As of 2018, ten firms in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

rank among the world's biggest

publishers Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

of books in terms of revenue: C.H. Beck, Bertelsmann, , ,

Holtzbrinck Publishing Group Holtzbrinck Publishing Group () is a privately held German company based in Stuttgart which owns publishing companies worldwide. Through Macmillan Publishers, it is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies. In 2015, it merged ...

, , Springer Nature, Thieme, , and Westermann Druck- und Verlagsgruppe. Overall, "Germany has some 2,000 publishing houses, and more than 90,000 titles reach the public each year, a production surpassed only by the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

." Unlike many other countries, "book publishing is not centered in a single city but is concentrated fairly evenly in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

, and the regional metropolises of

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on it ...

, Stuttgart, and

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 Ha ...

History

In the 1450s in

Mainz Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-west, with Ma ...

, Johannes Gutenberg printed a ''

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts ...

'' using movable metal type, a technique that quickly spread to other German towns and throughout Europe. In the 1930s

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 N ...

conducted

book burnings Book burning is the deliberate destruction by fire of books or other written materials, usually carried out in a public context. The burning of books represents an element of censorship and usually proceeds from a cultural, religious, or politi ...

. German publishers issued around 61,000 book titles in 1990, and around 83,000 in 2000. Recent historians of the book in Germany include and .

Fairs

The influential

Frankfurt Book Fair The Frankfurt Book Fair (German: Frankfurter Buchmesse, FBM) is the world's largest trade fair for books, based on the number of publishing companies represented. It is considered to be the most important book fair in the world for internationa ...

began in 1454, and the

Leipzig Book Fair The Leipzig Book Fair (german: Leipziger Buchmesse) is the second largest book fair in Germany after the Frankfurt Book Fair. The fair takes place annually over four days at the Leipzig Trade Fairground in the northern part of Leipzig, Saxony. ...

in 1632.

Collections

Outside of Germany, collections of German books include those stored in the UK at the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

and

London Library The London Library is an independent lending library in London, established in 1841. It was founded on the initiative of Thomas Carlyle, who was dissatisfied with some of the policies at the British Museum Library. It is located at 14 St James' ...

; in the US at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

and

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

In popular culture

In 2006 a temporary sculpture about German book history was installed at Bebelplatz in Berlin as part of the Walk of Ideas.

Notes

References

: ''This article incorporates information from the German Wikipedia.''

Bibliography

in English

* *
Part 2
* * * * (Includes info about Germany) * * (Includes articles about book clubs, publishing, etc.) * * * * *

in German

* * * * 1958- * * Multiple volumes, 2001-

Filmography

* ''How to Make a Book with Steidl'', 2010; about

Steidl Steidl is a German-language publisher, an international publisher of photobooks, and a printing company, based in Göttingen, Germany. It was started in 1968 by Gerhard Steidl and is still run by him. Overview The company was started by Ger ...

publisher in Göttingen

Images

File:Man with book by Brandseph of Stuttgart 2.jpg, Man with book, Stuttgart, circa 1890s; photo by File:Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F001703-0003, Bonn, Studentenbibliothek, Lesesaal.jpg, Readers in Bonn, 1950 File:Buchhandlung-felix-jud.JPG,

Felix Jud Felix Jud (1899–1985) was a political activist and German bookseller. He was born in Wilhelmstal and was educated as an ironmonger. He then worked as a bookseller in the "Frommansche Buchhandlung" in Jena but was fired due to a lack of punctu ...

bookshop, Hamburg, 2010 File:Frankfurter Buchmesse 2017-10-11-2.jpg, Frankfurt Book Fair, October 2017

External links

* (Bibliography of editions published in present-day Germany; also browsable b
town
* * (Bibliography) {{Authority control

Mass media in Germany Book publishing in Germany Libraries in Germany