Walter Verlag

Walter Verlag is a former Swiss publishing house, headquartered in Olten, Switzerland. Founded in Oltenin 1916, it was taken over by the Patmos publishing house in 1994, and later published again as label of the Patmos group.

Walter Verlag
Alternative Bank Schweiz in Olten,
the former building of Walter Verlag
Founded1916
FounderOtto Walter
SuccessorOtto F. Walter
Country of originSwitzerland
Headquarters locationOlten, Solothurn, Zürich
Key peopleOtto Walter, Otto F. Walter
Nonfiction topicspsychology, tourism

History

Otto Walter (1899–1944) bought the printing house of the conservative "Oltner Nachrichten" newspaper in 1915, and in 1916 he founded the Walter Verlag publishing house in Olten as the intellectual bulwark of Catholicism.[1] Walter made the small business to one of the most prestigious printing companies and publishers of Switzerland. Otto Friedrich Walter (1928–1994), among Silja Walter (1919–2011) and further seven daughters, as the only son was seen as the successor of his father. Friedrich Walter started a three-year teaching as bookseller in Zürich, and graduated from the beginnings of the career that was expected of me.[2] The father of Otto F. Walter died in 1944, and he first worked in the father's company. But soon he volunteered at a printing company in Köln, and he worked for the publisher Jakob Hegner as editor, before returning to the Walter Verlag. Walter now learned the publishing operation and the work of a publisher from scratch starting as a warehousemen and billing clerk, and his way led up to the position of the vice director and joint owner. In 1956 Otto F. Walter was the manager of the literary editorial in the father's publishing house, and rebuilt engaged and successfully, a demanding program line, which at the end of the 1950s became one of the best, most innovative publishing addresses. Authors such as Alfred Andersch, Peter Bichsel Helmut Heissenbüttel, Alexander Kluge, Kurt Marti, and Jörg Steiner were published, but not Otto F. Walter himself.[2] After Walter had first published his works in München, the submerged problems in the Walter Verlag increased. Otto F. Walter's progressive program found little support by the conservative company itself, nor by his Catholic family, despite a well balanced financial base. On the occasion of the publication of Ernst Jandl's novel "laut und luis" in 1966, Otto F. Walter broke with the Walter Verlag, because his increasingly avant-garde alignment collided with the interests of the shareholders of the conservative Catholic publisher.[3][2] The publications of the publishing house suffered from the leakage of Walter, and in the 1990s it was acquired by the Patmos publishing group.

After the extremely conservatic Catholic publications under Otto Friedrich Walter's father, and his progressive program, since the 1960s the complete edition of the works of the Swiss psychologist Carl Gustav Jung was published. In the following decades the Psychology according to Jung became influent in the publisher program, inter alia with the works of Verena Kast and Eugen Drewermann, and even Wilhelm Reich's "Christusmord" was released. The literary programme was continued, but restricted and travel guides were a further pillar. The publishing house got into financial difficulties in the early 1990s, and was in 1992 by the then Patmos Verlagshaus in Düsseldorf taken over, subsequently the Patmos Verlagsgruppe based in Mannheim. The Swiss headquarters of the publishing house was moved first to Solothurn, then to Zürich. The publishing house's magazine "Sunday" was taken over in 1994 by the CAT Media AG in Baden, Switzerland. The literally work was published finally in Düsseldorf. As part of Patmos, the Walter program largely focused on the topics of psychology and self-help advisors. The non-fiction books are published since 2007 under the brand of Patmos, which effectively ended the existence of Walter publishing. End of 2009 Patmos separated the subjects psychology and religion, and therefore re-activated the label Walter Verlag.

See also

Literature
  • Jubiläumsschrift des Verlages Otto Walter AG Olten: 1921–1946. Walter Verlag, Olten 1946.
  • Elsbeth Schild-Dürr: Otto F. Walter – Sperrzone und Wunschland: eine Werkbiographie. Benteli Verlag, Bern 1992. ISBN 3-7165-0795-4.

References
  1. Corinna Jäger-Trees (2013-08-20). "Walter, Otto" (in German). HDS. Retrieved 2014-12-14.
  2. Beat Mazenauer. "Otto F. Walter: Stationen seines Lebens" (in German). culturactif.ch. Retrieved 2014-12-14.
  3. Corinna Jäger-Trees (2013-08-20). "Walter, Otto F." (in German). HDS. Retrieved 2014-12-09.
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