Edition Leipzig

Edition Leipzig was a publisher in the German Democratic Republic (GDR/DDR), which, for the most part, placed books on Western markets as an export publisher. This was intended to serve representative purposes as well as to procure foreign currency. Today, the publishing house is part of the Seemann Henschel publishing group, which was taken over by Zweitausendeins [de] in October 2017^[1] with a program on regional and cultural history.

From 1960 to 1984 more than 1000 book titles were published, of which more than 500 were published in foreign languages and about 60 even in multilingual versions.

In the first phase, which lasted up to 1965, the publication of scientific and technical books predominated. Later, cultural and art historical as well as popular scientific works were added to a greater extent. The Edition Leipzig became known for high-quality facsimiles and historical reprints. Fictional titles were rare, and marketing for this genre was discontinued as it was seen as not being profitable enough due to the publisher's lack of market presence in the relevant target countries.