Schlieffen publishing house
The Schlieffen-Verlag existed formally from 1924 to 1956, but was only active until 1943.
It was one of the smaller publishers of the Weimar Republic and, in addition to books, also brought out the German Adelsblatt . In the years of its existence there were a total of about 100 first editions including new editions, but only a few of them were created during the years of the Second World War . Its founder and owner, Count Wilhelm von Schlieffen (1882–1945), was a general staff officer during the First World War . As a professional officer with the rank of Rittmeister of the Queen's Cuirassiers , he had effectively become unemployed in 1919 and had decided not to join the Reichswehr . He first learned agriculture, but then became a partner in a trading company. Schlieffen also joined the German Aristocracy Association and belonged to the "Economic Association for the German Aristocracy", which also had contacts with the German Adels Gazette, which was launched in 1923 in the newly founded "Verlag Deutsches Adelsblatt Graf Wilhelm v. Schlieffen ”appeared. This new publishing company was not entered in the commercial register of Berlin until December 23, 1924. Personally liable partner and sole business owner was Count Wilhelm v. Sleeping.
Multiple name changes
The name of the publisher was changed several times: in 1926 it was called “Verlag Graf Wilhelm v. Schlieffen (Deutsches Adelsblatt) ”, from December 1926 to“ Verlag Graf Wilhelm v. Schlieffen ”and since 1927“ Schlieffen-Verlag ”. A fixed date of foundation cannot be determined for Schlieffen-Verlag. The final establishment of the publisher's name with the logo did not take place until September 1927, since only then did the final face of the company remain established. In 1933 the name was changed to “Verlag Deutsches Adelsblatt Graf Wilhelm v. Sleeping ".
The publishing house had a number of affiliated sub-departments, advised genealogists on the drafting of family stories , had set up its own insurance department before 1930 and also published the Johanniter Order Gazette. The publisher's program corresponded to the feelings and attitudes of a large part of the German nobility after the disenfranchisement of 1918. It was against Freemasons, democracy as a form of government, the Weimar state, against supranational powers and Jews, and it proudly emphasized “the German”. For the first 20 years the publishing house was a grant business. The owner earned his income, among other things, with the advertising business from the Adelsblatt.
At the beginning of 1944, the publisher was shut down by the authorities because it used up resources that were important to the war effort but did not perform any war-related tasks. Count Schlieffen himself was arrested and abducted on Rügen after the end of the war and died on July 22, 1945 in Graudenz in a hospital.
The responsibility now lay with Erich Wusterhausen, who had been working for Schlieffen-Verlag since 1932, who had the Schlieffen and Adelsblatt publishers at the Berlin-Tempelhof economic office relocated to his private home and in April 1946 tried in vain to obtain a license to revive. The currency reform of 1948 also made the publisher unable to act financially. Although Schlieffen's wife and son also attempted resuscitation again, they did not succeed. Therefore, in December 1953, they applied for the company to be deleted, but this did not take place until February 15, 1956.