Herder publishing group

The Herder publishing group is an amalgamation of several foundations and legally affiliated companies in the publishing industry under the umbrella of Herder GmbH & Co. KG . In addition to its headquarters in Freiburg im Breisgau (Germany), the group is also represented in Stuttgart and Basel ( Switzerland ). It is run by the Herder family in the sixth generation since Bartholomä Herder . In 2001 the Herder publishing house celebrated its 200th anniversary.

Publishers of the group

The largest company in the group is the Christian Herder publishing house with the children's book imprint publishing house Kerle in Freiburg, and since 2012 also in Munich. Other publishers in the group are the Stuttgart publishing house Kreuz with the Urania publishing house (formerly the Dornier publishing group ) and the Freiburg philosophy publishing house Karl Alber with the Frankfurt publishing house Joseph Knecht . The Erftstadter Verlag Hohe , which specialized in the field of modern antiquarian bookshops, was also part of the group for a short time, but ceased its operational activities in 2008.

Other companies in the group

In addition, the Herder publishing group includes the delivery company Freiburger Verlagsdienste (abk .: FVD).

In July 2016 it was announced that Herder would take over the majority of the Thalia book trade group .

History of the publishing group

The first generation of publishers

In 1798, Bartholomä Herder opened a school bookshop and printer in Rottweil . Only three years later he was appointed episcopal bookseller and founded the publishing house in Meersburg on Lake Constance as Herdersche Verlagbuchhandlung , which was relocated to the university town of Freiburg in 1808. After severe financial hardship in the 1830s, Bartholomä Herder dies.

The second generation of publishers

His sons Karl Raphael and Benjamin Herder continue to run the Herder publishing house in Freiburg. In 1849, despite the poor economic situation caused by the Baden Revolution, the Herder bookstore (at that time still a literary establishment ) was founded and in 1853 Herder's Conversations-Lexikon was published . Shortly afterwards, Karl Raphael Herder left the management team in order to make the iodine bath in Bad Tölz a success. Benjamin Herder, however, has to admit that theological textbooks and his attempts at expansion (like those of his father) to Sigmaringen , Paris and Karlsruhe have not yet been crowned with long-term success. Nevertheless, between 1873 and 1886 he founded bookstores in Munich and Karlsruhe, the B. Herder Book Co. in St. Louis, Missouri, USA and on May 1, 1886, the B. Herders Verlag - book and art shop in Vienna's Wollzeile (near the Stubenring ) as a publisher and bookstore. Shortly after the appointment of Benjamin Herder as Tipografo Editore Pontificio by Pope Leo XIII. in 1888 he and his wife die.

The third generation of publishers

New construction of the Herder site in Vienna (built in 1902)

His son Hermann Herder sen. takes over the management of the Herder publishing house in 1888, which now employs 180 people. He leads the business and expansions so successfully that 13 years later 468 employees work for the Herder company. In 1902, Hermann Herder built a new building in the style of the Wilhelminian era at the Vienna site. In 1906 he became a member of the board of directors of the Association of Catholic Booksellers, which he co-founded . In 1912 the new publishing and printing building was opened, which the people of Freiburg simply called the “Red House” and which still characterizes the Neuburg district today. When Hermann Herder went to Sigmaringen as a captain at the outbreak of the First World War , he transferred the management of the publishing house to Philipp Dorneich . Herder's daughter Elisabeth and Dorneich's son Theophil married in 1925, when the Herder Librería opened in Rome. In 1934 the Rhein-Mainische Volkszeitung was expropriated by the National Socialists and its publisher Josef Knecht (1897–1980) became managing director of Verlag Herder. Some of his companies are still part of the Herder Group's business association. In 1935 Herder founded the Christophorus publishing house and the OA Shobo company in Tokyo .

The fourth generation of publishers

A few years later, Hermann Herder senior dies. and his grandson Theophil Herder-Dorneich (1898–1987) took over the management of the publishing house in 1937, whose work was increasingly hampered by the National Socialists. In 1939 the Karl Alber publishing house was taken over and a Herder branch was founded in Manila , Philippines. In 1943, the Editorial Herder company was opened in Barcelona , Spain, with part of the Spanish-Latin branch of the publishing house. On November 27, 1944, the Freiburg publishing house was destroyed by the bombing of the British Operation Tigerfish . 11 Herder employees are among the victims. When Major Theophil Herder-Dorneich returned from the war in 1945, Freiburg was under French occupation. 45 of the employees died in the war and 11 went missing. One year later, the monthly Herder Korrespondenz appears for the first time. In the years that followed, Hermann Herder-Dorneich proved to be just as fond of traveling as his grandfather and continued to drive the internationalization of the Herder Group forward.

The fifth generation of publishers

In 1960 Theophil's son Hermann married Alphons Horten's daughter Mechtild. On his father's 65th birthday, he was given the management of the publishing house. His brother, the social economist Philipp Herder-Dorneich , was also managing director from 1963 until 1973 when he was appointed to the University of Cologne . Theophil Herder-Dorneich remained senior director of the publishing house until his death in 1987. The publishing group was gradually expanded during this time, with the AG Ploetz publishing house and the FH Kerle publishing house also being purchased in the 1970s . In 1984 the Carolus bookstore in Frankfurt opens its doors for the first time. In 1989, under Hermann Herder, the decision to restructure and modernize the publishing group was made: the publishing house was soon delivered by the external service provider Koch, Neff and Oetinger , the printing plant that had grown too large was relocated to Freiburg-Hochdorf and the entire north wing of the Red House was transferred to the state of Baden- Württemberg sold, which has since housed the forestry faculty of the University of Freiburg there . The subsequent, considerable investments lead to the withdrawal of all Hermann Herders siblings from the publishing group after legal disputes in 1997, which is also going through difficult economic times: cost reductions, downsizing and the withdrawal from the bookstore business characterize the group . For example, the Herder bookstore in downtown Freiburg has been part of the Thalia bookstore chain since the 1990s . The rationalization measures also affect the branch in Vienna, so that in 1997 the Viennese publishing house production was moved to the Freiburg parent company.

The sixth generation of publishers

In 2000 Hermann Herder separated the group and divided the management between his three children: Manuel Herder (* 1966) took over management in Freiburg, Gwendolin Herder in New York City and Raimund Herder in management of the Barcelona division. In 2001 the Herder publishing house celebrates its 200th anniversary.

On April 1, 2004, the Viennese location, founded in 1886, since 1997 only a bookstore, is taken over by the previous managing director Gerhard Zach and has been renamed as Zach-Buch GmbH since June 23, 2004 , with the Herder bookstore and in a cooperation agreement with the former parent company, continued. In October 2006 the publishing house took over the Dornier publishing group (Stuttgart) with the publishers Kreuz, Lüchow, Theseus and Urania. Effective January 1, 2009, the Kreuz publishing house sells the Theseus and Lüchow publishers to the J. Kamphausen publishing group in Bielefeld and the Christophorus handicraft publisher to OZ Verlag . In 2012 Herder relocated the Herder-Kinderbuch and KeRLE labels to a new location in Munich. In October 2013 Herder announced that the program parts of the general non-fiction book would also be relocated to Munich.

The Freiburger Graphische Betriebe (abbreviated: FGB), the main shareholder of which was the publisher Manuel Herder in 2012 and which therefore often belonged to the Herder Group, was sold to the Belgian printing company Proost Industries in June 2014. In spring 2015, an application for bankruptcy was filed, as a result of which the company was wound up.

The Herder bookstores in the center of Freiburg and in Münster were sold to the Phönix-Montanus Group (today Thalia-Douglas Group ) in 1996 , and the Herder bookstore in Vienna in 2004 to the previous managing director. The large bookstore Carolus in Frankfurt am Main was closed in 2019.

literature

Karl-Theo Humbach et al. (Red.): The Herder publishing house: 1801–2001 - chronological outline of its history with synchronopsis on intellectual and world events (200 years of Herder). Herder, Freiburg (Breisgau) 2001, ISBN 3-451-20550-5
Industry news from the Börsenblatt in print and online .

Individual evidence

↑ Katholisch.de: Herder takes over majority in Thalia

↑ ^a ^b ^c Herder bookstore: On the history of the HERDER bookstore in Vienna. ( Memento of the original from March 23, 2010 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. Retrieved July 3, 2010. @1@ 2

↑ Entry on bookstore Herder - Zach-Buch GmbH in firmenbuch.at: Zach-Buch GmbH , commercial register no. FN 249995 s. ( Memento of the original from October 4, 2013 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. Retrieved July 3, 2010. @1@ 2