Unionsverlag joins C.H.Beck publishing group

Media release

Unionsverlag joins C.H.Beck publishing group

The Zurich-based publisher Unionsverlag has joined the Munich-based publishing group C.H.Beck. The editorial programme will be continued with the current team, the Zurich office and its staff will remain. Lucien Leitess, who founded the publishing house in 1975, will accompany the transition until at least the end of 2024.

C.H.Beck has acquired the equity of Unionsverlag with retroactive effect from 1 January 2023. Dr. Jonathan Beck, publisher of the trade division at C.H.Beck, now signs as President of the Board of Directors of Unionsverlag AG.

Lucien Leitess: »I am happy to have found a reliable partner for the future in C.H.Beck, with whom we share the editorial orientation and the spirit of making good books. After all, the two publishing houses have already in 1988 celebrated the Nobel Prize for their joint author Nagib Machfus. I have always been impressed by the international catalogue and the insistence on literary quality pursued at C.H.Beck. C.H.Beck is a large, but personally committed, independent family business, so it's a good new home for Unionsverlag on its way into the future.«

Jonathan Beck: »With its world-encompassing circle of authors, Unionsverlag is a secret giant on the literary publishing scene. My colleagues and I are delighted to welcome Unionsverlag and its Zurich team into the C.H.Beck group of publishers. I am grateful to Lucien Leitess, whose life's work I admire beyond all measure, for the trust he has placed in us. 'The world in a book' – 'Because the world is wide': The mottos of the two publishing houses now complement each other under one roof. I am very excited to see the fruits of this new literary union.«

Unionsverlag was founded in 1975 at a kitchen table. From the beginning, it was dedicated to international literature, also from hitherto neglected regions. Over the decades, it grew with the authors it supported: Nagib Machfus (Nobel Prize 1988), Chingiz Aitmatov, Yasar Kemal (Peace Prize of the German Book Trade 1997), Assia Djebar (Peace Prize 2000), Mo Yan (Nobel Prize 2012). Its list comprises over 700 works in print by approx. 600 authors from 70 countries, translated from approx. 40 original languages. Among them are Leonardo Padura, Garry Disher, Petra Ivanov, Martina Clavadetscher, Claudia Piñeiro, Patrícia Melo. In its own paperback series, reeditions by authors such as Colin Dexter and Tony Hillerman appear alongside selected licences from other publishers.
Contact and enquiries: Lucien Leitess (lucien.leitess@unionsverlag.ch)
www.unionsverlag.com

C.H.Beck, founded in 1763, is one of the oldest publishing houses in Germany. The Munich-based group of companies has a total of around 2,200 employees and includes the Schweitzer Fachinformationen retail chain, a printing plant and a distribution centre in Nördlingen, where the publishing house was founded, as well as a number of education institutes and other professional publishers in Germany and abroad - in Switzerland Helbing & Lichtenhahn in Basle and in Zurich the publishers Dike, Versus and, most recently, Unionsverlag.
Contact: Ulrike Wegner (ulrike.wegner@beck.de)
www.chbeck.de