The Popes' Publisher

The afternoon before yesterday, Red Baron joined the Museumsgesellschaft to visit the Herder Verlag (publishing house). Bartholomä Herder founded the Verlag in Freiburg in 1810 and was also one of the founders of the Lesegesellschaft, the precursor of the Museumsgesellschaft. Therefore, I wrote a short biography of Bartholomä that served as my basis for an article in German Wikipedia.

Meanwhile, the publishing house is in its sixth generation, with Manuel Herder at the helm.

The Man and his realm. Manuel Herder shows us his "palace."

The following cartoon shows Manuel's ancestors hovering over the Herder headquarters. The founder, Bartholomä, is shown with a halo. You can read over the entrance to the building: Geist schafft Leben taken from John 6,63: The Spirit Gives Life.

©Herder

The Herders have, above all, published religious literature from the start. So Manuel had a good hand when he made a contract with Cardinal Josef Ratzinger, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, to publish his books. Later, when Josef was Pope Benedict XVI, he came to Freiburg and paid Manuel Herder and the Verlag a visit.

Ad multos libros (To(o) many books?).
Writer maniac Ratzinger? (©Herder)

Presently, the Herder Verlag is publishing a scholarly edition of Joseph Ratzinger's complete works in 16 volumes. The photo in the Badische Zeitung shows Manuel handing over volume 4 of Einführung in das Christentum (Introduction to Christianity) to the former pope.

Manuel Herder, with former Pope Benedict XVI, presented the book (©Herder/BZ)

On this occasion, Manuel also met Pope Francis. He presented him with the printed edition of the pontiff's speeches in Strasbourg at the European Institutions on November 25, 2014, entitled: Europa, wach auf! (Europe, wake up!). Francis was greatly astonished and asked: Already ready?

Manuel Herder with Pope Francis presenting the Strasbourg book.
On the left Vatican's Georges Clooney Cardinal Gänswein (©Herder/BZ)

Yes, like the pope, we were impressed. The family-owned Herder Verlag is definitely technologically state-of-the-art. Needless to say, most of its books are simultaneously published as e-books.

A Herder masterpiece from the 19th century, the Rheingräntz-Carte

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