The 3rd February 1945 the buildings of E. S. Mittler & Sohn Verlag at Kochstraße 68–71 in central Berlin was destroyed in an Allied air raid. During the immediate post-war years, the company was put under supervision by the American occupation forces. In 1951, Siegfried Toeche-Mittler (1904–1960), the son of Jünger’s publisher, restarted the family’s company in Darmstadt, but nevertheless it was soon divided into two parts, S. Toeche-Mittler Verlagsbuchandlung and E. S. Mittler & Sohn Verlag.
Although the Mittler family lost its old publishing company, which soon was moved to Frankfurt am Main, the new owner, the former German army colonel Dr. Jur. Wilhelm Reibert, had close connections to it: From 1929 to 1943 he had written the Soldatenhandbuch (military handbook) Der Dienstunterricht, published by E. S. Mittler & Sohn Verlag. As a matter of facts, the army instructions for the Bundeswehr is still today known as “Der Reibert” and is still published by E. S. Mittler & Sohn Verlag.
Ernst Jünger had at the time not been published by E. S. Mittler & Sohn Verlag since his Gärten und Straßen 1943 – he had been officially banned from publishing in Nazi-Germany after he had published this book. In the late 1950s Jünger finally began publish his books at Ernst Klett Verlag in Stuttgart, which eventually took over the rights to all his former work.
As it happened, the inheritors of Wilhelm Reibert bought the old official-prints publisher Maximilian Verlag in the 1970s. Since 1991, Maximilian-Verlag, together with E. S. Mittler & Sohn Verlag and another old publishing company, Koehler Verlag, founded by Karl Franz Koehler in Leipzig 1789, are under the same roof: Maximilian-Verlag Dr. Kurt Schober GmbH & Co KG, located in central Hamburg.
The house of Verlagsgruppe Koehler/Mittler to the right. The Hamburg central station is seen in the background.
Photo: Nils Fabiansson © All rights reserved.
Although the Mittler family lost its old publishing company, which soon was moved to Frankfurt am Main, the new owner, the former German army colonel Dr. Jur. Wilhelm Reibert, had close connections to it: From 1929 to 1943 he had written the Soldatenhandbuch (military handbook) Der Dienstunterricht, published by E. S. Mittler & Sohn Verlag. As a matter of facts, the army instructions for the Bundeswehr is still today known as “Der Reibert” and is still published by E. S. Mittler & Sohn Verlag.
Ernst Jünger had at the time not been published by E. S. Mittler & Sohn Verlag since his Gärten und Straßen 1943 – he had been officially banned from publishing in Nazi-Germany after he had published this book. In the late 1950s Jünger finally began publish his books at Ernst Klett Verlag in Stuttgart, which eventually took over the rights to all his former work.
As it happened, the inheritors of Wilhelm Reibert bought the old official-prints publisher Maximilian Verlag in the 1970s. Since 1991, Maximilian-Verlag, together with E. S. Mittler & Sohn Verlag and another old publishing company, Koehler Verlag, founded by Karl Franz Koehler in Leipzig 1789, are under the same roof: Maximilian-Verlag Dr. Kurt Schober GmbH & Co KG, located in central Hamburg.
The house of Verlagsgruppe Koehler/Mittler to the right. The Hamburg central station is seen in the background.
Photo: Nils Fabiansson © All rights reserved.
Einhundert Jahre des Geschäftshauses Ernst Siegfried Mittler und Sohn.
Königliche Hofbuchhandlung und Hofbuchdruckerei in Berlin. Ein Zeitbild,
Berlin: Mittler & Sohn, 1889.
Einhundertfünfzig Jahre E. S. Mittler & Sohn. Verlagsbuchhandlung und Buchdruckerei 1789–1939.
Festschrift zum 3. März 1939 dem Gedenktage des 150jährigen Bestehens,
Berlin: E. S. Mittler & Sohn, 1939.
Gerd Schulz, S. Toeche-Mittler Verlagsbuchhandlung GmbH, Vormals E. S. Mittler & Sohn, Berlin:
200 Jahre Eines Deutschen Verlags 1989,
Darmstadt: Toeche-Mittler, S., Verlagsbuchhandung GmbH, 1989.
