J. D. Sauerländer's Verlag, Bad Orb

In 1613, the printer and publisher Caspar Rötel founded the publishing house Rötel in Frankfurt am Main. Rötel would become the foundation for the publishing house of today. The history of Rötel and his family and their work were unfortunately seldom recognized or documented until into the nineteenth century.
Interestingly, the lineage of business leadership of the publishing house rarely went from father to son, but rather to the daughter and son-in-law. The same was true of Anna Margarete Rötel, the daughter of the founder, who married Balthasar Christoph Wust in 1654. Balthasar continued the business and made a name for himself in all of Germany as a Bible printer. The son of Margarete and Balthasar, Christoph Wust, handed the business down to his daughter Christine Margarethe and her husband Friedrich Waldow in 1721. Their daughter too used clever marriage politics to preserve the traditional house for the next generation. Maria Susanne married book printer Johann David Scheper in 1747. The next daughter to inherit the family business was Christine Sophie Scheper, who had been married to Johann Christian Sauerländer since 1771. So stood the printing house until 1819.
The youngest son of Johann and Christine was Johann David Sauerländer, who after an education as a book salesman and years of apprenticeship in Switzerland (first in Basel and then in Aarau) and Heidelberg took over the printing shop. On June 1, 1816 he founded Sauerländer’s Publishing House, which is the company name even until today.
The work of Johann Sauerländer and his descendants is illuminated through letters and publishing contracts, which document the following history of the publishing house. The young company’s first publication was a philosophical language work by philosopher J.G. Breidenstein. At the same time Sauerländer published the magazine "Staatrisetto." However, after the Carlsbad Decisions took effect, the magazine had to be abandoned because it was "too liberally disposed."
Sauerländer’s broke new ground for its time by publishing famous authors, like Washington Irving and James Fennimore Cooper, in inexpensive paperback versions. Previously, these well-known writers were published only in pricey hardback versions. Sauerländer’s made available at reasonable prices the works of Victor Hugo, translated by Georg Büchner, and the newly-founded magazine "Phoenix, Spring Magazine for Germany," which published for the first time "Dantons Tod" by Georg Büchner. After Büchner’s untimely death, his brother gave the work "Leonce und Lena" to J.D. Sauerländer’s for publishing.

The publication of the first issue of the ALL GEMEINEN FORST- und JAGDZEITUNG in 1832 by J.D. Sauerländer’s validated the science of forestry and established it as an important scientific field with a widespread following. Formerly the newspaper had had a more literary-environmental character, but under the new administration the subjects changed and focused on more serious environmental science themes. The principle that "the rank of the author may never decide, but rather that always argument and counter-argument must be scrutinized" saw to more than 175 years of survival of the Allgemeinen Forst- un Jagdzeitung, which is now the oldest forestry magazine in the world.

The close teamwork between Sauerländer’s and both great forestry faculties of Freiburg University and Göttingen University remains even today. The individual publishers who are the heads of the magazine often have positions as teachers and researchers as parts of the University faculties. The international importance and worldwide expansion of the magazine is reflected in its inclusion in the Science Citation Index (SCI) of the Institute for Scientific Information.

A couple of years later, in 1841, the second pillar of the publishing house’s history began. From this year onward, without interruption, J.D. Sauerländer’s Publishing House has published RHEINISCHE MUSEUM FÜR PHILOLOGIE, which includes articles about ancient Greek-Roman studies. The values of the magazine are evident already in its name. The museum should "protect the past… for our present and therefore preserve it and hold it as living." The magazine was founded by philologists from Bonn, and until the eighties of the last century, the publishers were always employed as professors at the University of Bonn. Then the publication moved through Saarbrücken over to Cologne, staying all the while a child of the Rhein area. This close connection between professor and publisher has always proven useful. From the founding year until today, it has been possible to provide philologists from all over the world with and internationally imaged platform, through which they can exchange developing reports. The international acclaim of this platform is shown by the fact that over 70% of all subscribers are from out of the country.

It was always in the publishing interests of Johann David Sauerländer to have a connection to current politics. Thus he applied himself entirely to the project of writing reports on the first German National Convention, which convened in 1848 in St. Paul’s Church of Frankfurt. They appeared under the title "Stenographic Reports on the Trial of the Constituent German National Assembly" in constant progression until 1849, when the convention was forced to end. From this time on, the publisher waved something of an illusion about further public political scripts. He turned his focus to primarily pristine consumer literature and published with great success the works of Friedrich Rückert and W.O. von Horn. He also published the yearbook titled "Die Spinnstube" and the first complete edition of the works of Clemens Brentano.
Famous painters, such as Hermann Kaulbach and Ludwig Richter, did illustrations for some of the publications. Their original drawings in parts can still be found preserved at the publishing house.
When J.D.’s son, Heinrich Remigius Sauerländer, took over the publishing house in 1864, he applied himself completely to the work of publishing. He sold the printing house and relocated to Finkenhofstra_e 21 in Frankfurt, where the publishing house is located today.
In addition to the two successful magazines and works of fiction, H.R. published increasingly more religious works, such as predicts and poem collections for the protestant community. Later he published a roman missal and the works of famous authors like Catholic predict A. Hingari.

When H.R. gave the publishing house to his son Robert David Sauerländer in 1893, Robert followed the developing trend of specialization in the areas of marketing, economics, forestry, and philology. His work was challenging during the crisis of World War One and the resulting inflation. Still, the publishing house survived. But Robert had neither a son nor a daughter. When he was seventy years old, in 1936, Robert sold the publishing house and the lot it stood on to Albrecht Gruber, who had been employed there for fourteen years.
The specialization of the publishing house continued and further expanded under the leadership of Albrecht. Because Gruber was called to military service on September 1, 1939, his wife Hedwig Aulbach-Gruber took care of the business until his return in 1946. By 1944 Hedwig had saved the publishing of many of the periodicals, despite the lack of authors, print machines, and assistants.

Like Phoenix from the ashes, the publishing house emerged from another trying time into a new beginning in 1946. The publishing work increased again. There were new contracts and magazines to publish. The publishing house issued increasingly more new forestry publications. The new child of the publishing house in 1951 was SILVAE GENETICA. Forestry genetics gained increasing importance, thanks to the leader of the institute for forest genetics and the breeding of forest plants of the Federal Regional Studies for Forests and the Timber Industry, Professor Langner. It was his plan to found this professional journal, the job of which was given to J.D. Sauerländer’s Publishing House, which was making a name for itself in the area of forestry and enthusiastically accepted the project. The work was and still is supported by the Federal Ministry for Nutrition, Agriculture, and Forests, and also by worldwide research scientists. The magazine is read by citizens all over the world. Today, there are subscribers in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia and Tacuarembo, Uruguay.

That same year, 1951, the teams of the forestry faculty of Göttingen and the Lower Saxony forestry experimental station founded the SCHRIFTENREIHE DER FORSTLICHEN FAKULTÄT DER UNIVERSITÄT GÖTTINGEN. It became the platform for the publication of great scientific works, which had formerly received only short reference in professional journals. The written succession of the publication, which includes 137 volumes, was used for the disclosure of discoveries and individual results. This was critically important, as this information often led to later studies and discoveries. The written exchange included research institutions from all continents where the area of forestry was researched and taught, including Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australia, and Europe.

After Albrecht Gruber’s death in 1973, the publishing house passed to his nephew, Helmut A. Baetz, who after an education as a publisher and book salesman and an internship out of the country had been managing the company for many years. The publishing programs now stood solidly on the three pillars of forestry genetics, forestry, and classic philology.
The area of forestry was especially emphasized. The increasing specialization of the individual areas of forestry were reflected in the issues of SCHRIFTEN ZUR FORSTÖKONOMIE, published since 1993 by J.D. Sauerländer’s in cooperation with Göttingen University. These issues accommodated English speakers as well, with texts in both English and German about the newest class of scientific research. The 25 volumes deal with, among many other topics, the appraisal of national cultural achievements, the regeneration of forests, flood protection achievements of forests and the perspectives of forestry economics research.
The publishing house also boasts, in its fourth edition, the standard works of the forestry teaching. These include the "Leitfaden zur Walkmesslehre" by the authors Kramer and Akça, and "Ertragstafeln wichtiger Baumarten" by Schober.
After 30 years of publishing, Baetz gave the publishing house to his niece, Stephanie J. Aulbach, in 2003. After her diploma in German language and literature studies with an emphasis on literature procurement and a two year internship with a Munich publishing house in 1999, she joined the company and had the greatest opportunity to devote herself to the work of publishing.
The existing program is now cared for and further expanded in order to preserve traditional publishing with healthy continuity, if at all possible, for another 400 years!