On the 100th Anniversary of the Birth of Siegfried Unseld

 
Siegfried Unseld was born 100 years ago, on 28 September 1924, in the city of Ulm in southern Germany.

During the Second World War, Unseld was called up for military service at the age of 18, and he served as a radio operator in the navy. After the war, he began a cadetship at Aegis Verlag in Ulm, where he gathered his first experiences in the publishing trade. In 1947, he began studying at the University of Tübingen, taking classes in German literature, philosophy, economics, international law, library studies and Chinese studies.

He began his career as a publisher at Verlag J. C. B. Mohr in Tübingen, where he worked until 1950. A year later, he gained his doctorate with a dissertation on the work of Hermann Hesse. Unseld joined Suhrkamp Verlag in 1952 and became a partner in 1958. After the death of Peter Suhrkamp in March 1959, he took over the reins of the company.

Up until his death on 26 October 2002 in Frankfurt, Siegfried Unseld successfully led not only the publishing houses Suhrkamp and Insel, but also Deutscher Klassiker Verlag, which he founded in 1981. To this day, he is considered one of the most influential European publishers of the 20th century.

To mark the 100th anniversary of Siegfried Unseld’s birth, Suhrkamp Verlag has published One Hundred Letters, a collection of letters written by Unseld to various authors and colleagues. Edited and with commentary by Ulrike Anders and Jan Bürger, the collection includes correspondence with figures such as Helene Weigel, Theodor W. Adorno, Paul Celan, Ingeborg Bachmann, Jürgen Habermas, Nelly Sachs and Friederike Mayröcker.

For more information on One Hundred Letters or on any other books by Siegfried Unseld, please contact the rights manager for your region.