952: Hans Urban
  • 1952–1959: Fritz Ross
  • 1959–1961: Robert Stein
  • 1961–1961: Hans Urban
  • 1962–1970: Hans Neusser
  • 1970–1976: Dieter Reisser
  • 1976–1982: Wilhelm Schwabl
  • 1982–1991: Otto Hausa
  • 1991-1997: Otto Mang
  • 1997-2004: Anton C. Hilscher
  • 2004–2009: Alexander Potyka
  • 2009–2014: Gerald Schantin
  • since 2014: Benedikt Föger

literature

  • Daniela Wessely: The publishing house of Carl Konegen in Vienna taking into account the publishing landscape in the late 19th century. Diploma thesis at the University of Vienna , Vienna 1997. With information u. a. on HVB, people (especially Rudolf Lechner) and the book companies mentioned above. Full text (PDF; 799 kB) . Retrieved October 31, 2010.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ ZVR number 121446820
  2. ↑ The main association of the Austrian book trade should not be confused with the professional association of the book and media industry of the WKÖ .
  3. ↑ a b c Rudolf Schmidt: German booksellers. German book printer. Volume 4. Berlin / Eberswalde 1907, pp. 601-604, Lechner, Rudolf. Entry on zeno.org.
  4. ↑ Wessely, 1997: Chapter 2.12, “Rudolf Lechner & Sohn”, p. 28f.
  5. ↑ Entry on Palais Fürstenberg on Burgen-Austria , accessed on October 31, 2010.
  6. ↑ HVB members since 1859 (PDF; 54 kB). ( Memento of March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Retrieved October 31, 2010.
  7. ↑ Wessely, 1997: p. 7ff, especially p. 9: "Preliminary remarks", p. 7ff, especially p. 9 .; Chapter 3, “The company's history”, p. 33ff.
  8. ↑ Kulturkaufhaus Pirngruber: Chronicle. ( Memento from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Website Kulturkaufhaus Pirngruber. Retrieved April 1, 2015.
  9. ↑ JN Teutsch , printer, publisher, bookstores: website of the company → “History”. Retrieved October 31, 2010.
  10. ↑ diepresse.com: Book Vienna ends with a record number of visitors. November 16, 2015, accessed December 22, 2015 .
  11. ^ Website of the Austrian Bookstore Award ; Retrieved April 6, 2017
  12. ↑ Illustration (jpg) ( Memento from April 14, 2016 in the Internet Archive ): “The chairmen of the Association of Austrian resp. the austrian-hungary. Bookseller 1859 - 1909 ”. Retrieved October 31, 2010.
  13. ^ A b Wikipedia user Marzahn: Project Court Supplier, R. Lechner (Wilhelm Müller) . Retrieved October 31, 2010.
  14. ↑ Gerold, Moriz von. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 1, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1957, p. 428.
  15. ↑ President of the main association since 1945.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 309 kB). Retrieved October 31, 2010.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.buecher.at