This is the story of one of the most innovative German publishers after the war in terms of his authors, cultural and political influence and economic success. But the life story of J.C. Witsch is much more than that – it is a staggering journey through the violent history of the 20th century.
Born and raised in Cologne, the young librarian J.C. Witsch came into conflict fairly early on with the emerging Nazi regime. He still went on to become the top public librarian in Thuringia in 1936. Having returned from his military deployment in Italy after the war, he initially continued to hold office under the Soviet occupation forces in Jena, but then fled to West Germany following fierce clashes over a new library law and his role in the Nazi era. He landed in Cologne, where the first titles were published under the Kiepenheuer & Witsch name in 1951.
He immediately started publishing major pre- and post-war fiction authors (Heinrich Böll, Czesław Miłosz, Joseph Roth, Erich Maria Remarque, Saul Bellow, J.D. Salinger, Vicki Baum, Ignazio Silone, and many others), but was also one of the most influential anti-Communism networkers during the Cold War. In this regard, he published many classic critiques of Communism, like Wolfgang Leonhard’s Child of the Revolution. He also founded another publishing house, which was largely financed by the Federal Ministry for All-German Affairs, and served as Cologne’s governor to the “Congress for Cultural Freedom”, which had its European headquarters in Paris and was governed and financed by the CIA.
In addition, he was a great connoisseur of world literature, an explorer and persuader, an inspiring public intellectual and a successful entrepreneur. A ravishingly vivid book that reads like a contemporary and cultural history thriller.
