Internet Home About Springer History

	Springer: More than 165 years of publishing

On 10 May 1842 (his 25th birthday), Julius Springer founded what is now Springer Science+Business Media in Berlin.  Of course, the modern Springer is very different from the company that Julius Springer founded and there are parts of Springer (e.g. Vieweg and Bohn Stafleu van Loghum) that were founded even before 1842.

The first of Julius Springer’s ventures was a bookstore in Berlin, quickly followed by the publishing house.  A. E. Kluwer, the other “father” of the present day company (BertelsmannSpringer and Kluwer Academic Publishers merged in 2004) also founded his publishing house in the 19th Century in the Netherlands.

After the founding of the Vienna office in 1924, Springer opened another branch in New York in 1964, followed by counterparts in Tokyo, London, Paris and Hong Kong shortly thereafter. The company quickly became one of the world’s leading scientific publishers.

In 1999, Bertelsmann acquired a majority share in Springer-Verlag. In 2003, the British financial investors Cinven and Candover acquired Kluwer Academic Publishers (KAP) and BertelsmannSpringer, which were merged in 2004.

Healthy organic growth and recent acquisitions, the embrace of technological advances (i.e. ePublishing) and its dedicated employees provide the basis for sustainable service to the global scientific and professional community. 

For more information on Springer’s history, click here. 

To access the 2 volume book (in German) on the history of Springer, click on the following links:

Heinz Sarkowski: Springer-Verlag History of a Scientific Publishing House. Part 1: Foundation 1842–1945 Maturation Adversity

Heinz Götze: Springer-Verlag History of a Scientific Publishing House. Part 2: Rebuilding 1945–1992 Opening Frontiers Securing the Future

Our Mission Statement can be found here.