S. Fischer Verlag is a major German publishing house, which has operated as a division of Holtzbrinck Publishing Group since 1962. The publishing house was founded in 1881 by

Samuel Fischer Samuel Fischer, later Samuel von Fischer (24 December 1859 – 15 October 1934), was a Hungarian-born German publisher, the founder of S. Fischer Verlag. Fischer was born in Liptau-Sankt-Nikolaus/Liptószentmiklós (now Liptovský Mikuláš), ...

in Berlin, but is currently based in Frankfurt am Main, and is traditionally counted among the most prestigious publishing houses in the German-speaking world.

History

Originally, it was renowned for naturalistic literature. Famous authors include Gerhart Hauptmann and Thomas Mann, both awarded the

Nobel Prize in literature ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , caption = , awarded_for = Outstanding contributions in literature , presenter = Swedish Academy , holder = Annie Ernaux (2022) , location = Stockholm, Sweden , year = 1901 , ...

. After the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

came to power in Germany, the Jewish family of owner Gottfried Bermann-Fischer fled and founded a branch of their publishing house in Vienna. Those who remained in Berlin kept the official name "S. Fischer Verlag" and were led by

Peter Suhrkamp Peter Suhrkamp (full name ''Johann Heinrich Suhrkamp''; 28 March 1891, Hatten – 31 March 1959, Frankfurt) was a German publisher and founder of the Suhrkamp Verlag. Early years Suhrkamp was a farmer’s son from Kirchhatten, some south-east o ...

. After the Second World War, disputes over the future of the publishing house arose between Suhrkamp and Fischer. This led to an out-of-court agreement, resulting in a sort of bisection of the S. Fischer Verlag: Bermann-Fischer regained control from Peter Suhrkamp, but Suhrkamp founded his own Suhrkamp publishing house in 1950, and authors could choose which publishing house they wanted to be published by in future. Ultimately, 33 of the 48 authors, among them

Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a pl ...

, Hermann Hesse,

T. S. Eliot Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 18884 January 1965) was a poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic and editor.Bush, Ronald. "T. S. Eliot's Life and Career", in John A Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (eds), ''American National Biogr ...

and George Bernard Shaw, decided to change to

Suhrkamp Suhrkamp Verlag is a German publishing house, established in 1950 and generally acknowledged as one of the leading European publishers of fine literature. Its roots go back to the "arianized" part of the S. Fischer Verlag. In January 2010 the ...

. Among the imprints of Fischer are Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Argon Verlag and Scherz Verlag. Today the S. Fischer Verlag, as well as other publishers, such as Kindler, Rowohlt, and

Kiepenheuer & Witsch Kiepenheuer & Witsch is a German publishing house, established in 1948 by Joseph C. Witsch and on behalf of Gustav Kiepenheuer (who was already terminally ill). The partners initially held respectively 30% and 40% of the company's share capita ...

and Metzler, are part of Holtzbrinck, a publishing group. Holtzbrinck bought S. Fischer in 1963. Edition Peters — a prominent publisher for worldwide music — was located next door to them, but in 2014 moved to Leipzig.

Controversies

In 2015, S. Fischer Verlag sued US-based Project Gutenberg in German court for copyright infringement of 18 works by Heinrich Mann, Thomas Mann and

Alfred Döblin Bruno Alfred Döblin (; 10 August 1878 – 26 June 1957) was a German novelist, essayist, and doctor, best known for his novel '' Berlin Alexanderplatz'' (1929). A prolific writer whose œuvre spans more than half a century and a wide variety of ...

. The works are in the public domain in the US, but still copyrighted under German law. This was only possible by the German court ignoring international treaties such as the Berne Convention. As per international law, the court case should have taken place in the USA rather than Germany, as S. Fischer Verlag has a presence in the United States under the name Macmillan, while Project Gutenberg has no presence in Germany. In February 2018 Project Gutenberg responded to the German court's judgement by blocking all access to Project Gutenberg from IP addresses in Germany, making the full content of Project Gutenberg inaccessible for German residents.

References

External links

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At Holtzbrinck
Book publishing companies of Germany Holtzbrinck Publishing Group Companies based in Frankfurt Mass media in Frankfurt Publishing companies established in 1886 1886 establishments in Germany {{Germany-company-stub

History

Controversies

Further reading

References

External links