On the 20th Anniversary of the Death of Siegfried Unseld

On October 26, 2002, publisher Siegfried Unseld died in Frankfurt am Main.

One of the most prominent international publishers of the 20th century, he was a regular visitor in publishing houses all around the world, a relentless traveler in the service of his authors. Many German-language authors owe him not just national but also international success; at the same time, he was an important mediator in the establishment of important foreign-language authors in Germany. The renown of his publishing house is, in part, due to his exceptional dedication to his authors and the significant role of literature as a medium of inter-cultural communication. Faithful to his credo of publishing »not books but authors«, he established what the literary critic George Steiner called »Suhrkamp culture«. Publishing the works of notable figures of the post-war intelligentsia, both literary and academic, national and international, Unseld’s influence on German intellectual life was immense.

»Siegfried Unseld was an ideal publisher. He loved books, his erudition was immense, his taste was uncompromising, and he was tender and nourishing with his authors.« Louis Begley

Siegfried Unseld was born on September 28, 1924, in Ulm. After graduating secondary school, he was drafted into the navy and served three years of military service as a radio operator. He then completed an apprenticeship at the publishing house Aegis Verlag. From 1947, he studied at the University of Tübingen and earned his doctorate with a dissertation on Hermann Hesse. In 1952, Unseld joined Suhrkamp Verlag – on the recommendation of Hesse himself – and in 1959 took on the role of publisher after Peter Suhrkamp’s death. He managed the Suhrkamp and Insel publishing houses and the Deutscher Klassiker Verlag, which he founded in 1981, until his death.

»The most important German publisher of our time« Marcel Reich-Reinicki

An author himself, Unseld penned works such as The Author and His Publisher (1985), Goethe and His Publishers (1991), Goethe and the Ginkgo (1998). 2014 saw the publication of the autobiography Siegfried Unseld – Sein Leben in Bildern und Texten. Most recently, Suhrkamp Verlag published Siegfried Unseld’s travelogues. Notable too and an insight into the workings of the publishing industry are the correspondences between Unseld and authors like Thomas Bernhard and Peter Handke.
 

»Guardian of postwar Germany's literary inheritance … Unseld’s career was a phenomenon particular to post-war Germany. His departure leaves a gaping hole at the heart of the German literary landscape, and it is unlikely that another publisher will be able to assume his mantle. When, for the first time in decades, the famous reception at his home, one of the most important insider events of the Frankfurt book fair, had to be cancelled for health reasons, the fair was no longer the same to many in the publishing world. It never will be.« Obituary by Philipp Blom, The Guardian

»Almost single-handed, by force of cultural-political vision and technical acumen, the publishing firm of Suhrkamp has created a modern philosophical canon. In so far as it has made widely available the most important demanding philosophical voices of the age, in so far as it has filled German bookshelves with the presence of that German Jewish intellectual and nervous genius which Nazism sought to obliterate, the Suhrkamp initiative has been a permanent gain.« George Steiner, Times Literary Supplement