S. Fischer Verlag

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The German publishing house S. Fischer Verlag (today in Frankfurt am Main) was founded in 1886 by Samuel Fischer in Berlin and is a leading German address for literary publications and fiction.

Originally, it was renowned for naturalism literature. Famous references are Gerhart Hauptmann and Thomas Mann, both Nobel prize in literature winners.

Because of the political situation in Nazi Germany the family of owner Gottfried Bermann-Fischer had to flee and founded a branch of their publishing house in Vienna. The part that stayed in Berlin kept the official name "S. Fischer Verlag" and was led by Peter Suhrkamp.

After World War II had ended, some disputes over the future way of the publishing house between Suhrkamp and Fischer arose. This led after an agreement out of court to a quasi-allocation of the S. Fischer publishing house. Bermann-Fischer received from Peter Suhrkamp the publishing house back. Peter Suhrkamp separated from Fischer and founded his own Suhrkamp publishing house (Suhrkamp Verlag). It was decided that the authors of Fischer could choose in which publishing house they want to be published in the future, and so 33 of the 48 authors — among them Bertolt Brecht and Hermann Hesse — decided to change to Suhrkamp.

Today the S. Fischer Verlag, as well as other publishing houses such as Kindler, Rowohlt, Kiepenheuer & Witsch and Metzler, is part of Holtzbrinck, a holding.