Dieterich’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung
Corporate brand
UnclaimedOne of Germany's oldest publishing names, founded in Göttingen in 1765 and re-established in Mainz in 1982, known for the Sammlung Dieterich series.
Last updated September 26, 2026
AI crawler reads
No AI crawler has read this profile yet.
Overview
The Dieterich’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung is a German publishing house that carries one of the oldest publishing names in Germany. It was founded in 1765 by Johann Christian Dieterich in Göttingen, where he had become a university bookseller and later added a printing press. Among its most famous authors was the physicist and satirist Georg Christoph Lichtenberg. Over the nineteenth century the house changed hands several times and went through insolvency and restructuring; the publishing business was revived in 1897 by Theodor Weicher and moved to Leipzig in 1898. In 1927/1928 it was acquired by Wilhelm Klemm, owner of the Leipzig commission house Carl Friedrich Fleischer. In 1937 Klemm and the philologist Rudolf Marx launched the Sammlung Dieterich, a series committed to humanist tradition during the Nazi period. After World War II the house and the series were split: Marx continued the Leipzig branch in the GDR, where it was eventually absorbed into the Gustav Kiepenheuer Verlag in 1977, while Klemm moved to Wiesbaden and continued publishing until financial difficulties forced him to sell the remaining volumes of the Sammlung Dieterich to Carl Schünemann Verlag in Bremen in 1955. The Wiesbaden business lay dormant from 1956. In 1982 Alfred Klemm, son of Wilhelm Klemm, re-founded the Dieterich’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung in Mainz. It was led by his wife Hannelore Klemm, a trained publisher, and later by their daughter Imma Klemm (Imma Klemm-Ortheil), a granddaughter of Wilhelm Klemm. The publishing programme today includes the Neue Reihe, Handbibliothek Dieterich, excerpta classica, poetry, Bibliophilia and calendars. The house remains a small, independent, family-run publisher based in Mainz, Germany.
History
The Dieterich’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung traces its origins to Johann Christian Dieterich, who took over a bookshop in Gotha in 1752. In 1760 he opened a branch in Göttingen, where he became a university bookseller in 1765 and added a printing press in 1770. In 1776 he moved entirely to Göttingen. His authors included Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, Christian Gottlob Heyne, Johann Tobias Mayer and other Göttingen scholars. After Johann Christian Dieterich's death, the bookshop and publishing house passed to his son Heinrich Dieterich (1761–1831), who led the business into financial crisis. In 1824 his son Hermann Dieterich (1797–1847) took over the publishing house. In 1847 it was sold to Wilhelm Vogel, a son of Friedrich Christian Vogel, in Leipzig, and Friedrich Schlemmer (1799–1878) from Bayreuth, who went bankrupt in 1865. The printing press was separated, and in 1886 the bookshop and antiquarian business became independent. The publishing house, which had been dormant, was acquired in 1897 by Theodor Weicher and moved to Leipzig in 1898, where it continued as Dieterich’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung Theodor Weicher. In 1916 Weicher had to sell the publishing house after insolvency to Max Hofmann (1886–1967); in 1917 Max Heinemann (1882–1944) became an equal partner. At the beginning of 1928 the two had to sell the publishing house for economic reasons to the Leipzig commission house Carl Friedrich Fleischer. Its owner Wilhelm Klemm, also managing partner of the Alfred Kröner publishing house, continued the business. Heinemann remained active in the publishing house, while Hofmann founded his own publishing house from the geographical department of the Dieterich’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung. In 1937 Rudolf Marx (1899–1990), who had previously worked at Kröner Verlag, became co-owner. In the same year Klemm and Marx began publishing the Sammlung Dieterich, which during the Nazi period felt committed to the humanist tradition with its philosophically, culturally and literarily valuable volumes. After Klemm was excluded from the Reichsschrifttumskammer in 1938 and thus banned from his profession, Marx continued the publishing house alone. By 1944 a total of 65 volumes had appeared in the Sammlung Dieterich, after which the publishing house had to cease work due to war destruction. After the end of World War II the publishing house and the Sammlung Dieterich continued in divided form: Rudolf Marx continued the publishing house in Leipzig, the Leipzig volumes of the series continued to be supervised by Marx in the GDR, and in 1977 the publishing house was incorporated into the Gustav Kiepenheuer Verlag. Wilhelm Klemm moved to Wiesbaden in 1945 and continued his publishing activity there, publishing 18 more volumes. In financial difficulties, he had to sell the remaining volumes of the Sammlung Dieterich under his responsibility to Carl Schünemann Verlag in Bremen in 1955. The Dieterich’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung in Wiesbaden lay dormant from 1956. In 1982 the Dieterich’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung was re-founded in Mainz by Alfred Klemm, a chemist and son of Wilhelm Klemm. The publishing house was led by his wife Hannelore Klemm (died 2014), succeeded by their daughter Imma Klemm-Ortheil, wife of Hanns-Josef Ortheil. The philosophically open spirit of Lichtenberg and the standards of the Sammlung Dieterich were the guiding ideas to be reinterpreted with a view to the role of the book at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century. The first volume of the new publishing programme, published in 1985, was still devoted to the Hausschatz deutscher Lyrik compiled by Wilhelm Klemm, while the second volume already spanned as far as Japan. The part of the archive located in Leipzig is listed as a national valuable archive under cultural property protection as part of the archive of the Gustav Kiepenheuer Verlag Leipzig. The archival material has been held as a deposit in the Saxon State Archive Leipzig since 1996.
- 1996
The Leipzig archive material is deposited in the Saxon State Archive Leipzig.
- 1985
The first volume of the new publishing programme appears.
- 1982
Alfred Klemm re-founds the Dieterich’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung in Mainz.
- 1977
The Leipzig publishing house is incorporated into Gustav Kiepenheuer Verlag.
- 1956
The Wiesbaden publishing house lies dormant.
- 1955
Klemm sells the remaining Sammlung Dieterich volumes to Carl Schünemann Verlag.
- 1945
Wilhelm Klemm moves to Wiesbaden and continues publishing.
- 1944
65 volumes of the Sammlung Dieterich have appeared; the publishing house ceases work due to war destruction.
- 1938
Klemm is excluded from the Reichsschrifttumskammer; Marx continues alone.
- 1937
Rudolf Marx becomes co-owner; the Sammlung Dieterich series is launched.
Products and positioning
Small, independent, family-run publisher with a humanist and literary profile, carrying one of Germany's oldest publishing names.
Sammlung Dieterich
Literary and philosophical series launched in 1937, committed to humanist tradition.
Neue Reihe
A series of the current publishing programme.
Handbibliothek Dieterich
A series of the current publishing programme.
excerpta classica
A series of classical excerpts.
Lyrik
Poetry publications.
Bibliophilia
Bibliophile editions.
Kalender
Calendars.
Sources4 sources
Cite this profile: Cite the canonical profile. /brand-wiki/dieterichsche-verlagsbuchhandlung · Editorial policy · How profiles are compiled