Piper Verlag is a German

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 ...

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, also known as wrappers, and often held together with adhesive, glue rather than stitch (textile arts), stitches or Staple (fastener), staples. In contrast, ...

titles per year. Authors published by the company include Andreas von Bülow and Sara Paretsky. It is owned by the Swedish media conglomerate 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 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 ...

). 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 Arno Hermann Oscar Alfred Holz (26 April 1863 – October 1929) was a German naturalist poet and dramatist. He is best known for his poetry collection ''Phantasus'' (1898). He was nominated for a Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel prize in litera ...

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 known for his 1818 work ''The World as Will and Representation'' (expanded in 1844), which characterizes the Phenomenon, phenomenal world as ...

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 *

Margaret Atwood Margaret Eleanor Atwood (born November 18, 1939) is a Canadian novelist, poet, literary critic, and an inventor. Since 1961, she has published 18 books of poetry, 18 novels, 11 books of nonfiction, nine collections of short fiction, eight chi ...

* Ingeborg Bachmann * Lothar-Günther Buchheim * Hape Kerkeling * Hans Küng * Juliane Koepcke * Sándor Márai * Reinhold Messner *

Michael Moore Michael Francis Moore is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and author. Moore's work frequently addresses various Social issue, social, political, and economic topics. He first became publicly known for his award-winning debut ...

* Sten Nadolny * Sara Paretsky * Ann Patchett * Charlotte Roche * Jochen Schmidt * Heinrich Steinfest * Paul Watzlawick

References

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