CULTURE HISTORY "Disappeared Publishers" Christoph Links

The Guben City Library invites you to a special event on April 17 with the Berlin publisher and author Christoph Links. The focus will be on the topic of "Disappeared Publishers" as well as Links' own publishing work. The moderation will be handled by Andreas Peter. Christoph Links is considered one of the most prominent chroniclers of German publishing and contemporary history. With the founding of Ch. Links Verlag shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall, he created an independent non-fiction publishing house that particularly deals with the processing of East German history, the division of Germany, and the upheavals after 1989. Many of his publications are dedicated to institutions, actors, and structures that have disappeared from public consciousness – including publishers that were once influential but are now hardly known. In the event, Christoph Links will talk about the history and significance of these "disappeared publishers," their role in cultural memory, and why libraries are central places for preserving this knowledge. Additionally, he will provide insights into his work as a publisher, author, and editor, as well as the challenges of independent publishing. Andreas Peter will guide the evening and moderate the discussion. There will be an opportunity for questions and discussions with the audience afterwards. Why did so many publishers disappear in East Germany? By the end of East Germany, there were only 78 licensed publishers left, although more than 200 had received permission from the Soviet Military Administration after 1945. Publishing historian Christoph Links has researched the history of 150 disappeared publishers and explores in his book the question of why and how they vanished. Were they expropriated by the state for political reasons, forced to give up due to tax regulations, did they migrate to the West, did they cease operations of their own accord, or were they merged against their will? This raises the fundamental question of what means and methods the SED leadership employed in the cultural economy, how they eliminated intellectual and economic competition to create financially lucrative monopolies for favored companies.