Uitgeverij Allert de Lange (Amsterdam) Archives

Period 1931-1940
Total size   7 m.
Consultation Beperkt
Toestemming vereist voor inv.nr.1-2 van de bewaargever; tevens toestemming vereist voor het maken van kopieën van stukken uit dit archief van de bewaargever
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History

After the takeover by the Nazis in Germany in 1933, the Dutch publishing house Allert de Lange created a German Department for authors who could no longer publish in their country of descent; initiators were the Dutch writers Siegfried and Hilda van Praag-Sanders; led by Hermann Kesten and Walter Landauer the department concentrated on literature, historical novels and biography, trying to avoid a political outlook as far as possible; among its authors were Bertolt Brecht, Max and Otto Brod, Odön von Horvath, Egon Erwin Kisch, Theodor Plivier, Joseph Roth and Stefan Zweig; from 1933 until 1940, 91 books were published, seventy percent of which were novels; after the German annexation of Austria and the Sudetes in 1938, when sales declined, it was decided to publish more German translations of books of general interest; the distribution was restructured by the founding of the `Zentralauslieferung', a joint company of De Lange with the publishing houses Bermann-Fischer (Stockholm), Forum (Amsterdam) and De Langes main rival Querido (Amsterdam); the occupation of Holland by Germany in May 1940 brought the department's activities to an end; its archives were confiscated and brought to Berlin, later to Dresden; in 1945 it was transferred to the Soviet Union, where a part has been lost; deposited at the Zentrales Staatsarchiv der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik in Potsdam in 1957; restored to its original owner in 1991 the archive was deposited at the IISH.

Content

Correspondence of the Allert de Lange Verlag, Deutsche Abteilung with fellow publishing houses, bookshops and agencies, critics and many authors, including Georg Bernhard, Bertolt Brecht, Max Brod, Henry William Katz, Gina Kaus, Egon Erwin Kisch, Alfred Neumann, Theodor Plivier, Alfred Polgar, Joseph Roth, René Schickele, Karl Tschuppik, Fritz von Unruh, Veit Valentin, Friedrich Walter, Christa Winsloe and Stefan Zweig (1931-) 1933-1940; agreements with authors and financial documents; list of and correspondence on declined manuscripts 1935-1939; file on an international book award 1938-1939; correspondence relating to copyrights, translations and film performing rights; press clippings, book reviews, advertisements; correspondence by and financial documents and printed material of the `Zentralauslieferung' in 1938-1940.

Some correspondence by and on the fate of Walter Landauer (1902-1945), staff member of the German department of the Dutch publishing house Allert de Lange, who died in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp 1939, 1944-1946.

Processing information

Inventory made in 1992