JP Bachem Verlag

JP Bachem Verlag GmbH
legal form	GmbH
founding	1818
Seat	Cologne , Germany
management	Claus Bachem, publisher
Branch	publishing company
Website	www.bachem.de/verlag

The 1818 founded JP Bachem Verlag in Cologne home. The main topics of the publishing house are children's books, travel and leisure as well as architecture and history. The book publisher is under the management of the managing director and publisher Claus Bachem in family ownership.

Company history

Founding and development in the 19th century

Portrait of the founder Johann Peter Bachem ca.1810

The name-giving founder of the publishing house was Johann Peter Bachem . Together with his friend Marcus DuMont , founder of today's DuMont media group , he opened a bookstore in 1815 . In 1818 he started his own business and on May 4th of the same year founded JP Bachem Verlag in Cologne's Hohe Strasse .

Although Johann Peter Bachem died four years later at the age of 37, the publishing house, which had been expanded to include a printing company, became increasingly important under the direction of his brother Lambert Bachem.

Despite the worsening conflict between the Catholic Church and the Prussian-Protestant government, the publishing house began to publish more and more Catholic writings from the 1840s onwards. Lambert Bachems' attempt to establish a political daily newspaper with a Catholic character, independent of the church and the clergy, failed for the time being. It was only his son Joseph Bachem who succeeded in launching a newspaper in 1860 with the "Kölnische Blätter" which lived up to his father's ideas. The "Kölnische Blätter" were renamed " Kölnische Volkszeitung " in 1869 . In the following years, the readership of the newspaper expanded. Over time, the paper expanded to become the leading Catholic daily newspaper in the west of the Empire. Towards the end of the 19th century the publishing house expanded its premises. In 1902 the publishing house, typesetting and printing works extended to 2,600 square meters on Marzellenstrasse in Cologne. At the turn of the century, the book publisher added youth literature, school books, art books and local history works to its profile.

The Catholic family business also proved to be progressive in terms of its social responsibility: a house health insurance for employees was set up as early as 1824 - more than 50 years before the introduction of statutory health insurance in the German Empire in 1883.

First World War and the aftermath

In 1914 the " Kölnische Volkszeitung " reached a circulation of 30,000 copies per day. After the outbreak of World War I , more than 30% of all company employees were in the field. JP Bachem Verlag supported the families of the soldiers with aid payments and for the first time employed women in the print shop. In addition, JP Bachem has now published a front edition of the “Kölnische Volkszeitung” and collected funds for the construction of a “chapel car” in order to be able to hold church services at the front.

In 1920 the publishing house separated from the "Kölnische Volkszeitung", which despite the economically troubled times of the 1920s was able to keep its subscriber base of 28,000 people. In 1941 the paper was finally banned.

JP Bachem House in Cologne 2018

Nazi dictatorship and World War II

The still Catholic character of the publishing house, the unwillingness to cooperate with the NSDAP and additional ideological differences brought JP Bachem regular house searches by the Gestapo as well as paper delivery bans and extradition bans. In 1943 , as part of the large-scale bombing of Cologne during World War II, the company building, the printing plant and the publishing house were completely destroyed. After the end of the war, the occupying powers granted the publishing house a printing license and access to paper and color at an early stage due to its demonstrably critical attitude towards the Nazi dictatorship . This enabled the company to quickly start rebuilding and repositioning on the market.

Post-war until today

In the post-war period , JP Bachem Verlag initially concentrated on well-tried topics. The reconstruction was secured with the church newspaper for the Archdiocese of Cologne and other ecclesiastical and cultural publications. But as early as the 1960s, the publisher's focus was shifted to other areas: regional literature and the Kölsch dialect became central themes of the program. In addition, Bachem published technical and work books as well as humanities, especially theological works. So published Joseph Ratzinger , the future Pope Benedict XVI, some of his publications at Bachem.

In 2010, JP Bachem Verlag separated from the JP Bachem group and has been run as a separate company by Managing Director Claus Bachem ever since. Today the focus of the publishing house is on regional and national travel and leisure literature as well as on picture and non-fiction books for children. The program also includes e-books as well as audio books , apps and GPS data .

program

JP Bachem Verlag's program is primarily shaped by the topics of travel and leisure, (regional) culture and religion, history, architecture and children's entertainment.

Children's book program

The children's book program of JP Bachem Verlag mainly includes entertaining picture books, pre- reading and first-reading books , but also non-fiction and texts for young people up to 12 years of age.

Hidden object books

Hidden object books are characteristic of JP Bachem Verlag . To a large extent, they are created in cooperation with various organizations such as football clubs, hospitals, zoos and Deutsche Bahn .

Non-fiction

The non-fiction book series "Bachems Wissenswelt" is aimed at children from the age of eight and deals with various regional and national topics. Under the heading “How does it work?”, Zoos, sports clubs or city-related topics such as the police and fire brigade are highlighted. The largest non-fiction projects are developed in collaboration with various cities: Titles such as "Cologne - How does it work?" And "Mönchengladbach - How does it work?" Are published both for bookstores and as textbook versions for third graders.

Children's book series

In addition to individual publications, book series are also published in the publisher's children's book program. These include the “Ströppche” series, the “Ana Ana” series and the “Herr Panda” series.

Adult program

The book program for adults at JP Bachem Verlag is based on the topics of travel and leisure, history and architecture, and religion and culture.

Travel and leisure

The main focus of the travel and leisure guides are tours in the Rhineland , the Eifel , the Westerwald and Bergisches Land as well as around the rivers Mosel , Sieg and Ahr . In addition, JP Bachem Verlag also publishes book series in travel literature such as “Mit dem Fahrrad” and “Jakobswege”.

History and architecture

The main topics of the history and architecture publications are art, religious, economic, architectural and urban history. The book series “Little Illustrated History” published in this focus comprises several volumes on economy, church, art and architecture history as well as the general history of the city of Cologne and has been published by JP Bachem Verlag since 1911 . The series “Above and Beyond - Scenes of Cologne History” also comprises three volumes and is devoted to historical places in Cologne.

Religion and culture

In this section, mainly single volumes dealing with the Catholic Church are published. Topics include history, buildings and important personalities of the church. A wider audience was reached, among other things, with the Cologne edition of the Gospel . Another series in this category are the books “Paths in the Starlight”.

Periodicals

Traditionally, the church newspaper for the Archdiocese of Cologne appears under the umbrella of JP Bachem Medien. In addition, the specialist magazine for church and cemetery appears four times a year under the title Die Auslese .

literature

Rüdiger Müller: 200 years of JP Bachem - a Cologne family writes history . JP Bachem Verlag, Cologne 2018
Karl Friedrich Pfau : Bachem, JP In: General German Biography (ADB). Volume 46, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1902, p. 172.
Friedrich Zunkel: Josef Bachem (1821-1893). In: Cologne entrepreneurs in the 19th and 20th centuries (= Rheinisch-Westfälische Wirtschaftsbiographien , Volume 13.) Aschendorff, Münster 1986, pp. 131–153.
Georg Hölscher: One hundred years of JP Bachem - book printing, bookstore, newspaper publisher. Bachem, Cologne 1918 ( digitized version )