As of 2018, ten firms in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

rank among the world's biggest publishers of books in terms of revenue: C.H. Beck, Bertelsmann, , , Holtzbrinck Publishing Group, ,

Springer Nature Springer Nature or the Springer Nature Group is a German-British academic publishing company created by the May 2015 merger of Springer Science+Business Media and Holtzbrinck Publishing Group's Nature Publishing Group, Palgrave Macmillan, and Macm ...

, Thieme, , and

Westermann Druck- und Verlagsgruppe Westermann Verlag (English: "Westermann Publishing") is a German publishing firm, founded in the 19th century in Braunschweig, Duchy of Brunswick by George Westermann (23 February 1810 in Leipzig; 7 September 1879 in Wiesbaden). Several other gen ...

. 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 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

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

Berlin Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...

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 ...

, 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 its ...

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...

, 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 Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg (; – 3 February 1468) was a German inventor and Artisan, craftsman who introduced letterpress printing to Europe with his movable type, movable-type printing press. Though not the first of its ki ...

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 o ...

'' 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 Na ...

conducted book burnings. 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 began in 1454, and the Leipzig Book Fair 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 Briti ...

and London Library; 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 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