Publisher

Publisher and Managing Director: Dr. Florian R. Simon (LL.M.), Prof. Dr. jur. h.c. Norbert Simon

The publishing house Duncker & Humblot publishes about 350 academic monographs and anthologies in more than 180 series and over 15 academic journals and yearbooks annually. The publisher’s list currently includes some 11300 publications, covering a large variety of subjects: Law and Political Science, Economics and Social Sciences, History, Politics, Literary Studies, Philosophy.

Duncker & Humblot has its own printing company: the Berliner Buchdruckerei Union GmbH. The mail order business Versandbuchhandlung Speyer & Peters GmbH is equally part of the publishing house. If you wish further information, please contact us (Contact).

The history of the publishing house

Duncker & Humblot is rich in tradition for its academic publishing programme. In 1998 the publishing house celebrated its 200 years of existence. The publishing activity started in 1789 - after Heinrich Frölich had bought the Berlin privilege off the bookseller Friedrich Vieweg - with the publication of the Journal “Athenäum”, edited by the brothers Schlegel in cooperation with Schleiermacher and Novalis. After Frölich’s death, Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Duncker became the head of the publishing house, having bought it together with Pierre Humblot.

Over the years, Duncker & Humblot has published works of many famous authors and scholars, such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (“Des Epimenides Erwachen”, “Briefwechsel mit Zelter”), E.T.A. Hoffmann (“Die Elixiere des Teufels”), La Motte-Fouqué (Undine) and many others until 1850. From a very early stage on the main emphasis of Duncker & Humblot lay on academic publishing, especially in the field of Philosophy (first complete edition of Hegel) and History (complete works of Leopold von Ranke). In the second half of the 19th century the publishing house had been transferred to the bookseller Geibel and had moved to Leipzig. From this time on, Economics and Social Sciences (for example the “Schriften des Vereins für Socialpolitik”) as well as Law and Political Science (for example “Bindings Handbuch der gesamten Rechtswissenschaft”) enlargened the publishing catalogue.

In the 1920s – Duncker & Humblot had now moved its headquarters to Munich – Ludwig Feuchtwanger (the brother of author Lion Feuchtwanger) was the academic head of the publishing house. The cooperation with the the important, but controversial constitutional lawyer and law professor Carl Schmitt started in 1919. In 1938 Johannes Broermann purchased Duncker & Humblot from the former owner Geibel and took the publishing house back to Berlin. Broermann had been press officer in the Reich’s ministry of the interior until the Nazis came to power in 1933, when he was removed from there as an opponent of the new regime. After the Second World War he reconstructed the publishing house. After Broermann’s death professor Dr. jur. h.c. Norbert Simon took over the publishing house. In July 2002 Florian Simon (LL.M) became part of the management. In Dezember 2002 the business organisation has been changed. Prof. N. Simon now holds a share of business of 51 %, Dr. Florian Simon has 49%.