Lotte Weitbrecht

Lotte Weitbrecht (officially: Lieselotte Weitbrecht ; born May 20, 1907 in Stuttgart ; † 1990 ) was a German publisher. She headed Thienemann Verlag from 1936 to 1965 and is considered to be the discoverer and supporter of important authors of children's and youth literature , in particular Michael Ende and Otfried Preußler .

Live and act

Lotte Weitbrecht came from the Württemberg publishing family Weitbrecht and was the daughter of the publisher Otto Weitbrecht (1880-1936) and his wife Frieda Mohn (1883-1965). Her father had taken over the Thienemann Verlag in 1916 and also owned a partnership with the JF Steinkopf Verlag , both of which were based in Stuttgart. After completing her studies, including in Paris, she joined her father's company in 1933 as head of the publishing house for the magazine “Neue Hauswirtschaft” after Erna Meyer , who was previously responsible , had to leave the publisher due to Aryanization measures . Two years later she was made an authorized signatory and after the death of her father in 1936 took over the management of the publishing house, while her mother was appointed owner on her will.

After her father had already aligned the range of publications in line with the ideas of the National Socialists who ruled from 1933 and especially after Lotte Weitbrecht had also become a partner in the publishing house from 1941, she maintained regular contacts with important people and institutions of the party. She coordinated her publishing plans with representatives of the Reich Youth Leadership and the National Socialist Teachers' Association (NSLB) as well as with the Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda (RMVP), thus preventing restrictions on her company.

The publishing house was largely destroyed by a heavy bomb hit in September 1944 and after the Second World War, Weitbrecht began to rebuild the buildings and resume operations with the help of a license from the military government. In 1951 she brought her brother Richard (1915–1995) into the management of the publishing house, in which she herself remained active until 1966. In doing so, she, who herself remained childless, laid the foundation for the later handover of the publishing house to the third generation in the form of her brother's son, who was born in 1943, and his successor, Hansjörg Weitbrecht .

In the 1950s and 1960s, Lotte Weitbrecht made numerous contacts with well-known authors of children's and young adult books, including Otfried Preußler and Michael Ende, whose books became bestsellers and as a result Thienemann rose to become one of the best-known children's book publishers. In addition, she brought the authors together with well-known illustrators such as Franz Josef Tripp and Winnie Gebhardt-Gayler , who made a significant contribution to the sales success of the books with their drawings.

Lotte Weitbrecht herself mainly dealt with the complete works Lederstrumpf by James Fenimore Cooper and the story Rübezahl by Johann Karl August Musäus , revised these works fundamentally and had them illustrated in a contemporary way and then reissued by her Thienemann Verlag. In addition, she was actively involved in various committees of the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels .

For her services to Thienemann Verlag in general and to children's and young adult literature in particular, Lotte Weitbrecht was honored in 1967 with the Order of Merit of the FRG with the Order of Merit .

Fonts (selection)

• Leather Stocking: Stories by James Fenimore Cooper . Newly revised by Lotte Weitbrecht. Translation of Carry Kühlewein. Illustrated by Karl Friedrich Brust. Thiemann Verlag, Stuttgart 1952; 5th edition (43,000) 1971 ISBN 978-3-522-10110-3
• Rübezahl: Freely told according to Johann Karl August Musäus . With text drawings by Karl Mühlmeister, Thienemann Verlag, Stuttgart 1956 (edition 1–35,000), 1960 (edition up to 39,000)
• Anton Eisenreich in memory , in: Börsenblatt - Weekly magazine of the German book trade, Volume 15, 1959

literature

• Edda Ziegler: Buchfrauen: Women in the History of the German Book Trade , Wallstein Verlag 2014, pp. 167–168 and others ( digitalized )
• Archive for the history of books 2017 , Volume 72, Walter de Gruyter GmbH 2017, pp. 181-183 ( digitalized )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ An island ... Jim Knopf turns 50 , in: zeit-online of August 8, 2010
2. ↑ Happy birthday, Hotzenplotz! , on: welt.de/kultur from July 27, 2012
3. ↑ Carola Zinner: Seemingly awkwardly scribbled on , on deutschlandfunk.de from December 7, 2015
4. ^ Christiane Eifert: German women entrepreneurs in the 20th century . CH Beck 2011, p. 198 ( digitized )