Suhrkamp

Peter Suhrkamp's career as a publisher began at the publishing house S. Fischer in 1933. Having started as an editor-in-chief, he soon became a member of the board of directors. In the mid-1930s, Gottfried Fischer moved to Vienna with his publishing house’s "non approved" authors. Peter Suhrkamp took over management of the rest of the publishing house. In 1942 the publishing house was renamed Suhrkamp. vorm. S. Fischer. In 1950, Peter Suhrkamp established the publishing house Suhrkamp, taking a number of authors from S. Fischer with him. One of these authors is Rudolf Alexander Schröeder, a connoisseur of the literature of the Netherlands and Flanders. In the years after the First World War, he translated poetry by Guido Gezelle and Karel van de Woestijne as well as prose by Herman Teirlinck and Stijn Streuvels for the publishing house Insel. Furthermore, he was also familiar with the older literature of the Dutch language area. In the early 1950s Suhrkamp republished Schröeder’s collected works and of his two collections Auffsätze und Reden which included translations of a number of poems by Dirck Rafaelszoon Camphuysen, and poetry by one of the great poets of the seventeenth century: Joost van den Vondel.

In the 1960s, it was quite an honor to be published by Suhrkamp. The so-called ‘consumer translations’ (Joosten & Vaessens, 2011) appeared with other publishers. Moreover, Suhrkamp had a particular interest in the avant-garde. Thus, it was not easy to be included among Suhrkamp's titles. Nevertheless, in the mid-1960s Georg Hermanowski managed to place two titles with Suhrkamp: So hat es begonnen [This is How it Started] (1966) by Paul de Wispelaere and Das Buch Alpha [The Book Alpha] (1965) by Ivo Michiels. In the 1960s and 1970s, Georg Hermanowski, Suhrkamp's first professional adviser in the field of Dutch literature" (Zajac, 2014, p. 10 ), also tried to place other authors at Suhrkamp, but his attempts did not lead to the desired result. Through Hermanowski, Ivo Michiels got in direct contact with the head of the Edition Suhrkamp, Günther Busch, but to no avail. Nothing came of Hermanowski's plan to place Michiels' entire Alpha Cycle with Suhrkamp. After the publication of Orchis militaris, no more titles by Michiels followed at Suhrkamp.

This, however, did not mean that there was no more interest in the avant-garde from the Dutch language area at Suhrkamp. In 1972, Suhrkamp published Wir sind Gesichter [We are Faces], a collection of poems with drawings by the "undisputed master" (Van de Watering, 2011) of the Vijftigers, Lucebert. At the time Lucebert and Unseld also developed a private relationship. It was probably this tie that led to Siegfried Unseld, who at the time had no outspoken interest in the literature of the Netherlands and Flanders (Zajac, 2014, p. 12), to includes a second anthology by Lucebert in the Bibliothek Suhrkamp Die Silbenuhr [The Silver Watch].

That Unseld did not really have a big interest in the literature of the Dutch-speaking world is evident from the publications of the 1970s. Except for Lucebert no further works of the avant-garde were published, only Felix Timmermans and Ernest Claes. Apparently Suhrkamp wanted to drive on the success these authors had had with Insel. And not without reason: Timmermans Pallieter was reprinted three times as Suhrkamp-Taschenbuch.

A very special publication in the late 1980s was the translation of Renate Rubinstein's Niets te verliezen en toch bang (Nichts zu verlieren und dennoch Angst, 1980). This book was recommended by the sociologist Norbert Elias, who also wrote the preface for the translation.

“Elias believed that Rubinstein deserved the same degree of international recognition enjoyed by Susan Sonntag, and he asked for the text to be edited in such a way as to secure the best possible sales“ (Zajac, 2014, p. 12)

Unseld, who primarily wanted to publish the book by Rubinstein as an inexpensive pocketbook, gave the notations of Rubinstein an honorary placement in the Neue Folge of the Edition Suhrkamp. Reviewers reacted tentatively: 

And apparently the book did indeed help. Nichts zu verlieren und dennoch Angst was reprinted three times. This was reason enough for Suhrkamp to publish more of Rubinstein's work. In 1986, Immer verliebt was published, in 1987 Rubinstein's Notizen ihrer Krankheit (Sterben kann man immer noch) and in 1993 Rubinstein's "Denkmal" einer geheimen Liebe, Mein besseres ich.

Rubinstein's success apparently aroused curiosity. In the 1980s and the early 1990s, a whole range of works by new authors were published by Suhrkamp: a collection of stories by Jacobus Maarten Biesheuvel, the first translation of Maarten 't Hart for a major German publisher (Ein Schwarm Regenbrachvögel 1988), an anthology of poetry by Martinus Nijhoff (Die Stunde X, 1989), Quissama (1990) by F. Springer, Eine teure Freundschaft by Thomas Rosenboom and the first book by A. F. Th. van der Heijden. These publications were followed by books by Hermin de Graaf, Willem Elsschot, J. Bernlef, Marcel Möring, Harry Mulisch, Hella Haasse, Marcel Möring, Marente de Moor and Gerbrand Bakker.

Although Cees Nooteboom’s carrier developed equally difficult at first as that of Claus and Mulisch, more than 260 publications of Cees Nooteboom appeared in the German language area by now.

The first translation of Nooteboom's work in Germany, Das Paradis ist nebenan [Philip and the Others] (1958), went unnoticed. Things went hardly different with Rituale [Rituals] which appeared almost 30 years later (1984) with Volk und Welt.

It was only after the publication of Berliner Notizen [Berlin Notes] (1991) that Nooteboom became a household name. At the time the author was staying in Berlin on a grant from the DAAD [German Academic Exchange Service] and closely followed the 'fall of the wall'. Excerpts from his book, that was going to be published with Suhrkamp, were regularly published in the Berlin newspaper Die Tageszeitung. Nooteboom was the talk of the town.

Suhrkamp had less success with Thomas Rosenboom. Rosenboom debuted at Suhrkamp with Eine teure Freundschaft in 1991, and also Rosenboom's second German translation of a novel, Das Liebeswerk (2000), appeared with Suhrkamp. But after that Rosenboom chose a new publisher.

The translation of his bestseller Publieke werken [Public Works] appeared with the Deutsche Verlagsanstalt (Neue Zeiten, 2004). Suhrkamp had more success with the second protégée of Nooteboom, A.F.Th. van der Heijden. Like with Rosenboom, Van der Heijden's first book appeared at Suhrkamp in the early 1990s. A new translation of Van der Heijden’s work followed at Suhrkamp almost annually. He was the new star.