Piper Verlag is a German

publisher 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 ...

based in Munich, printing both fiction and non-fiction works. It currently prints over 200 new

paperback A paperback (softcover, softback) book is one with a thick paper or paperboard cover, and often held together with glue rather than stitches or staples. In contrast, hardcover (hardback) books are bound with cardboard covered with cloth, ...

titles per year. Authors published by the company include

Andreas von Bülow Andreas von Bülow (born 17 July 1937) is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and writer. He was Minister for Research and Technology from 1980 to 1982. Von Bülow has authored books about intelligence agencies, including ' ...

and

Sara Paretsky Sara Paretsky (born June 8, 1947) is an American author of detective fiction, best known for her novels focused on the protagonist V. I. Warshawski. Life and career Paretsky was born in Ames, Iowa. Her father was a microbiologist and moved the ...

. It is owned by the Swedish

media conglomerate A media conglomerate, media group, or media institution is a company that owns numerous companies involved in mass media enterprises, such as music, television, radio, publishing, motion pictures, theme parks, or the Internet. According t ...

Bonnier. It was founded in 1904 by 24-year-old Reinhard Piper (1879–1953).

History

The founder of the publishing house, and the man who gave the company its name, was Reinhard Piper (born 31 October 1879 in Penzlin; died 18 October 1953 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 ...

). Together with Georg Müller, he founded the Piper Verlag on 19 May 1904 in

. Only 24 years old at the founding of the publishing house, Reinhard Piper said about himself that he was "a young man with intellectual interests, a little bit of ingenuity, and very little money. However, I did possess the irrefutable drive to share with others what I believed in." The long poem ''Dafnis'' by Arno Holz became the first book published by Piper in 1904. Relatively early in its history, the publishing house took on ambitious projects, such as an edition of the works of

Arthur Schopenhauer Arthur Schopenhauer ( , ; 22 February 1788 – 21 September 1860) was a German philosopher. He is best known for his 1818 work ''The World as Will and Representation'' (expanded in 1844), which characterizes the phenomenal world as the prod ...

and Dostoyevsky. In the early 1990s, the program of the publishing company expanded continuously, but unfortunately without major successes. This situation led Klaus Piper to look for a parent company. On 1 January 1990 the Swedish Bonnier group became the owner of Piper Verlag. At the same time, Viktor Niemann took over the leadership of Piper's management. Felicitas von Lovenberg, a German journalist, literary critic, and author, leads the publishing house since the spring of 2016.

Authors

Hannah Arendt Hannah Arendt (, , ; 14 October 1906 – 4 December 1975) was a political philosopher, author, and Holocaust survivor. She is widely considered to be one of the most influential political theorists of the 20th century. Arendt was born ...

Margaret Atwood Margaret Eleanor Atwood (born November 18, 1939) is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, and inventor. Since 1961, she has published 18 books of poetry, 18 novels, 11 books of non-fiction, ...

Ingeborg Bachmann Ingeborg Bachmann (25 June 1926 – 17 October 1973) was an Austrian poet and author. Biography Bachmann was born in Klagenfurt, in the Austrian state of Carinthia, the daughter of Olga (née Haas) and Matthias Bachmann, a schoolteacher. Her f ...

* Hape Kerkeling * Hans Küng * Sándor Márai * Reinhold Messner *

Michael Moore Michael Francis Moore (born April 23, 1954) is an American filmmaker, author and left-wing activist. His works frequently address the topics of globalization and capitalism. Moore won the 2002 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for ' ...

* Sten Nadolny *

* Ann Patchett * Charlotte Roche *

Jochen Schmidt Jochen Schmidt (born 9 November 1970 in East Berlin) is a German author and translator. Initially, Schmidt gained popularity in Germany with his story “Harnusch mäht als wär’s ein Tanz” (English "Harnusch mows the lawn as if it were a ...

* Heinrich Steinfest *

Paul Watzlawick Paul Watzlawick (July 25, 1921 – March 31, 2007) was an Austrian-American family therapist, psychologist, communication theorist, and philosopher. A theoretician in communication theory and radical constructivism, he commented in the fields ...

References

Book publishing companies of Germany Mass media in Munich Publishing companies established in 1904 {{Germany-company-stub