Philo Publishing House

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Anti-Anti-Gazette for Defense - Facts on the Jewish Question (1924)

The Philo-Verlag was in 1919 by a German publishing Jewish Central Association of German Citizens faith (CV) was founded in 1938 and Nazi Germany was forced to close. The publisher's name was reactivated in 1996 without any content or legal succession being associated with it.

history

Memorial plaque at the former headquarters of the CV in Berlin-Wilmersdorf, Pariser Strasse 44

The Jewish interest group CV, founded in 1893, aimed for complete Jewish emancipation without assimilation in German society. He tried to promote an understanding of Judaism in German society and opposed the anti-Semitism that had increased not only in the German Reich during the founding period . The CV also distinguished itself in its publications from the Zionist movement , which published its writings in the Jewish publishing house founded in 1902 . The CV published a growing number of fonts that were placed with third-party publishers or commissioned by printing companies.

The own publishing house was founded after the general meeting of the CV in May 1919. The decisive factors were, on the one hand, in the economic crisis after the First World War, economic reasons to reduce the production and distribution costs for the company's own brochures, and, on the other hand, the flood of anti-Semitic brochures and leaflets, which in the initial political crisis of the Weimar Republic caused an unsettled population and its press were offered as a panacea.

The publishing house and the bookstore, which was set up at the same time, initially had their business premises at the CV's headquarters at Lindenstraße  13 in Berlin-Kreuzberg, in 1930 the publishing house and bookstore moved into larger rooms at Emser Straße 42, which made their work somewhat more independent due to the spatial distance. In June 1933, for security reasons, the bookstore was  relocated to Pariser Strasse 44 in Wilmersdorf due to National Socialist attacks .

Head of the publishing house was the syndic of the CV, Ludwig Holländer . The publishing house was named after the Jewish politician Gabriel Riesser (1806–1863) Gabriel Riesser Verlag . By the end of 1919, a font each by Holländer, Benno Jacob , Alfred Wiener and Hans Goslar , as well as an anonymous one, had appeared. A legal dispute with the nephew of the namesake, Jacob Riesser , who had renounced Judaism, then led to the name being changed to Philo Verlag , the namesake was now Philon of Alexandria .

In Philo-Verlag the club magazine Im deutscher Reich (IdR) (1895-1922) was published, replaced by the weekly CV-Zeitung (1922-1938), whose editor-in-chief Alfred Hirschberg (1901-1971) was. Lucia Jacoby (1889–1944) had already worked as a secretary at CV and then headed the magazine IdR as an editorial secretary . In 1922 she replaced Holländer in the publishing management of Philo-Verlag. Deputy director of the publishing house was the lawyer Alfred Wiener , who also worked as an editor for the weekly newspaper.

From 1925 the two-month publication Der Morgen (1925–1938) was published by the publisher, initially overseen by Julius Goldstein (1873–1929), and from 1929 also a “New Series” of the journal for the history of Jews in Germany (1929– 1937), which was scientifically supervised by Ismar Elbogen , Aron Freimann and Max Freudenthal .

In the 20 years of existence of the publisher, around 200 brochures and books by Jewish and non-Jewish authors appeared, 160 of them before 1933. The loose-leaf collection Anti-Anti, first printed in 1924, was outstanding with seven editions and 40,000 printed copies . Facts on the Jewish question for discussion speakers.

time of the nationalsocialism

After the handover of power to the National Socialists in 1933, the political living conditions of the Jews in Germany changed and with them the conditions for association and publishing work.

From then on, the publishing house was banned from books by non-Jewish authors, as was the sale of its publications to non-Jews. The publishers of Jewish publishers tried to avoid the conflict with the party rule of the NSDAP and the compliant and also anti-Semitic state bureaucracy. Instead of enlightening writings about the anti-Semitic currents in society, books for orientation about the situation of the Jews, books for instruction and books for entertainment were published. In the children's literature program, too, the problematic titles in the foreseeable conflict with the Nazi censorship were removed from the program. The reading clientele could only be helped with cautious moral support; emigration now became a reality for the Jews organized in the CV. The writings of the Kleine Philo-Bücherei , the Philo-Lexicon first published in 1935 . Handbook of Jewish Knowledge , the Philo-Zitaten-Lexikon (1936) were such titles with a practical use. In 1938 the Philo-Atlas was published by the publishing house of the Jewish Cultural Association . Handbook for Jewish Emigration by Ernst G. Löwenthal, it was the last new publication of a Jewish book until 1945.

After the Reichspogromnacht , the publishing house was closed by the German authorities on November 10, 1938. The Jüdischer Kulturbund had to take over the remnants of all closed Jewish publishers. The activities of the Kulturbund were forcibly terminated in 1941 and the German Jews who had not been expelled were deported to concentration camps.

Philo-Verlag from 1996

In the Federal Republic of Germany, the Philo-Lexikon was reprinted in 1982 by the newly founded Jewish publishing house. A PHILO publishing house was founded in 1996; apart from the name, the publisher has little in common with its predecessor. In 1999 the Philo-Atlas was reprinted there with an additional, extensive scientific commentary by Susanne Urban-Fahr.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Susanne Urban-Fahr: The Philo-Verlag 1919–1938. 2001, p. 110.
  2. ^ A b Susanne Urban-Fahr: The Philo-Verlag 1919–1938. 2001, p. 107f.
  3. ^ Susanne Urban-Fahr: The Philo-Verlag 1919–1938. 2001, p. 107ff.
  4. ↑ see also Lucia Jacoby , among Jews in East Prussia; Lucia Jacoby , at holocaust.cz; walk
  5. ^ Susanne Urban-Fahr: The Philo-Verlag 1919–1938. 2001, p. 113.
  6. ^ Susanne Urban-Fahr: The Philo-Verlag 1919–1938. 2001, pp. 114, 144-146.