Elmar Faber (1 April 1934 – 3 December 2017) was a German book

publisher 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 ...

Biography

Faber was born in

Deesbach Deesbach is a municipality in the district Saalfeld-Rudolstadt, in Thuringia, 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 th ...

Thuringia Thuringia (; officially the Free State of Thuringia, ) is one of Germany, Germany's 16 States of Germany, states. With 2.1 million people, it is 12th-largest by population, and with 16,171 square kilometers, it is 11th-largest in area. Er ...

. He studied

German studies German studies is an academic field that researches, documents and disseminates German language, literature, and culture in its historic and present forms. Academic departments of German studies therefore often focus on German culture, German h ...

Leipzig University Leipzig University (), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 December 1409 by Frederick I, Electo ...

from 1954 to 1959, before becoming a

lecturer Lecturer is an academic rank within many universities, though the meaning of the term varies somewhat from country to country. It generally denotes an academic expert who is hired to teach on a full- or part-time basis. They may also conduct re ...

at the

Bibliographisches Institut The was a German publishing company founded 1826 in Gotha (town), Gotha by Joseph Meyer (publisher), Joseph Meyer. It moved to Hildburghausen in 1828 and to Leipzig in 1874. Its production over the years includes such well-known titles as ( ...

, and he also worked as a publishing assistant at the latter. He served as head of the now defunct publisher

Edition Leipzig Edition Leipzig was a publisher in the German Democratic Republic (GDR/DDR), which, for the most part, placed books on Western markets as an export publisher. This was intended to serve representative purposes as well as to procure foreign curr ...

from 1975 to 1983. He was later head of

Aufbau-Verlag Aufbau Verlag is a German publisher. It was founded in Berlin in 1945 and became the biggest publisher in East Germany (GDR). During that time it specialised in Socialist literature, socialist and Russian literature. Aufbau Verlag (officially s ...

from 1983 to 1992, at a time when it was one of the largest publishing house in

East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

. In 1990, he co-founded the originally

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 ...

-based publisher Faber & Faber with his son . It was relocated to

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

in 1995. He was awarded the

Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (, or , BVO) is the highest state decoration, federal decoration of the Federal Republic of Germany. It may be awarded for any field of endeavor. It was created by the first List of president ...

in 2007. Faber's autobiography, ''Verloren im Paradies. Ein Verlegerleben'', was published in 2014. Faber died on 3 December 2017 in Leipzig, at the age of 83.

References

External links

Elmar Faber
at '' Perlentaucher.de'' 1934 births 2017 deaths People from Saalfeld-Rudolstadt Socialist Unity Party of Germany members Party of Democratic Socialism (Germany) politicians German autobiographers German book publishers (people) 20th-century German publishers (people) Leipzig University alumni Grand Crosses 1st class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany {{Germany-business-bio-stub