The Albrecht Knaus Verlag (also Knaus Verlag, the company's preferred spelling is KNAUS) is a German publisher of fiction and nonfiction based in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and ...

. It was founded in 1978 and is now part of the

Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...

publishing group. The publisher became known mainly through the works of

Walter Kempowski Walter Kempowski (; 29 April 1929 – 5 October 2007) was a German writer. Kempowski was known for his series of novels called ''German Chronicle'' ("Deutsche Chronik") and the monumental ''Echolot'' ("Sonar"), a collage of autobiographical repo ...

History

Albrecht Knaus was editor at

Piper Verlag Piper Verlag is a German publisher based in Munich, printing both fiction and non-fiction works. It currently prints over 200 new paperback titles per year. Authors published by the company include Andreas von Bülow and Sara Paretsky. It is owne ...

and publishing director at

Hoffmann und Campe Hoffmann is a German surname. People A * Albert Hoffmann (1846–1924), German horticulturist * Alexander Hoffmann (born 1975), German politician * Arthur Hoffmann (politician) (1857–1927), Swiss politician and member of the Swiss Federal Cou ...

. In 1978 he founded, under his name, the ''Albrecht Knaus Verlag'' in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...

. The publishing house was registered on 18 January 1978 in the commercial register. The program of Albrecht Knaus consisted of fiction and nonfiction books in paperback. The publishing group

Bertelsmann Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA () is a German private multinational conglomerate corporation based in Gütersloh, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is one of the world's largest media conglomerates, and is also active in the service sector and ...

was responsible for production and distribution of books. The collaboration between the publisher and Bertelsmann was first viewed skeptically by colleagues. Albrecht Knaus, who was very aware of the direction he wanted to go, held his freedom as a publisher in contrary to the comments of critics. One of the first authors in Albrecht Knaus Verlag was Walter Kempowski, later came others, such as Manfred Bieler with ''Ewig und drei Tage'',

Hisako Matsubara __NOTOC__ is a Japanese novelist who has published works in German language, German, English language, English and Japanese language, Japanese. Born the daughter of a prominent Shinto priest, Matsubara grew up at Kenkun Shrine in the northern part ...

with ''Abendkranich'' and

Leni Riefenstahl Helene Bertha Amalie "Leni" Riefenstahl (; 22 August 1902 – 8 September 2003) was a German film director, photographer and actress known for her role in producing Nazi propaganda. A talented swimmer and an artist, Riefenstahl also became in ...

with her biography. 1984 the Albrecht Knaus Verlag was transformed into a limited liability company At the same time the headquarters of the publisher was moved to Munich. In Hamburg only a branch remained. After 1994, the Albrecht Knaus Verlag was directed by the publishing group Bertelsmann. Since 1999, the profits are also paid out to Bertelsmann. Since then, the Albrecht Knaus Verlag continued as an imprint of the publishing group. Albrecht Knaus led the publisher until 1989. Knaus was followed by Hans Ewald Dede and Karl Blessing. The criticism that the publisher did not have its own profile, was responded by representatives from Knaus Verlag as undifferentiated and unfounded. Rather, they stressed the independence of all publishers under the umbrella of Random House publishing group. Successor to Dede and Blessing was Karl heinz Bittel. Under Bittel, works of authors such as Pascal Mercier and Georg Oswald were published. Succeeding Claudia Vidoni was Wolfgang Ferchl who became head of Albrecht Knaus Verlag in 2009.

Authors

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Knaus Verlag, Albrecht 1978 establishments in Germany Mass media in Hamburg Mass media in Munich Random House