New life publishing house
The publisher New Life was in the time of the Soviet occupation zone and the GDR an important youth publishing company based in East Berlin . Mainly fiction books as well as youth magazines and newspapers were published by the Neues Leben publishing house . The publishing house was founded in 1946 in a multi-stage process in which various committees had to approve. The Neues Leben publishing house has been part of the Eulenspiegel publishing group since 2004 .
history
founding
Social framework
The division of Germany into four zones of occupation after the end of World War II also had an impact on the German publishing landscape. Because in the era of National Socialism all publishers Nazi were controlled, had also publishing a denazification done and cleaning. Therefore, publishers were licensed in all occupation zones, i. that is, they received a publishing license from the relevant military administration . In addition, Germany was largely destroyed after the war. There was a shortage economy and there was hardly any possibility of producing published products. However, the need for information and entertainment in the population was considerable, especially with a view to social changes.
That is why the claim to found a publishing house matured early on in the newly founded FDJ. This was primarily intended to provide the youth with affordable information and entertainment literature. In addition, it was hoped to generate profits with a publisher that would benefit the further development of the youth organization FDJ.
Publishing license, type of company and shareholder
After the publishing license was granted by SMAD on June 17, 1946 , the publishing house received a business permit from the city of Berlin on September 4, 1946. On December 9, 1946, the partnership agreement was signed. The entry in the Berlin Commercial Register took place on December 18, 1946.
The GmbH was chosen as the first form of company for the publishing house . The share capital was 20,000 marks . Initially there were four shareholders: Edith Baumann , Erich Honecker , Paul Verner and Friedrich Wolf . These four shareholders were more or less politically active in the KPD (later SED ) or FDJ and also held management positions there. Thus the guideline for the further development of the publishing house was given from the beginning.
The development of the publishing house from 1947 to 2004
In early 1947, the newspaper Junge Welt appeared as the first printed product. The first fiction work of the publisher was in the same year How the steel was hardened by Nikolai Ostrowski . After the Junge Welt was given to the publishing house of the same name in 1950, the New Life publishing house concentrated on publishing books. Only from 1955 to the end of 1959 the magazine Mosaik was published by Neues Leben .
By the end of the GDR , the publishing house grew into one of the largest in the GDR. The directors included Bruno Peterson (1954–1963) and the former GDR culture minister Hans Bentzien (from 1966 to 1975) and Rudolf Chowanetz , who headed the publishing house from 1975 until his death in 2000. He was followed by Andreas Henselmann.
The slow decline of the publishing house since the fall of the Wall came to an end for the time being with the takeover under the umbrella of the Eulenspiegel publishing group in 2004 .
Published printed matter
Books, poetry and novel books
The publisher published a large number of books and booklets, including the book and booklet series:
- Adventures from around the world (magazine series, 1955–1956)
- BASAR (book series, from 1973)
- buchclub 65 (a book club , from 1965)
- Book club of the Free German Youth (book series, 1960–1964, continued from 1965 in the book club 65 series )
- Student Book Club (book series, 1965–1974)
- Interest group letters of the Free German Youth (1962–1963)
- Classics library for German youth (book series, 1953–1966)
- Die kleine Bücherei (book series, also called Die kleine Jugendbücherei , 1947–1949)
- Kompass (book series, from 1959)
- Mosaik (comic book series, 1955–1959, then continued by Verlag Junge Welt)
- The new adventure (novel booklet series, 1949, discontinued after nine issues)
- The new adventure (novel booklet series, from 1952, with new booklet numbering from issue 1)
- New edition for young people (book series, internal name, published without series identification, but with a uniform layout)
- New Science (Book Series, 1952–1954)
- nl concrete (book series, from 1971, with series title from 1974)
- NL podium (book series, from 1973)
- Passat library (book series, 1958–1964, together with Urania Verlag and Verlag Volk und Gesundheit, continued there from 1964)
- Poetry album (series of poetry, from 1967)
- Advice for young people (book series, from 1972)
- Excitingly told (book series, from 1953)
One of the publisher's greatest successes was the works by Karl May , which were published there from 1982 ; after May had not been printed in the GDR for decades. The focus of the publishing house was youth literature, but it was not limited to it. Most of Brigitte Reimann's works were published by Neues Leben. The gift book for the youth consecration , Socialism, Your World , also appeared here.
Temperaments
The literary almanac Temperamente with the subtitle Leaves for Young Literature appeared from issue 1/1976 to 4/1990 usually four times a year. It offered talented young lyric poets , prose authors and playwrights as well as graphic designers and photographers publication opportunities .
The youth magazine Neues Leben , on the other hand, was not published by this publisher, but by the Junge Welt publishing house .
literature
- Thomas Kay: The publishing house "Neues Leben" Berlin in the period from its foundation in 1946 to the erection of the Berlin Wall in 1961 . Master's thesis, University of Leipzig, Institute for Communication and Media Studies, Department of Media Studies, therein: Book Studies. Leipzig 2001.
- Siegfried Lokatis : From the Office for Literature and Publishing to the Headquarters Publishing in the Ministry of Culture. In: Simone Barck , Martina Langermann, Siegfried Lokatis: "Every book is an adventure". The censorship system and literary publics in the GDR until the end of the sixties. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-05-003118-2 , pp. 19–59.
- Walter Tölg: Bibliography: 1946–1976 . New life, Berlin 1976.
- Walter Tölg: Bibliography: 1946–1982 . New life, Berlin 1983.
- Heiner Wolf (Red.): Every book is an adventure: an almanac. Forty years of Verlag Neues Leben, Berlin . New Life, Berlin 1986, ISBN 3-355-00043-4 .
Archives holdings
An extensive inventory of printing approval processes of the New Life Publishing House is in the Federal Archives (GDR Department, Ministry of Culture, Central Administration for Publishing and Bookshops, including inventory 1.4.1.17: New Life Publishing House Berlin ). The files can be viewed online.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ https://www.bundesstiftung-aufteilung.de/wer-war-wer-in-der-ddr-%2363%3B-1424.html?ID=2639
- ↑ See Walter Tölg: Bibliography: 1946–1982. New Life Publishing House, Berlin 1983, p. 440.
- ↑ See Walter Tölg: Bibliography: 1946–1982. Verlag Neues Leben, Berlin 1983, p. 465.
- ↑ See Walter Tölg: Bibliography: 1946–1982. Verlag Neues Leben, Berlin 1983, p. 497 ff.
- ↑ Finding aid.