BERLIN PORTRAIT GALLERY - OBSTETRICIAN OF LITERATURE EPISODE 5: ERNST ROWOHLT

“If you don't know the temptation to steal a book, you don't deserve free copies. ”

Ernst Rowohlt's love of literature is cheerfully reflected in these words of his. In 1908 he founded the first publishing house in Leipzig and gave it his name. To this day, it still rings unabated in our ears and we encounter it in abundance in every bookstore.

After differences with his silent partner Kurt Wolff, the two split up, Wolff took over, and Ernst Rowohlt founded the second publishing house in 1919 — now in Berlin. Honore de Balzac, Giacomo Casanova, Joachim Ringelnatz, Hans Fallada and many more have now shaped the face of the publishing house. So did American authors such as Sinclair Lewis or Ernest Hemingway.

In 1938, under National Socialist rule, Rowohlt was banned from working; Rowohlt was accused of camouflaging Jewish writers. In 1939, he went into exile in Brazil with his family.

In 1945, the third publishing house was founded, now in Stuttgart. The move to Hamburg followed in 1950, to Reinbek in 1960. After Ernst Rowohlt's death, the son Heinrich Maria Ledig-Rowohlt took over, who ran the house until 1982. Today, the publishing house is part of the Holtzbrinck Group.

What a long and varied story! What great names do we associate with this publishing house: Albert Camus, Wolfgang Borchert, Erich Kästner, Simone de Beauvoire, to name just a few. What a groundbreaking achievement, the Rowohlt Rotation novels to buy for 50 Reichspfennige — rororo!

A publishing house that reaches back to the present day, following on from an exciting and significant story.

10623 Berlin, Germania

In the lobby