New Ownership Structure for Suhrkamp and Insel
News09.10.2024
To our international publishing partners
Dear friends,
I am writing to inform you of some news that may have already reached some of you over the past few days, namely that Suhrkamp will undergo a shift in its ownership structure from 1 November 2024. Given that information of various accuracy has been circulating through a range of channels, I wanted to take a minute to write personally to clarify the situation.
As of 1 November 2024, the Möhrle Group, which has been a shareholder of the publishing house since 2015, will increase its stake in Suhrkamp Verlag AG from 39% to 100%. With this move, Dirk Möhrle will become the sole owner of the Suhrkamp and Insel publishing houses. Of course, this also means that the Siegfried and Ulla Unseld Family Foundation and the Ströher family will give up their stakes on 31 October 2024.
The executive and my position as publisher remain unaffected by these changes. I continue to take great pleasure in assuming the responsibilities that go along with the rich traditions of this publishing house. And I am happy to say that in Dirk Möhrle, we have someone by our side who has already proven himself to be a reliable, engaged, and prudent partner in recent years.
All our international partners can rest assured that there will be no changes either to the profile of the publishing house and the way we approach publishing, or to the structure of the company and the composition of our staff at Suhrkamp and Insel. Our fantastic publishing team, which has been assembled over many years, will remain in place and will continue to devote all their energy to the important and outstanding authors and books that we publish.
In an effort to make sense of this change in our ownership structure, certain media outlets have speculated that we are not doing well financially. While it is true that these are not easy times for a publishing house, the company is not in crisis. I can assure you that our financial position is stable, and that these structural changes will in fact strengthen our financial basis. We will continue to acquire rights as usual, and indeed you can expect to hear even more from us in this regard over the coming weeks, months, and years.
With best wishes from Berlin,
Jonathan Landgrebe
Publisher
Dear friends,
I am writing to inform you of some news that may have already reached some of you over the past few days, namely that Suhrkamp will undergo a shift in its ownership structure from 1 November 2024. Given that information of various accuracy has been circulating through a range of channels, I wanted to take a minute to write personally to clarify the situation.
As of 1 November 2024, the Möhrle Group, which has been a shareholder of the publishing house since 2015, will increase its stake in Suhrkamp Verlag AG from 39% to 100%. With this move, Dirk Möhrle will become the sole owner of the Suhrkamp and Insel publishing houses. Of course, this also means that the Siegfried and Ulla Unseld Family Foundation and the Ströher family will give up their stakes on 31 October 2024.
The executive and my position as publisher remain unaffected by these changes. I continue to take great pleasure in assuming the responsibilities that go along with the rich traditions of this publishing house. And I am happy to say that in Dirk Möhrle, we have someone by our side who has already proven himself to be a reliable, engaged, and prudent partner in recent years.
All our international partners can rest assured that there will be no changes either to the profile of the publishing house and the way we approach publishing, or to the structure of the company and the composition of our staff at Suhrkamp and Insel. Our fantastic publishing team, which has been assembled over many years, will remain in place and will continue to devote all their energy to the important and outstanding authors and books that we publish.
In an effort to make sense of this change in our ownership structure, certain media outlets have speculated that we are not doing well financially. While it is true that these are not easy times for a publishing house, the company is not in crisis. I can assure you that our financial position is stable, and that these structural changes will in fact strengthen our financial basis. We will continue to acquire rights as usual, and indeed you can expect to hear even more from us in this regard over the coming weeks, months, and years.
With best wishes from Berlin,
Jonathan Landgrebe
Publisher
The following is a translated excerpt from an interview published in DIE ZEIT on 6 October 2024
Publisher Jonathan Landgrebe speaks with DIE ZEIT about recent changes at Suhrkamp Verlag
Interview by Thomas E. Schmidt and Adam Soboczynski
DIE ZEIT: Mr Landgrebe, Suhrkamp Verlag is facing massive upheavals. Ulla Unseld-Berkéwicz and the Ströher family are stepping back from their role as shareholders. The publishing house is now the sole property of entrepreneur Dirk Möhrle. This means that the line of tradition that can be traced back to the legendary publisher Siegfried Unseld, who passed away in 2002, has been severed. How did this come about?
Jonathan Landgrebe: When this ownership constellation emerged in 2015, I was sure that we had found a resilient structure. That didn’t turn out to be the case. Because although I was running publishing operations, the smooth functioning of the publishing house also relied on the supervisory board, which included Rachel Salamander, Ulla Unseld-Berkéwicz, and the Ströher family. That whole ensemble needs to work well together for the company to run smoother. However, that wasn’t the case. Over the years, a complex and emotional situation had developed, and with the sale of the remaining shares to Dirk Möhrle, this knot has now been undone.
ZEIT: There have long been rumours in industry circles of a lack of agreement among the supervisory board and the owners. Is that true?
Landgrebe: With all decision-making processes, it is important to find a common denominator and to conduct the necessary discussions in a constructive manner. That had become increasingly difficult. In the end, those involved sat down and looked for a way to resolve the situation. And the solution chosen by everyone was for Dirk Möhrle to acquire the stakes of the other shareholders.
ZEIT: The more obvious solution would have been for the Ströher family, the heirs of the company Wella, to acquire the publishing house. They came on board in 2015 and made it possible for Suhrkamp to make a fresh start after the feud with the former minority shareholder Hans Barlach – back then, the publishing house was insolvent.
Landgrebe: Yes, without the Ströher family, the publishing house would not have been saved in 2015, and after that as well, Silvia and Ulrich Ströher have worked reliably and selflessly to support the work of the company. And now they have helped to find a new solution in the interests of the publishing house.
ZEIT: Is the financial situation so dire that the sale was the only option?
Landgrebe: We are by no means in a financially disastrous situation. Suhrkamp is not in crisis. The publishing house turned profits every year until 2021 and also paid dividends to the shareholders. But it is true that the current market conditions have not made things easy for us. After the pandemic, we had a high number of unsold books that were returned by booksellers. Inflation has driven up production costs. At the same time, we have had to deal with a shift in reading and buying habits. In this respect, we are no different from other publishers. And then there is the fact that it is no longer a given that authors like Max Frisch or Bertolt Brecht are prescribed reading in schools. However, our financial situation does not threaten the survival of the company, as has been rumoured. Of course, given the current climate, it is invaluable to have an ownership situation in which people are prepared to back courageous decisions, both financially and intellectually, even in difficult times. And this ownership situation has now been found.
[…]
ZEIT: Are you relieved that Ulla Unseld-Berkéwicz has left the company?
Landgrebe: I am grateful to Ulla Unseld-Berkéwicz for entrusting me with the task of managing the publishing house and for passionately working to ensure that the company remained independent from corporate ownership. Together, we have tackled the relocation of the company and the crisis of 2013. But it is important that a generational change takes place at a certain point. And I believe it is a positive development that this cut has now been made.
[…]
ZEIT: What strategies do you have for getting the company out of the difficult situation it currently finds itself in?
Landgrebe: Take a look at our list and the outstanding books we are publishing just this autumn in the fields of fiction, non-fiction, and academic writing. No other publishing house has a better record when it comes to winning the most important literary prizes in the German-speaking world. And our books are also selling well, take the bestsellers by Isabel Allende, Nora Bossong, and Steffen Mau, for example. But the publishing house doesn’t just live from bestsellers, the midlist – that is, books that sell between 5,000 and 15,000 copies – is crucial. We want to achieve more in both areas. In the future, we will be in a better financial position to acquire titles with high sales potential; Dirk Möhrle has promised to invest in this. And in the midlist, we will do even more to make every single book successful.
ZEIT: The Süddeutsche Zeitung reported that you bought the company’s new offices on Berlin’s Torstrasse in 2022, which necessitated taking on loans of some 15 million euro that year. Is that true?
Landgrebe: This building has been a financial boon for the publishing house because it has significantly reduced the overheads that we incurred previously through renting office space. Our offices were financed on very reasonable loan terms, and they are owned by the company, and as such, provide the company with security. It made financial sense to do things this way. And it is certainly absurd to try to make a scandal out of it.
ZEIT: Dirk Möhrle has no background in book publishing, he previously ran a chain of hardware stores. Why has he decided to make this investment now?
Landgrebe: I think he bought the company because he is enthusiastic about it and because he recognises the importance that the publishing house and its books continue to have.
ZEIT: What gives you hope that this will be a long-term commitment? With a 100 per cent share, the complicated network of shareholders has been undone. Now, any owner could sell the publishing house on to make a profit.
Landgrebe: Dirk Möhrle and I are in close contact with one another, and we trust each other. He has been involved in the publishing house for the last ten years and has been a reliable, engaged, and prudent partner. I have no doubt that he sees the publishing house as a long-term investment.
ZEIT: There were rumours in industry circles earlier in the year that the US publishing company Simon & Schuster was interested in acquiring Suhrkamp Verlag. Can you confirm this?
Landgrebe: I cannot confirm that.
ZEIT: You have made losses. Are you planning on making redundancies?
Landgrebe: No.
[…]
ZEIT: Are you still in a position to bid for hotly contested manuscripts and book rights?
Landgrebe: As I mentioned earlier, we will be even better positioned to act in this space in the future. However, we are not part of a publishing conglomerate, we are a mid-sized company and must therefore continue to use our funds wisely. At the same time, quality is something that we always invest in at Suhrkamp. From the manuscript to editing and production, we take books seriously in a way that many other publishing houses ceased to do long ago. And that costs money, and we will continue to invest in quality as we understand it.
[…]
ZEIT: Were there ever any attempts on the part of the previous owners to influence the books you publish?
Landgrebe: There have been discussions about books and authors within the supervisory board. But I have always stressed the importance of maintaining the independence of the publishing house. And the new owner has assured me that he will uphold the independence of the publishing team and will not intervene in programme decisions from his position as owner. And that gives me peace of mind.
ZEIT: How would you sum up the achievements of Ulla Unseld-Berkéwicz?
Landgrebe: She took on Siegfried Unseld’s difficult legacy and, as the legitimate heir, worked passionately for many years to preserve the publishing house in the spirit of its tradition.
ZEIT: And what were Unseld-Berkéwicz’s biggest mistakes?
Landgrebe: In recent times, there are a number of decisions that were finally made this year that I wish had been discussed and decided upon some time ago.
ZEIT: What are the new sole owner’s intentions with the publishing house?
Landgrebe: Dirk Möhrle will ensure that we can continue to publish books with passion, even in turbulent times.
Publisher Jonathan Landgrebe speaks with DIE ZEIT about recent changes at Suhrkamp Verlag
Interview by Thomas E. Schmidt and Adam Soboczynski
DIE ZEIT: Mr Landgrebe, Suhrkamp Verlag is facing massive upheavals. Ulla Unseld-Berkéwicz and the Ströher family are stepping back from their role as shareholders. The publishing house is now the sole property of entrepreneur Dirk Möhrle. This means that the line of tradition that can be traced back to the legendary publisher Siegfried Unseld, who passed away in 2002, has been severed. How did this come about?
Jonathan Landgrebe: When this ownership constellation emerged in 2015, I was sure that we had found a resilient structure. That didn’t turn out to be the case. Because although I was running publishing operations, the smooth functioning of the publishing house also relied on the supervisory board, which included Rachel Salamander, Ulla Unseld-Berkéwicz, and the Ströher family. That whole ensemble needs to work well together for the company to run smoother. However, that wasn’t the case. Over the years, a complex and emotional situation had developed, and with the sale of the remaining shares to Dirk Möhrle, this knot has now been undone.
ZEIT: There have long been rumours in industry circles of a lack of agreement among the supervisory board and the owners. Is that true?
Landgrebe: With all decision-making processes, it is important to find a common denominator and to conduct the necessary discussions in a constructive manner. That had become increasingly difficult. In the end, those involved sat down and looked for a way to resolve the situation. And the solution chosen by everyone was for Dirk Möhrle to acquire the stakes of the other shareholders.
ZEIT: The more obvious solution would have been for the Ströher family, the heirs of the company Wella, to acquire the publishing house. They came on board in 2015 and made it possible for Suhrkamp to make a fresh start after the feud with the former minority shareholder Hans Barlach – back then, the publishing house was insolvent.
Landgrebe: Yes, without the Ströher family, the publishing house would not have been saved in 2015, and after that as well, Silvia and Ulrich Ströher have worked reliably and selflessly to support the work of the company. And now they have helped to find a new solution in the interests of the publishing house.
ZEIT: Is the financial situation so dire that the sale was the only option?
Landgrebe: We are by no means in a financially disastrous situation. Suhrkamp is not in crisis. The publishing house turned profits every year until 2021 and also paid dividends to the shareholders. But it is true that the current market conditions have not made things easy for us. After the pandemic, we had a high number of unsold books that were returned by booksellers. Inflation has driven up production costs. At the same time, we have had to deal with a shift in reading and buying habits. In this respect, we are no different from other publishers. And then there is the fact that it is no longer a given that authors like Max Frisch or Bertolt Brecht are prescribed reading in schools. However, our financial situation does not threaten the survival of the company, as has been rumoured. Of course, given the current climate, it is invaluable to have an ownership situation in which people are prepared to back courageous decisions, both financially and intellectually, even in difficult times. And this ownership situation has now been found.
[…]
ZEIT: Are you relieved that Ulla Unseld-Berkéwicz has left the company?
Landgrebe: I am grateful to Ulla Unseld-Berkéwicz for entrusting me with the task of managing the publishing house and for passionately working to ensure that the company remained independent from corporate ownership. Together, we have tackled the relocation of the company and the crisis of 2013. But it is important that a generational change takes place at a certain point. And I believe it is a positive development that this cut has now been made.
[…]
ZEIT: What strategies do you have for getting the company out of the difficult situation it currently finds itself in?
Landgrebe: Take a look at our list and the outstanding books we are publishing just this autumn in the fields of fiction, non-fiction, and academic writing. No other publishing house has a better record when it comes to winning the most important literary prizes in the German-speaking world. And our books are also selling well, take the bestsellers by Isabel Allende, Nora Bossong, and Steffen Mau, for example. But the publishing house doesn’t just live from bestsellers, the midlist – that is, books that sell between 5,000 and 15,000 copies – is crucial. We want to achieve more in both areas. In the future, we will be in a better financial position to acquire titles with high sales potential; Dirk Möhrle has promised to invest in this. And in the midlist, we will do even more to make every single book successful.
ZEIT: The Süddeutsche Zeitung reported that you bought the company’s new offices on Berlin’s Torstrasse in 2022, which necessitated taking on loans of some 15 million euro that year. Is that true?
Landgrebe: This building has been a financial boon for the publishing house because it has significantly reduced the overheads that we incurred previously through renting office space. Our offices were financed on very reasonable loan terms, and they are owned by the company, and as such, provide the company with security. It made financial sense to do things this way. And it is certainly absurd to try to make a scandal out of it.
ZEIT: Dirk Möhrle has no background in book publishing, he previously ran a chain of hardware stores. Why has he decided to make this investment now?
Landgrebe: I think he bought the company because he is enthusiastic about it and because he recognises the importance that the publishing house and its books continue to have.
ZEIT: What gives you hope that this will be a long-term commitment? With a 100 per cent share, the complicated network of shareholders has been undone. Now, any owner could sell the publishing house on to make a profit.
Landgrebe: Dirk Möhrle and I are in close contact with one another, and we trust each other. He has been involved in the publishing house for the last ten years and has been a reliable, engaged, and prudent partner. I have no doubt that he sees the publishing house as a long-term investment.
ZEIT: There were rumours in industry circles earlier in the year that the US publishing company Simon & Schuster was interested in acquiring Suhrkamp Verlag. Can you confirm this?
Landgrebe: I cannot confirm that.
ZEIT: You have made losses. Are you planning on making redundancies?
Landgrebe: No.
[…]
ZEIT: Are you still in a position to bid for hotly contested manuscripts and book rights?
Landgrebe: As I mentioned earlier, we will be even better positioned to act in this space in the future. However, we are not part of a publishing conglomerate, we are a mid-sized company and must therefore continue to use our funds wisely. At the same time, quality is something that we always invest in at Suhrkamp. From the manuscript to editing and production, we take books seriously in a way that many other publishing houses ceased to do long ago. And that costs money, and we will continue to invest in quality as we understand it.
[…]
ZEIT: Were there ever any attempts on the part of the previous owners to influence the books you publish?
Landgrebe: There have been discussions about books and authors within the supervisory board. But I have always stressed the importance of maintaining the independence of the publishing house. And the new owner has assured me that he will uphold the independence of the publishing team and will not intervene in programme decisions from his position as owner. And that gives me peace of mind.
ZEIT: How would you sum up the achievements of Ulla Unseld-Berkéwicz?
Landgrebe: She took on Siegfried Unseld’s difficult legacy and, as the legitimate heir, worked passionately for many years to preserve the publishing house in the spirit of its tradition.
ZEIT: And what were Unseld-Berkéwicz’s biggest mistakes?
Landgrebe: In recent times, there are a number of decisions that were finally made this year that I wish had been discussed and decided upon some time ago.
ZEIT: What are the new sole owner’s intentions with the publishing house?
Landgrebe: Dirk Möhrle will ensure that we can continue to publish books with passion, even in turbulent times.