Langenscheidt
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| Founded | Berlin, Germany (then Prussia) (1 October 1856) |
|---|---|
| Founder | Gustav Langenscheidt |
| Headquarters | Berlin and Munich, Germany |
Key people | Andreas Langenscheidt (publisher) |
| Products | Dictionaries |
| Revenue | € 131 million (2010)[1] |
Number of employees | approximately 400 |
| Website |
langenscheidt |
Langenscheidt is a privately held German publishing company, specialising in language resource literature. As well as producing monolingual dictionaries, Langenscheidt also produces bilingual dictionaries and travel phrase-books, maps and atlases.
Langenscheidt has language-to-language dictionaries in many languages, including: English, French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Swedish, Greek, Ancient Greek, Latin, Arabic, Chinese and Croatian, and in varying sizes, ranging from small travel pocket dictionaries to large desk sized ones.
History
The Langenscheidt Publishing Group was founded on 1 October 1856 by Gustav Langenscheidt, in response to other publishers' refusal to publish self-study materials developed by him for learning French, which he subsequently published under the title Unterrichtsbriefe zur Erlernung der französischen Sprache ("Teaching letters for learning the French language"). These learning materials became very popular and were widely read, so today Langenscheidt can be considered the "Father of distance education". From 1867 Langenscheidt Publishing Group had its own printing press.
From 1869 Langenscheidt worked with Karl Sachs and Césaire Villatte on the Encyklopädisches französisch-deutsches und deutsch-französisches Wörterbuch ("Encyclopedic French-German and German-French dictionary") and published it in 1880. In 1874, Langenscheidt was awarded the title of professor.
In 1891, in close collaboration with Eduard Muret and Daniel Sanders, he started working on the English equivalent, the Encyklopädisches englisch-deutsches und deutsch-englisches Wörterbuch ("Encyclopedic English-German and German-English dictionary"). Langenscheidt did not live to see its publication; his son Carl, his successor, published it in 1901.
Dictionary structure
The structure for most Langenscheidt dictionaries is the same. Most pocket dictionaries include around 55,000 references designed for tourists or people studying beginning or intermediate foreign languages, while larger desk sized dictionaries include around 220,000 references. After the two languages' references conclude, grammatical assistance appears in the Appendix section, including helpful abbreviations, geographical regions, currency values, temperature conversions, and numerical values.
Langenscheidt Publishing Group
Recently, Langenscheidt became the exclusive distributor of the Green Michelin travel guides and the Red Michelin hotel and restaurant guides. Langenscheidt also distributes Forbes Travel Guides. Overall, the Langenscheidt Publishing Group offers over 3,000 international street maps, road maps, atlases, travel guides, language-learning guides, and bilingual dictionaries.
Langenscheidt also owns Berlitz Publishing and Insight Guides.
The Langenscheidt Publishing Group was also a major map publisher in the United States, encompassing former privately held regional map publishers Arrow (Boston area), Hagstrom (New York area), Patton (Philadelphia area), ADC (Washington DC/Baltimore/Mid-Atlantic area), Creative Sales (CSC) (Chicago area), and Trakker (Florida). They also have national and international coverage with American Map Company (AMC) and Hammond Map respectively, which absorbed the assets of General Drafting in 1992. Langenscheidt's map division was sold to Universal Map, an affiliate of Kappa Publishing Group, in 2010.
References
External links
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