Peter Hammer Verlag

Mail addressed to Peter Hammer is delivered regularly. At publishing-industry gatherings, people ask after Peter Hammer and inquire why he could not come, whether he is well. “But Peter Hammer never existed,” laughs Monika Bilstein. Since 2001 she has been the director of the Wuppertal publishing house that only appears to be named for a founder.

“Peter Hammer” is the German translation of “Pierre Marteau” – a legend in the publishing world. It is the name of a fictitious publisher, devised in the 17th century to enable critical, banned, subversive books to be published. The bogus publishing house served as protection and cover, a means to evade censorship.

“Our books, too, are intended to present other perspectives onto the world, to promote thinking outside of the box, beyond the mainstream,” is Bilstein’s explanation of the choice of name. “We want to kick up a storm in the best sense of the term.” With literature for children and adolescents on the one hand and texts by post-colonial authors from Latin America and Africa on the other. Wolf Erlbruch and Chinua Achebe exist side by side here, they are among the firm’s flagship authors.

Apart from life in the urban fast lane

Wolf Erlbruch, a draughtsman whose figures have hilarious snub noses, and who creates mainly candy-coloured book worlds on packing paper for children, might be called the firm’s guardian angel. Not that he permanently sits in the firm’s office – he more or less rescued it. The first edition of his and Werner Holzwarth’s story, The Story of the Little Mole Who Went in Search of Whodunit (Vom kleinen Maulwurf, der wissen wollte, wer ihm auf den Kopf gemacht hat) appeared in 1989, when the publishing house was not having an easy time of it, according to Bilstein, who was already working for the firm then. Since that time over a million copies have been sold. In the beginning, no one would have even dreamed that a mole with a turd on his head might be thought funny, let alone might become a classic of children’s literature. Erlbruch turned out to be a true stroke of luck for the firm. The artist lives in Wuppertal, too. They meet by chance on the street, drop by each other’s homes for a cup of coffee if there is something to discuss. Informal, relaxed, a publishing house apart from the urban fast lane.

The publishing house’s profile changed with Erlbruch. In addition to “Third World” themes, increasing numbers of illustrated volumes were added: Erlbruch’s name drew talented young illustrators such as Nadia Budde, who won the German Youth Literature Award for her debut work, the simple but pointed Eins, zwei, drei, Tier, (i.e. one, two, three, animal). Those who followed can scarcely be counted. Bilstein says that the firm wishes to set “demanding” standards, be “innovative,” i.e. not for mass-market tastes. Five or six illustrated books appear each year and the company has now gained a reputation in this area.

Stories from other cultures

The other part of the thematic spectrum for which the Peter Hammer Verlag has gained fame is something the company has featured from the start: stories from other cultures, above all from sub-Saharan Africa. Here, those who were oppressed, subjugated and driven from their homelands have an opportunity to express themselves. It is no coincidence that the company was founded with this thematic focus during the period shortly following the wave of downfalls of former colonial states. Thus, the Booker Prize winner Chinua Achebe is to be found here just as are young authors who tell about their reality, their lives in cities, falling in love - and being young. “We seek to dispel young readers’ feelings of alienness towards other cultures,” says Monika Bilstein.

The company had already kicked up a storm in its starting years, when it still bore the name “Jugenddienstverlag,” (i.e. youth service publishers), founded in 1966 by a half-dozen men with close ties to the Lutheran Church. Johannes Rau, the future Federal President, was one of them, became the publishing house’s first director, and soon passed the job on to Hermann Schulz, who would later give the company a new name and remained at the wheel until 2001.

Numerous distinctions

In 1974, Will McBride’s sexually explicit photo book Show Me (Zeig mal) stirred up controversy. One sees a little boy and girl, both naked, photographed in black-and-white. They are sitting next to each other, poke around in their navels - oblivious to all around them, legs stretched out before them, the little penis and mini-vagina are all there to be seen. Above this and other photos a sentence runs over the double pages, individual words are printed extra-large: “Semen,” “excited,” “orgasm,” and “beautiful.” Initially universally praised, two decades later it was to be repeatedly banned on grounds of suspected pedophilia and pornography. The company removed it from its programme in the 1990’s as it was out-of-date, as they put it, and because demand had not been sufficient, either. Incidentally, during that particular sex-education wave, “Jugenddienst” also published Anders als bei Schmetterlingen (i.e. not like the butterflies) by the future “Dr. Sommer” Martin Goldstein, and illustrated – please note! – by the legendary “Yellow Submarine” illustrator Heinz Edelmann – and The Sex Book: A Modern Pictorial Encyclopedia (Lexikon der Sexualität), issued jointly by Goldstein and McBride.

The publishing house has received numerous distinctions, among others the Kurt Wolff Award for independent publishers, the Gustav Heinemann Peace Prize and the Hans Christian Andersen Award, more or less the international “Oscar” for children’s and young people’s literature.

“Unfortunately, what we are doing is not the prevailing trend,” thus Bilstein. Currently, mainstream is what is in greater demand in children’s books, she says with a soft sigh. No wonder, streamlining always went against the current for Pierre Marteau and his successors, right from the beginning.