Private company

Kiepenheuer & Witsch

Logo: Verlag Kiepenheuer & Witsch GmbH & Co KG, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons3

German publishing house

Kiepenheuer & Witsch is a German publishing house, established in 1948 by Joseph C. Witsch and Gustav Kiepenheuer. The partners initially held 30% and 40% of the company's share capital respectively. The publisher is based in Cologne, Germany and has been part of the Holtzbrinck Publishing Group since 2002.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 20, 2026.

Overview

1951Founded1

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Kiepenheuer & Witsch is a German publishing house, established in 1948 by Joseph C. Witsch and Gustav Kiepenheuer. The partners initially held 30% and 40% of the company's share capital respectively. The publisher is based in Cologne, Germany and has been part of the Holtzbrinck Publishing Group since 2002.2

Corporate structure

Kiepenheuer & Witsch is part of a group headed by Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. 100 entities, 14 countries on record. Switch between the flow chart and the network, and select any entity to see its details.

  • Holtzbrinck Publishing Group Stuttgart, Germany
    • GvH Vermögensverwaltungsgesellschaft XXXIII mbH Stuttgart, Germany
    • Kiepenheuer & Witsch Cologne
    • Macmillan Publishers Basingstoke, United Kingdom
      • Palgrave Macmillan Subsidiary · Basingstoke
      • St. Martin's Press Subsidiary · New York City
        • St. Martin's Griffin Subsidiary
        • Thomas Dunne Books Subsidiary · United States
      • Tor Publishing Group Subsidiary · Equitable Building, United States
        • Forge Books Subsidiary
        • Tor Books Subsidiary · Equitable Building
        • Nightfire Subsidiary
        • Orb Books Subsidiary
        • Tor Essentials Subsidiary · New York City, United States
        • Tor Fantasy Subsidiary · New York City, United States
        • Tordotcom Publishing Subsidiary
      • PAN MACMILLAN PUBLISHING INDIA PRIVATE LIMITED Subsidiary · 99.99% · New Delhi, India
      • Feiwel and Friends Subsidiary
      • Figshare Subsidiary
      • Flatiron Books Subsidiary · United States
      • Kingfisher Books Subsidiary
      • Macmillan Audio Subsidiary · United States
      • Macmillan London Subsidiary
      • Macmillan Nig. Publishers Ltd. Subsidiary · Lagos, Nigeria
      • Mantle Subsidiary
      • Red Globe Press Subsidiary
      • Square Fish Subsidiary
      • St. Martin's Publishing Group Subsidiary
      • Tor UK Subsidiary
    • Springer Nature Subsidiary · 53% · Berlin, Germany
      • Apress Subsidiary · New York City
      • BioMed Central Subsidiary · London
      • J.B. Metzler Subsidiary · Stuttgart, Germany
      • Macmillan Education Subsidiary · London
      • Nature Portfolio Subsidiary · London
      • Prensa Científica Subsidiary
      • Springer Medizin Subsidiary · Berlin, Germany
      • Springer Nature (Netherlands) Subsidiary · Dordrecht, Netherlands
      • Springer Nature America Subsidiary · New York City
      • Springer Science+Business Media Subsidiary · Luxembourg
      • Springer VS Subsidiary · Wiesbaden
      • SPRINGER NATURE CUSTOMER SERVICE CENTER GMBH Subsidiary · 100% · Heidelberg, Germany
      • ASA Press Subsidiary · Switzerland
      • Scientific American Subsidiary
      • Springer Healthcare Subsidiary · United Kingdom
      • Springer Nature (China) Subsidiary · China
      • Springer Nature Limited Subsidiary · London, United Kingdom
      • Springer Nature Switzerland AG Subsidiary · Switzerland
      • SPRINGER NATURE TWO GMBH Subsidiary · Berlin, Germany
        • SPRINGER NATURE DEUTSCHLAND GMBH Subsidiary · 100% · Berlin, Germany
          • 1 more
      • Springer Vienna Subsidiary
      • SPRINGER-VERLAG GMBH Subsidiary · Vienna, Austria
      • SPRINGER-VERLAG GMBH Subsidiary · Berlin, Germany
      • SpringerOpen Subsidiary · Switzerland
      • STAMPDEW LIMITED Subsidiary · London, United Kingdom
    • Argon Verlag Subsidiary · Berlin, Germany
    • Digital Science Subsidiary · London
      • metaphacts Subsidiary · Walldorf, Germany
      • Altmetric Subsidiary · United Kingdom
      • Dimensions Subsidiary
      • Ontopic Subsidiary
    • Droemer Knaur Subsidiary · Munich
    • Farrar, Straus and Giroux Subsidiary · New York City
      • North Point Press Subsidiary · San Francisco
      • MCD | Farrar, Straus and Giroux Subsidiary
      • Sarah Crichton Books Subsidiary
    • Henry Holt and Company Subsidiary · New York City
      • Metropolitan Books Subsidiary · United States
    • Macmillan Learning Subsidiary · New York City
    • NetDoktor Subsidiary · Munich, Germany
    • Picador Subsidiary · London
    • Prognos AG Subsidiary · Basel
    • Rowohlt Verlag Subsidiary · Hamburg
    • S. Fischer Verlag Subsidiary · Frankfurt am Main
    • ZEIT Sprachen Subsidiary · Planegg, Germany
    • Zeitverlag Subsidiary · Hamburg, Germany
    • DIGITAL SCIENCE UK LIMITED Subsidiary · 88% · London, United Kingdom
    • Die Zeit Subsidiary · Germany
    • Holtzbrinck Publishing Group (United States) Subsidiary · Delaware, United States
    • Neobooks Subsidiary · Germany

Built from parent and subsidiary links from GLEIF, the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (CC0); subsidiaries, stakes and holdings from Wikidata (CC0). Each entity in the chart links to its source.

The story

Following the end of World War II, Kiepenheuer & Witsch was one of few publishing houses who received permission to start printing books again.

Kiepenheuer died in 1949, after which Witsch took over control and broke the original link with the existing Gustav Kiepenheuer Verlag in Weimar (which had ended up in the Soviet occupation zone). For the Kiepenheuer & Witsch publishing business several years of major organisational restructuring followed. The first books to be published under the Kiepenheuer & Witsch imprint was the novel Marion by Vicki Baum, which appeared in 1951. In 1953 the firm acquired a new head office incorporating, for the first time, its own onsite publishing facilities, at Cologne-Marienburg.

From Wikipedia’s article on Kiepenheuer & Witsch, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4

Subsidiaries and ownership

Parent company

Subsidiaries

From Wikidata.1

Timeline

  1. 2002Acquired Acquired by Holtzbrinck Publishing Group1
  2. 1951Founded Founded1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

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