In 1945, after the war, the book industry lay idle. The Rowohlt Verlag in Hamburg boosted business with novels printed on newspaper. The revolution follows on June 17, 1950:the "rororo" paperback.
by Yasmin Sibus
"Look how stable they are," says Heinrich Maria Ledig-Rowohlt, jumping around on a paperback in front of a banker at Deutsche Bank. "They can stay outside, it can rain on them and then you can continue reading them tomorrow." At least that's how the publisher described in a 1978 "Playboy" interview how paperbacks got started in the young Federal Republic. The banker decided against investing in the new project of the Rowohlt publishing house and instead gave several million marks "to a Swabian guy who installed radios in vases and promised golden mountains from them". The vase radio company goes bankrupt. The Rowohlt Verlag, on the other hand, finds a private investor and will make history with the sale of its first paperbacks on June 17, 1950. The title of the rororo series quickly became synonymous with the handy and inexpensive book format.
Military government sends German publishers overseas
The innovative publisher Heinrich Maria Ledig-Rowohlt mostly withheld the surname of his famous father.Ledig-Rowohlt is an illegitimate son of the publisher Ernst Rowohlt. After the war, in November 1945, he quickly received a publishing license for Stuttgart from the US military government. With the help of a British license, his father Ernst, who was almost 60 at the time, was able to re-establish Rowohlt Verlag in Hamburg about a year later. Enthusiasm for the "pocket book" was awakened at Ledig-Rowohlt in the USA in 1949. Together with other publishers selected by the military government, he spends several weeks getting to know the overseas publishing industry. Unlike the venerable German book industry, the publishing houses in Boston and New York are designed like industrial companies. The "Börsenblatt für den Deutschen Buchhandel" (Börsenblatt für den Deutschen Buchhandel) considered the cultural differences at the time to be too serious for the American approach to be successful in Germany as well. However, Ledig-Rowohlt is enthusiastic.
Literature on newsprint:Rowohlt rotary novels
Ernst Rowohlt with a Rowohlt rotary novel printed on newsprint.The predecessor of the paperback, the Rowohlt Rotations-Roman (RO-RO-RO), was published in autumn 1946. The book printers were destroyed, paper scarce after the war. The novels, printed on large-format newsprint, cost 50 pfennigs to 1.50 marks per issue - and with a circulation of 100,000 copies per title, they are sold out within a few days. What is initially a bestseller becomes a slow seller with the currency reform. Purchasing power returns to West Germany and with it the desire for a book. Despite this, Ledig-Rowohlt's father, Ernst Rowohlt, did not initially believe in bringing "pocket books" onto the market here as well. But the father is threatened with bankruptcy on the Elbe, he needs a merger with his son's publishing house. Ledig-Rowohlt only agrees when Ernst Rowohlt assures him in writing that he is free to act - and uses this freedom to develop the paperback.
14 days from manuscript to paperback
The first paperbacks were financed by the wealthy Niklas Fürst Salm-Salm, who provided the publisher with 100,000 marks. Rowohlt author Gregor von Rezzori convinces him and his wife that the money is well invested there. The first editions are printed in 1950 in the North Frisian town of Leck by Christian Jessen Sohn, later by the large printer Clausen &Bosse. A rotary machine from the 1930s is used in the double-up process. Two books are arranged on top of each other on a sheet, saving printing time. The pages are in turn bound using a new gluing process according to Emil Lumbeck at the Hans Ehlermann company in Verden, Lower Saxony. From the manuscript to the finished book, it takes a maximum of 14 days, Ernst Rowohlt told the "Spiegel" shortly before the start of sales. So that the paperbacks are also an eye-catcher, the covers are designed "luridly sensational". The booksellers had "already ripped the first 200,000 copies out of storage" from the Rowohlt publishing house, writes the news magazine. Two days later the first paperbacks go over the counter for 1.50 marks per issue.
The first titles:Fallada, Tucholsky and Kipling
The first four titles are "Little Man - What Now?" by Hans Fallada, "Gripsholm Castle" by Kurt Tucholsky, "The Precipice of Life" by Graham Greene and "The Jungle Book" by Rudyard Kipling. A further eight volumes will follow by mid-October. In March 1952 there are already 50 titles with a total circulation of 2.8 million copies. Only then will publishers like Fischer, Goldmann and Ullstein follow suit. According to a publisher survey, the readers are mostly academically educated, often doctors, lawyers and engineers - and young people. "That's the most important thing for me personally," says Rowohlt. In the future, the publisher wants to focus more on young authors who are being printed for the first time.
Small book, big innovations - and an advertising page
Inexpensive, handy books were not new at the time. They are special because of many features such as the fast rotary printing, the innovative glue instead of thread binding, their bright covers instead of discreet linen bindings, the large circulation, the regular publication and last but not least because of their price. In order to keep this as low as possible, Rowohlt Verlag places an advertising page in the middle of the text in every paperback. First, the Hamburg group Reemtsma advertises for its cigarettes, later mineral oil companies and perfume manufacturers. Conservative publishers and readers are outraged by the "tasteless and anti-cultural advertising". Ernst Rowohlt soberly advises tearing out the advertisement page if it is annoying.
Series like rororo aktuell and Thriller appear
Later, Rowohlt no longer only published novels in paperback format, numerous series such as an encyclopedia, classics and monographs followed. The first issue of rororo aktuell appeared in 1961:Martin Walser's "The alternative or do we need a new government?" opens the spectrum for political non-fiction books that deal critically with contemporary problems. The publisher is the writer Fritz J. Raddatz, who experienced turbulent years at the publishing house with Ledig-Rowohlt. Another series consists of thrillers. As so often, the opinions of father and son differ here. "My father was disgusted by the idea that Rowohlt would publish crime novels in paperback," said Ledig-Rowohlt in a "Playboy" interview at the time. An editor was able to convince Ernst Rowohlt that there are also "literary crime novels".
280 million paperbacks from Rowohlt alone
If Heinrich Maria Ledig-Rowohlt and Ernst Rowohlt had something in common, it was probably their great passion for literature. He is the publishing house that they shaped for decades, even long after their death - and the paperbacks. In the meantime, Rowohlt Verlag alone has published 12,523 titles in this format - with a total of 280 million copies. According to Wolfgang Herrndorf's "Tschick", the most popular paperback of the last few years has been. The award-winning novel has sold three million copies since it was published in 2010.