The Evangelische Verlagsanstalt (EVA) is a denominational media company founded in Berlin in 1946. Its shareholders are the and the

Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Saxony The Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Saxony () is one of 20 member Churches of the Protestant Church in Germany (EKD), covering most of the state of Saxony. Its headquarters are in Dresden, and the seat of the bishop (styled Bishop of Saxony) is ...

. The managing director is Sebastian Knöfel.

Book publisher

The range includes numerous theological-scientific publications, religious education, congregational literature including calendars as well as Christian

Belles-lettres () is a category of writing, originally meaning beautiful or fine writing. In the modern narrow sense, it is a label for literary works that do not fall into the major categories such as fiction, poetry, or drama. The phrase is sometimes used pej ...

with a focus on biographies and stories.

Newspapers and magazines

The EVA publishes, among others, the ', the ', the ''Berliner Theologische Zeitschrift'' and the ' (formerly ''Die Christenlehre'').

Private radio

The Evangelische Verlagsanstalt GmbH is a shareholder in

commercial broadcasting Commercial broadcasting (also called private broadcasting) is the broadcasting of television programs and radio programming by privately owned corporate media, as opposed to state sponsorship, for example. It was the United States' first model ...

. In addition, female employees of the Evangelische Verlagsanstalt work as church radio editors in the Saxon broadcasters and .

History 1946–1989

Under the licence number 54 of the

Soviet Military Administration in Germany The Soviet Military Administration in Germany (; ''Sovyetskaya Voyennaya Administratsiya v Germanii'', SVAG; , SMAD) was the Soviet military government, headquartered in Berlin- Karlshorst, that directly ruled the Soviet occupation zone in German ...

, the Evangelische Verlagsanstalt GmbH was founded in 1946 with headquarters in Berlin; in 1953 a publishing department in Leipzig was added. The first publishing director was the later Friedrich Bartsch. The first publication, the

Christmas Carol A Christmas carol is a Carol (music), carol on the theme of Christmas, traditionally sung at Christmas itself or during the surrounding Christmas and holiday season. The term noel has sometimes been used, especially for carols of French or ...

book ''Ihr Kinderlein kommet'', was immediately out of print despite a considerable initial print run of 28,000 copies. In the following years, the number of publications rose steadily, so that the publishing house eventually became the largest Protestant publishing house in Germany. Under the umbrella of the EVA, those private Protestant publishers in the

GDR East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from its formation on 7 October 1949 until its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on 3 October 1990. Until 1989, it was generally vie ...

who had not received their own licence also published; the publishing profile was accordingly broad: from scientific theology to congregational literature, Christian fiction to

Christian devotional literature Christian devotional literature (also called devotionals or Christian living literature) is religious writing that Christian individuals read for their personal growth and spiritual formation. Such literature often takes the form of Christian dail ...

and Christian calendars. Some classics are still published today, for example the ''Kirchliche Amtskalender'' or the daily ''Sonne und Schild''. Every book had to go through the procedure of

censorship in East Germany As with many Soviet-allied countries prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall, the government of the former German Democratic Republic (German: ''Deutsche Demokratische Republik'') applied censorship during its existence from 1949 to 1990. The cens ...

before it was published: from appraisals by state censors to discussions with the publisher, sometimes lasting months or even years, to state paper allocation.

History since 1989

With the

Peaceful Revolution The Peaceful Revolution () – also, in German called ' (, "the turning point") – was one of the peaceful revolutions of 1989 at the peak of the collapse of the Eastern Bloc in the late 1980s. A process of sociopolitical change that led to, am ...

and the

German reunification German reunification () was the process of re-establishing Germany as a single sovereign state, which began on 9 November 1989 and culminated on 3 October 1990 with the dissolution of the East Germany, German Democratic Republic and the int ...

, the situation of EVA also changed fundamentally. After a change of shareholders, the publishing seat was moved to Leipzig in 1991. With effect from 1 January 2010, Hansisches Druck- und Verlagshaus GmbH Frankfurt (HDV) took over the majority of shares in Evangelische Verlagsanstalt GmbH Leipzig (EVA) from the previous sole shareholder, the

(EvLKS). The EvLKS remains a shareholder in the publishing house and is the sole shareholder of Evangelisches Medienhaus GmbH Leipzig, which bundles the publishing activities of the Saxon regional church. By the time of its 60th anniversary in 2006, around 11,000 titles had been published with a total circulation of around 150 million copies. The publishing house is an institutional member of the

Forum Thomanum The Forum Thomanum (styled forum thomanum) is a music educational campus developed from 2002 in Leipzig, Saxony, Germany, as the new home of the Thomanerchor which was founded in 1212. It was conceived in 2002 by Georg Christoph Biller, then Thoma ...

.''Mitglied werden.''
In ''forum-thomanum.de,'' retrieved 25 March 2021.

References

External links

* {{portal bar, Media, religion, Germany Book publishing companies of Germany Companies based in Leipzig German companies established in 1946