Paul Zsolnay Verlag was founded in 1924 by Paul von Zsolnay and the first book he published was Franz Werfel’s “Verdi – Roman der Oper”, which was an inmediate bestseller.
From 1924 until 1933 950 were published, mainly from German speaking authors but also international fiction. In very short time it becomes one of the essential publishing houses in the German speaking territories. Some of the best authors at that time were Nobel Prize Winners John Galsworthy, Roger Martin du Gard and Sinclair Lewis; Colette, A. J. Cronin, H. G. Wells and Theodore Dreiser; Franz Werfel, Heinrich Mann, Max Brod, Carl Sternheim, Leo Perutz and debut authors Friedrich Torberg and Hilde Spiel.
Paul Zsolnay Verlag was considered a Jewish publishing house and that had consequences after Hitler got the power in Germany. Many of its authors were banned and in order to reassure the existence of the publishing house Zsolnay had to change the program and even employed a nazi publisher. After the annexion of Austria Zsolnay remained in London in the Exile. In 1939 the Gestapo closes the company and in 1941 it is bought by writer Kar Heinrich Bischoff, who directs the company until the end of the war.
In 1946 Paul Zsolnay returns to Viena and starts reconstructing his publishing house. He passed away in 1961.
In 1996 and after experiencing many changes, Carl Hanser Verlag München acquires the Zsolnay Verlag with the aim of following the great literary tradition of the house from its beginnings: German and international literature; classics and complete works; literary noir and a wide range of political and historical non-fiction.
Deuticke Verlag
Franz Deuticke was born in Leipzig in 1850 and moved to Viena, where he run a bookshop. With the time he started publishing books on Nature, as they were located close to the Universtity.
When he dies, his son continues with the company. In 1938 the Gestapo burns half the inventory, some of the first editions of Deuticke’s authors such as C.G.Jung and Sigmund Freud.
In 1946 Hans Deuticke starts again and founds with other five colleagues the Union of Austrian Textbook Publishers, and gets closer to the Austrian National Publisher, to which Deuticke (as other publishers like Residenz and Christian Brandstätter) is connected during many years in form of a holding.
In 1990 the complete program of the ÖBV appears under ‘Deuticke’ and this means a grow and reorientation.
In 2003 Ernst Klett acquires the Textbook Segment and in 2004 Zsolnay takes over Deuticke Verlag which belonged already to Carl Hanser Verlag.
Deuticke concentrates on international and German speaking literature and quality commercial fiction.