Unrast publishing house

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Stand of Unrast Verlag at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2018

The unrest Publishing is a small non-fiction publishing, based in Münster . It was founded in the early 1990s for left-wing and anti-fascist literature. His motto is "Books of Criticism".

Self-image

The employees of the publishing house see themselves as a politically engaged collective and pursue an "undogmatic political line" with the claim to turn against every form of oppression , discrimination , nationalism , fascism and sexism . The areas of politics and culture are to be critically linked.

The publisher not only publishes political theory and non-fiction books, but also international fiction literature , often by authors of foreign origin living in Germany. There are also country descriptions such as the "Ireland Almanac". Together with other left-wing publishers, Unrast tries to "counter the prevailing discourses with emancipatory literature and journalism."

Publication concept

The publication concept is thematically and methodically oriented socially critical: “Books of Criticism”. One goal is for authors to report on current issues from an “insider's perspective”. Fewer experts have their say than in-house authors who speak from specific experience. This is especially true for publications on conflicts in the Middle East, Ireland or Mexico / Chiapas . Often the values ​​and norms of the majority society are examined from the perspective of a minority society - for example from the perspective of immigrant women. Opinion-forming media images are often at the center of the analyzes. Processes of normalization in the media are to be examined discourse-analytically in the Edition DISS book series .

Origin and form of organization

The publishing house was founded in 1990 in the context of the undogmatic left . According to its own account, it was founded as a politically radical book publisher and sees itself as anarchist , feminist , anti-racist and anti-fascist . The initiative to found the publishing house arose from the circle of the anarchist libertarian cultural center "Themroc" in Münster, founded in 1988, and the magazine "projektIL". In accordance with the socio-critical orientation, the publishing house works without hierarchical structures. The publisher is supported by the cultural association unrast e. V. Together with other political publishers, in 1994 he founded an Association of Left Publishers ( aLiVe ).

The publishing house was in this Annual Report of the Ministry of the Interior from 1995 under the heading "anti-fascism" as a "scene publishing house" mentioned because one out given the unrest-Verlag Anti-Fascist calendar in his essays "a proximity to the militant, anti-Fascist Action / Nationwide Organization '(AA / BO ) recognized ” . In it, for example, a contribution on the self-image of autonomous anti-fascists was published, in which the component of the fight against the “imperialist system ” was emphasized. Literally it was said: “The slogan 'fight against fascism means fight against the imperialist system' stands for a radical, i. H. Understanding anti-fascism that goes to the roots of society ”.

In 1997, the protection of the constitution in North Rhine-Westphalia reported on an event in the communication center “ Zeche Carl ” in Essen on the subject of “Embers and Ashes - What remains after the end of the autonomous movement”. According to the report, an autonomous scene member from Berlin under the pseudonym "Geronimo" gave a lecture to about 50 participants about three books published by Unrast-Verlag, in which he dealt with the autonomous movement. In doing so, he said, “the autonomous movement has insufficient moral impetus against racism, sexism and fascism; what is missing is the social, political goal without which the autonomous movement would wither. Hafenstrasse , urban warfare , the RAF and the anti-nuclear movement were an expression of a lively autonomous movement in the eighties . "

The Cologne journalist Rita Polm was one of the first authors. Her study on young post-war women opened the publisher's first book series in 1990 (“Feminist Science” series). On the occasion of the Second Gulf War in 1991, the first publication was created that made the publisher known beyond a specialist audience. In the course of the war, the Working Group Background on the Middle East provided information in the brochure “Crises, Conflicts, Wars. Gulf and Middle East ”on the historical, economic and country-specific political connections of the conflicts. This publication also referred to later developments and concepts of the publishing program, in which authors and editorial groups for publications on current political topics are addressed, which should provide a more in-depth background on the topic in terms of social and media criticism - often based on the concept of a " counter-public ".

The publisher's list of authors included around 1450 authors and groups of authors at the beginning of 2016. The authors who publish in the publisher also offer public lectures, discussions and information events on various political topics to which the publisher draws attention. One focus is the educational work against racism and anti-Semitism . The authors Andreas Speit and Christian Dornbusch, for example, gave a lecture on developments in the neo-Nazi music scene. Renate Feldmann described the roles and activities of women in the "brown scene". Irit Neidhardt dealt with anti-Semitism in the radical left. Well before the story of Dieter Kunzelmann was discussed in the media, she also gave a lecture on the black rats of Tupamaros West Berlin at an event organized by the Zeche Carl and the Hannah Arendt Bildungswerk . The speakers also include contemporary witnesses and survivors of the Holocaust, such as Jules Schelvis , Thomas “Toivi” Blatt , Hedy Epstein and Barbara Reimann . Katja Limbächer, Maike Merten and Bettina Pfefferle published a standard work on the Ravensbrück concentration camp for girls and organized a traveling exhibition on the subject. The critical processing of the history of science forms an early focus. In 1996 the publisher published a report on the exposure of the former SS-Hauptsturmführer Hans Ernst Schneider , who had worked as a Nazi science functionary on models of a Germanic core Europe and, after the war, taught as rector of RWTH Aachen under a new identity as Hans Schwerte . A controversy followed about the Human Biological Institute and its director Rainer Knußmann in Hamburg, which were accused of racist and sexist continuities. Numerous publications critically examine the image of man in science, business, biology books and the media. Vandana Shiva from India is one of the best-known international science critics . She represents her theses against biopiracy through the patenting of plants at a large number of congresses and events, such as in January 2007 in Bonn at the World Social Forum .

Political subject areas

The main program topics of the publisher are: a .:

The publishing program is not limited to German society, but also deals with the situation and conflicts in the Middle East , Turkey and Kurdistan , Ireland , the USA , Africa , Mexico and the oppressed indigenous societies in Chiapas .

Rows

Some editors publish their series and editions in Unrast-Verlag:

Many of the scientific and political non-fiction books are introductions to complex topics.

Fiction

A series of selected international literature supplements or illuminates the political issues. It takes up less space in the publishing program than the political non-fiction book. These include, among others:

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Self-presentation of the Unrast-Verlag
  2. ↑ Irit Neidhardt (2004): Living with the Conflict !? Reports and analyzes from leftists in Israel and Palestine.
  3. ↑ Danny Morrison From the Labyrinth. Writings on the Road to Peace in Northern Ireland . In: Kevin Bean , Mark Hayes (Eds.) Republican Voices. Voices from the Irish Republican Movement . See also ireland almanac
  4. ↑ Gloria Muñoz Ramírez : EZLN: 20 + 10 - The fire and the word . Philipp Gerber: The aroma of rebellion. Zapatista coffee, indigenous uprising and autonomous cooperatives in Chiapas, Mexico , Enrique Rajchenberg S. , Carlos Fazio (ed.): Rebellion X. The year of the strike at the University of Mexico City ( UNAM )
  5. ↑ Ulrike Behnen (ed.): In a foreign country. Refugees and Germans tell stories. / Hito Steyerl, Encarnación Gutiérrez Rodríguez (ed.): Does the subaltern speak German? Migration and Post-Colonial Criticism.
  6. ↑ https://www.unrast-verlag.de/selbstdarstellung
  7. ↑ cf. Schwarzer Faden: 04/1988 and the following issues. The center was named after the film of the same name themroc .
  8. ↑ Federal Ministry of the Interior (ed.): Verfassungsschutzbericht 1995, August 1996, p. 51, chapter: “Left-wing extremist efforts”, Section III: “Other militant left-wing extremists”, rubric: “5.2. Anti-fascism "
  9. ↑ Verlag ID archive (PDF; 558 kB)
  10. ^ Constitutional Protection Report of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia for 1997 , p. 169/70, cf. the unrast.de reproduction of the relevant report section
  11. ^ Portrait of the WDR journalist ( memento of September 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) at the Heinrich Böll Foundation
  12. ↑ TtE library Cologne
  13. ↑ List of authors from Unrast-Verlag
  14. ^ Events at Unrast-Verlag
  15. ↑ Interview in: Spiegel Online - Schulspiegel , January 23, 2007
  16. ↑ Bischof, Neidhardt: "We are the good guys". Anti-Semitism in the radical left . (PDF; 196 kB) Event in the Carl colliery
  17. ^ Event in the Carl colliery
  18. ↑ to the exhibition and the book
  19. ↑ Collective of authors for nest pollution: confidentiality. A report. The Schneider case and other attempts to uncover National Socialist continuities in the history of science. ( Memento from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  20. ↑ AG against Rassenkunde (Ed.): Your bones - your reality. Texts against racist and sexist continuity in human biology . ( Memento from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) 1998. - Working group against racial studies: Dominion biology . In: Susan Arndt (Ed.): AfrikaBilder . restlessness
  21. ↑ Detlev Franz: Biologism from above. The image of man in biology books . ; Klaus-Peter Drechsel: Judged - measured - murdered. The practice of euthanasia until the end of German fascism ; Margret Jäger, Siegfried Jäger, Ina Ruth, Ernst Schulte-Holtey, Frank Wichert (eds.): Biopower and media. Paths to the organic society . Maureen Maisha Eggers, Grada Kilomba, Peggy Piesche, Susan Arndt (eds.): Myths, masks and subjects. Critical whiteness research in Germany . 2005
  22. ↑ Vandana Shiva : Biopiracy. 21st century colonialism. An introduction .
  23. ↑ What is biopiracy?
  24. ↑ Protestant Development Service (January 22, 2007)  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.eed.de