History
From its founding until 1990, the Berlin publishing house was owned by the SED party company Zentrag. Hermann Leupold served as publishing director until his death in 1967 [2] , and then Rudolf Barbarino until 1983.
In 1990, after the political change and the dissolution of the GDR, the publishing house became part of a joint venture between Robert Maxwell (Maxwell Communications) and Gruner + Jahr. In 1992, Gruner + Jahr took over the publishing house entirely and sold it to the Georg von Holtzbrinck publishing group in 2002. The Federal Cartel Office prohibited this sale due to a market-dominating position, as Holtzbrinck already published the Tagesspiegel newspaper in Berlin. Therefore, the publishing house formally belonged to Gruner + Jahr until 2005, although de facto Holtzbrinck bore the responsibility.
In September 2019, the sale of Berliner Verlag to Berlin-based entrepreneurs Silke and Holger Friedrich was announced. The Federal Cartel Office approved the acquisition on September 30, 2019.On November 1, 2019, Michael Maier became publisher of the Berliner Zeitung and CEO of Berliner Verlag. He resigned from his position as CEO on July 20, 2020, but remained publisher. Today, Holger Friedrich is the publisher. [3]
