The Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft (WBG) was a German publishing house in

Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it the ...

. With about 60,000 subscribers (as of 2023) it was one of the largest

book clubs Book club may refer to: * Book discussion club, a group of people who meet to discuss a book or books that they have read ** Literature circle, a group of students who meet in a classroom to discuss a book or books that they have read * Book sale ...

in Germany. German scientists founded the WBG in 1949 as a

voluntary association A voluntary group or union (also sometimes called a voluntary organization, common-interest association, association, or society) is a group of individuals who enter into an agreement, usually as volunteers, to form a body (or organization) to a ...

to help with the shortage of scientific literature after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Its aim was to publish new books and to reprint standard works, scarce in that era. The company's principal founder and first managing director was Ernst Anrich. One of its founding members was the philosopher . Nowadays the WBG publishes works from about 20 fields of study, sent by

mail order Mail order is the buying of goods or services by mail delivery. The buyer places an order for the desired products with the merchant through some remote methods such as: * Sending an order form in the mail * Placing an order by telephone call ...

to its members. About a third of its programme is reprints of other publishers' scientific works. These publishers belong to the WBG: * Primus-Verlag, Darmstadt (founded 1996) * Konrad Theiss Verlag,

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 ...

(taken over 1997) * Verlag Philipp von Zabern,

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 ...

(taken over 2005)

References

* ''Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt: 1949 - 1974. Eine kurze Darstellung der 25 Jahre'' (''Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt: 1949 - 1974. A short account of the 25 years''). Darmstadt 1974

External links

WBG Website

(German) * ttp://www.primusverlag.de/ Website of the Primus-Verlag {{Books Book publishing companies of Germany Book clubs Mass media in Darmstadt

See also

References

External links