A book lover as a beacon of hope
New Fischer publisher: Oliver Vogel
Quelle: Mathias Bothor/photoselection
The book world tends towards depression right now. Now there is a change of management at the highly renowned Frankfurt S. Fischer Verlag. The fact that a literature enthusiast, Oliver Vogel, is taking the helm is a signal for the entire industry.
Et was a time, around ten years ago, when S. Fischer Verlag seemed to be the new Suhrkamp, at least as far as contemporary German literature was concerned. Not everything, but a lot that has status and reputation and news value was in the publisher’s preview, which is becoming more comprehensive from six-monthly to six-monthly. Judith Hermann, Christoph Ransmayr, Monika Maron, Julia Franck, Clemens Meyer, Marlene Streeruwitz, Felicitas Hoppe, Henning Ahrens, Michael Lentz, Thomas Hürlimann, Ulrich Peltzer and many other exciting young voices struggled for the rare spots in the top titles in every new book season.
In addition to the publisher Jörg Bong (under the pseudonym Jean-Luc Bannalec a highly successful crime writer in personal union), the head of literature program Oliver Vogel shaped the distinctive profile of the house, which, in the old Fischer tradition, did not see audience appeal and artistic avant-garde awareness as opposites. The old publisher Monika Schoeller, who died in 2019, watched over all of this.
S. Fischer, however, belongs (like Rowohlt, Kiepenheuer & Witsch or Droemer Knaur) to the Holtzbrinck publishing group, which, despite all its love of heritage, looks at the balance sheets and prefers to see black rather than red. In 2019, industry-experienced Siv Bublitz replaced the charismatic best-selling author Bong as publisher, whose right-hand man Oliver Vogel first gave up program management and then his job. His idealistic idea of publishing literature seemed incompatible with the cool, calculating business acumen of the new boss.
Gradually it became apparent that under the new management there was a climate in which tradition and publishing (history) were subordinated to smooth efficiency when in doubt.
But the new slimming course was not really successful either. In the midst of a veritable crisis in the industry, the literature enthusiast Oliver Vogel is triumphantly returning as a publisher; Bublitz has to go on October 1 “because of different views on further developments,” according to the Holtzbrinck press release.
For many Fischer authors, indeed for the entire industry, which is prone to depression, this is spectacularly good news. Vogel will make a sophisticated book program at the level of the present – today more than ever a risky balancing act. In any case, S. Fischer can still be counted on, because there they will no longer just stare at the bare figures.