As of 2018, ten firms in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

rank among the world's biggest

publishers Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...

books A book is a structured presentation of recorded information, primarily verbal and graphical, through a medium. Originally physical, electronic books and audiobooks are now existent. Physical books are objects that contain printed material, mo ...

in terms of revenue: C.H. Beck,

Bertelsmann The Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA, commonly known as Bertelsmann (), is a German privately held company, private multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation based in Gütersloh, North Rhine-Westphalia, ...

, Cornelsen Verlag, ,

Holtzbrinck Publishing Group Holtzbrinck Publishing Group () is a Privately held company, privately held German company headquartered in Stuttgart, that Holding company, owns publishing companies worldwide. Through Macmillan Publishers, it is one of the Big Five English-lan ...

, ,

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. 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 (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

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

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

, and the regional metropolises of

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...

, and

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

History

In the 1450s in

Mainz Mainz (; #Names and etymology, see below) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, and with around 223,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 35th-largest city. It lies in ...

Johannes Gutenberg Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg ( – 3 February 1468) was a German inventor and Artisan, craftsman who invented the movable type, movable-type printing press. Though movable type was already in use in East Asia, Gutenberg's inven ...

printed a ''

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

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

Nazis Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

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 The Frankfurt Book Fair (German: , FBM) is the world's largest trade fair for books, based on the number of publishing companies represented. The five-day annual event in mid-October is held at the Frankfurt Trade Fair grounds in Frankfurt am ...

began in 1454, and the

Leipzig Book Fair The Leipzig Book Fair () 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. It is the first large trad ...

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. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

and London Library; in the US at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

and

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

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

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 based in Göttingen, Germany. Founded in 1968 by Gerhard Steidl, it publishes photobooks. Overview The company was started by Gerhard Steidl.Bill Kouwenhoven, "Off to see the wizard", ''British Journa ...

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 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