The World of Publishing

IN 1921, JUST THREE YEARS AFTER the founding of the First Austrian Republic, a Viennese observer of the book trade by the name of Carl Junker lamented that there were no literary publishing houses worthy of mention (“[kein] namhafter belletristischer Verlag”) in Austria. There is some truth in this statement, for a glance at the publishing world at the time reveals that the popular literature of the turn of the century, which is today considered by literary historians to be representative of the period and of Austrian literature in general, appeared in publishing houses in Berlin or Leipzig. The works of the modern writers of Jung-Wien, for example, appeared primarily in the publishing house of Samuel Fischer in Berlin. Those of the equally popular pan-German or nationalistic writers were published by the L. Staackmann Verlag in Leipzig, whence the term “Staackmänner.” Developments between 1918 and 1945 have to be viewed in light of the circumstances under which publishing was possible in the Habsburg Monarchy. Indeed, from the eighteenth century on, the many “Buchhändlerordnungen” — the official rules and regulations of the book trade — and general restrictions from above give the impression that printing and selling books was something to be tolerated rather than welcomed. The official attitude toward the book trade over the decades explains why Germany, not only because of the larger German-speaking population, was able to persuade so many Austrian writers to publish there, and why the book and publishing trades were so dependent on the German market. It is important to note that the major feature which distinguished the “Austrian” book trade from the “German” book trade in the nineteenth century and on up until the end of the First World War was greater commercial freedom and better copyright protection.

The fact that many nineteenth-century Austrian writers, among them Franz Grillparzer or Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach, also published a good part of their works in Germany raises the question as to the characteristics of the nineteenth century publishing landscape in Austria(-Hungary), a landscape which was to change dramatically after the First World War. Traditionally, Vienna, as the capital of the vast Habsburg Monarchy, was the main book selling and publishing center.