2024-10-04 18:32:42
Suhrkamp-Verlag has a new owner: Dirk Möhrle takes over all shares of the publishing house in just under a month. Siegfried Unseld’s widow, Ulla Unseld-Berkéwicz, retires.
Berlin.
From November, entrepreneur Dirk Möhrle will acquire all shares of the legendary publishing house Suhrkamp. He thus becomes the sole owner of the publishing house, which for decades has shaped the intellectual life of the Federal Republic with its intellectually and artistically challenging program. Since 2015, the entrepreneur Möhrle has held 39% of the traditional publishing house. Möhrle underlined that he was honored that there was a consensus among shareholders to “entrust him with this important task”.
“The Siegfried and Ulla Unseld Family Foundation, chaired by Ulla Unseld-Berkéwicz, and the Ströher family will therefore withdraw as shareholders of Suhrkamp Verlag AG on 31 October 2024,” the Berlin publisher said. The “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” had already talked about it.
Suhrkamp as “a point of reference for literary quality in Germany”
Unseld-Berkéwicz (75) reportedly said that the time had come to “renounce the responsibility that Siegfried Unseld “demanded” of me, as Bertolt Brecht said.” “My work and that of the Siegfried and Ulla Unseld Family Foundation came to an end on Siegfried Unseld’s 100th birthday.” We wish the publisher, authors and contributors all the best and good luck to Mr. Möhrle.
Möhrle was quoted as saying: “Preserving this important, globally respected publishing house and accompanying it towards a good future means a great responsibility. I would like to accept it with joy and confidence.” Suhrkamp became “the point of reference for literary quality in Germany” and “cultivated the Jewish intellectual tradition,” continuing and renewing it.
The Suhrkamp publishing house, founded in 1950 by Peter Suhrkamp (1891-1959), has been shaping the social climate in Germany for decades with its rainbow-colored volumes and many other books. The publishing house was based in Frankfurt am Main for a long time before moving to Berlin in 2010.
Brecht, Hesse and Bachmann found their spiritual home with the publisher
From 1959 until his death in 2002, Siegfried Unseld, born in 1924, was the sole publisher of Suhrkamp-Verlag. “The Suhrkamp-Verlag does not publish books, but authors” is one of the surprising principles that goes back to Unseld. He resorted to Hesse’s “Siddhartha”: “You should follow no teaching but yourself!”
Great authors such as Hermann Hesse, Bertolt Brecht, Martin Walser, Ingeborg Bachmann and Christa Wolf have found their spiritual home in the publishing house. Peter Handke, Peter Sloterdijk, Jürgen Habermas, Judith Butler, Annie Ernaux and Uwe Tellkamp are part of the programme; .
After Siegfried Unseld’s death, his widow took over
When Unseld died 22 years ago, his widow Ulla Unseld-Berkéwicz became head of the house. Shortly thereafter, Suhrkamp not only presented a highly acclaimed book program, but also the most spectacular publishing dispute in post-war German history.
Against Unseld-Berkéwicz’s declared wishes, the Hamburg media entrepreneur Hans Barlach, nephew of the expressionist sculptor Ernst Barlach, took over the shares in 2006. For nine years the parties involved had to deal with an almost unmanageable number of legal proceedings.
The results were the move to Berlin, the transformation into AG and the subsequent loss of power of Barlach, who died of pneumonia in 2015 at the age of 59. Subsequently, calm returned to the house, even with the entry of the entrepreneur Möhrle.
(dpa)
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