Helbling Verlag

Helbling Verlag GmbH
legal form	GmbH
founding	1946
Seat	Innsbruck, Esslingen, Bern-Belp
management	Markus Spielmann ; Alwin Wollinger
Number of employees	180
Branch	Publishing
Website	www.helbling.com
	As of October 11, 2019

The Helbling Verlag is a German-Verlag with locations in Innsbruck , Esslingen , Ancona (I) and Belp (CH). He publishes teaching and learning systems for music, elementary schools and foreign languages. In addition to a choir program, materials for teaching music from children to adults are also published. According to its own information, the publisher was awarded an ECHO-Klassik , “Leopold - good music for children” from the Association of German Music Schools (VdM), media awards from the Association of German School Musicians (VDS), “digita - German Education Media Award 2013” or “Best Edition” from German Music Publishers Association (DMV) awarded.

The publisher's portfolio also includes a program for English in schools and adult education. With the “Helbling College for Music Education Training” and the “Helbling Languages Academy” there is also an offer for teacher training.

history

In 1946 Elvira Harm founded the music publishing company Helbling in Innsbruck with the participation of the Swiss Helbling Verlag AG in Zurich. The aim was to develop materials for amateur music-making, especially in the field of brass music and choirs. As a sub-publisher, Helbling also exercises the rights to German and American light music in Austria.

Since the early 1950s there has been an increased focus on music education and the first songbooks for school lessons were created. In parallel with the withdrawal from the field of popular music, the establishment of a school book program for music began in the 1960s. In-house production with prepress, printing and bookbinding was set up.

In 1965, “Komm sing mit” was published, an Austrian school song book that was part of the program until 2005 and has a total circulation of more than 2 million copies. In 1972 the partnership with the Swiss Helbling AG was dissolved. Helbling developed into a textbook supplier for music in Austria. At the same time, the offer for amateur musicians (brass music and choir) as well as literature for instrumental lessons was expanded. In 1978 the company moved to its own publishing house in Rum near Innsbruck. The range of textbooks for music covered all types of schools and grades in Austria, Germany and Switzerland.

In the 1980s, a further thematic focus arose with the specialist book program on musicology. In addition, we developed our own music-making materials for teaching at music schools, as well as a program for early musical education.

The 1990s were marked by restructuring. Among other things, the music publisher Helbling developed into a provider primarily of educational materials. New focus areas arose in the area of media networks for books and the development of learning systems.

In 1995 the production unit was closed. With the establishment of a GmbH in 1996, the management of the publishing house passed to Markus Spielmann as partner and publisher. In addition to the development of a choir program, the range of school books has now also been expanded. The developments concerned the area of early English in kindergartens as well as “Lilos Lesewelt”, the first school book with integrative use of multimedia for German lessons in elementary schools. With “Playway”, the first textbook for teaching English in primary schools is created. This learning system, which is used in around 50 countries, was the cornerstone for the increasing internationalization of the publishing house.

In 2003 Alwin Wollinger built another publishing location in Esslingen a. N., which became an independent GmbH in 2009. The focus of the program is music education from early musical education to secondary level II. In 2011 the textbook "MusiX" was published, which subsequently developed into a teaching work for school music lessons.

Further locations were opened in Ancona (Italy) in 2004 and in Bern-Belp (Switzerland) in 2012. Helbling currently has around 180 employees.

Awards

Echo Klassik (for the CDs Des Kaiser Nachtigall and Der Feuervogel ),
"Leopold - good music for children" by the Association of German Music Schools ,
Media awards from the Association of German School Musicians (VDS),
digita - German Educational Media Prize ,