Hyperion Publishing House

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The Hyperion publishing house (founded in 1906) emerged from a bibliophile publishing house of the book art movement . He published the miniature book series Hyperion-Bücherei and is considered Germany's oldest publisher for small-format books.

Publishing history

Hyperion-Verlag Hans von Weber, Munich 1906–1913

The Hyperion publishing house was founded on September 22, 1906 in Munich by Hans von Weber under the name Hans von Weber, Verlag . Hans von Weber had already published a portfolio of true-to-the-original duplex prints based on drawings by Alfred Kubin in 1903 and is considered to be the discoverer. As a result, he continued to work as an artistic publisher and issued excellent printed and illustrated small editions, promoting young artists such as Th. Th. Heine , Walter Tiemann and Emil Preetorius . In addition, the book program of the Hyperion Verlag was primarily dedicated to young international authors. German first editions by André Gide , GK Chesterton , Valerius Brjussoff , Renard , Villiers , Pierre Bonnard , Paul Claudel and José-Maria de Heredia were published by Hans von Weber.

From 1908 Weber published the Hyperion magazine under the editorship of Franz Blei , Carl Sternheim and Alfred Walter Heymel . In the tradition of the art and literary magazines Jugend , Pan and Die Insel , Hyperion, pioneering a new generation of artists, published texts by Hugo von Hofmannsthal , Franz Kafka , Heinrich Mann , Rainer Maria Rilke and Robert Musil, among others . As a result of a falling out between Weber and his Franz Blei, the magazine was discontinued after the third year. Due to the success of the magazine, Weber advertised his publishing house in individual cases as the Hyperion publishing house as early as 1908 ; from 1909 onwards all books were named Hyperion-Verlag Hans von Weber, Munich .

Around 1909 Weber changed the publishing focus - alongside modern fiction there were now bibliophile series works such as Hundertdrucke (from 1910), Hyperiondrucke (from 1911) and the Hundred and Fifty Prints (from 1913) published together with S. Fischer. This made the publishing house one of the pioneers of the German book art movement , which promoted the bibliophile, high-quality book. The publisher's mouthpiece was the journal Der Zwiebelfisch , initially also published by Franz Blei and then from 1910 by Weber himself , which was published by Hyperionverlag from 1909.

Hyperion-Verlag Berlin, 1913-1936

In order to be able to concentrate on his activities as book art publisher, Hans von Weber sold the Hyperion publishing house including the rights to all works in editions of more than 1000 copies in 1913 to his fellow publishers Kurt Wolff and Julius Schröder . The publishing program was completed by the authors and works of Julius Zeitler, acquired by Kurt Wolff in 1912 . Hyperionverlag started operations at the new publishing location in Berlin, and the young Ernst Rowohlt took over management in 1914 and 1915 . Since Schröder and Rowohlt moved in from the beginning of the First World War , there were initially no further publishing activities. Hans von Weber published his bibliophile prints and the onion fish again under Hans von Weber, Verlag, Munich . From 1917 the Hyperion publishing house was continued under the direction of Kurt Wolff. As before, books with bibliophile ambitions were published in small, numbered editions. Usually a total edition of 1200 copies appeared, of which a small special edition of 50 to 100 copies was published on special paper and with special equipment. However, it was more a question of bibliophilia for the masses, which could not be compared with the elaborate publications of the early days in Munich. From 1920 the first miniature volumes appeared in Sedez format , initially under the series title Kleine Jedermanns-Bücherei . From 1920 on, Kurt Wolff's hometown of Munich was once again mentioned as the place of publication.

Under the direction of Hermann and Jorinde Luft, 1936–2000

In 1936 Hermann Luft acquired the publisher's name with all author's rights and changed the name of the successful miniature book series to Hyperion-Bücherei . Luft initially published mainly the titles available in the publishing house without specifying the year of publication, so that these cannot be reliably determined for many volumes. In 1942 the publishing house moved to Freiburg im Breisgau , where after Hermann Luft's death in 1980 it was continued by his daughter Jorinde until she died in 2000. Although the publisher was known almost exclusively for its miniature books, works in standard formats continued to appear. In 2001 the publisher Martin Wartelsteiner acquired the publishing house and changed the series name again to Hyperion Library .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Hans von Weber: Five years of Hyperion-Verlag. 1906 - September 22nd - 1911. Report on the activities of the publishing house, its goals and new publications. Christmas 1911, Hyperion-Verlag Hans von Weber, Munich 31.
  2. ^ Publishing prospectus to: Choderlos de Laclos, Dangerous Liaisons . Munich, Verlag des Hyperion Hans von Weber 1908.
  3. ^ Hans von Weber: The Hyperion Verlag Hans von Weber in Munich. Announcement of the publishing transition in: Der Zwiebelfisch , 5th year 1913, issue 4, p. 156.
  4. ↑ Hans von Weber: Announcements of the publisher in: Der Zwiebelfisch , VI. Year 1914/15, issue 5, p. 176.

literature

  • Manfred Frankenstein: Hyperion library - bibliography. Self-published, Berlin 1993.
  • Wolfram Göbel: Fourth excursus: Bibliophilia and world literature - The Hyperion-Verlag and the publications of the Hyperion-Verlag . In: Wolfram Göbel: The Kurt Wolff Verlag 1913-1930. Expressionism as a publishing task . Buch & Media, Munich 2000, ISBN 978-3-86520-263-5 , pp. 410-431. 813-823.
  • Heinz Fritsch: Miniature books of the Hyperion publishing house. Complete index based on the bibliographies of Manfred Frankenstein and Heinz Müller with additions. Poing 2006.