Bermann Fischer, Gottfried, 1897-

Gottfried Bermann Fischer, originally of S. Fischer Verlag, left Germany in 1936 and founded the Bermann-Fischer Verlag in Vienna, while the S. Fischer Verlag continued in Berlin under the leadership of Peter Suhrkamp. After the annexation of Austria by Germany in March 1938, Bermann Fischer fled Austria and reestablished his publishing house, under exile conditions, in Stockholm. In 1940, after the occupation of Norway by Germany, he came to New York and ran the firm from there. In New York he also established the separate company L. B. Fischer Publishing Corporation, in partnership with Fritz H. Landshoff. (Stockholm continued to be the official seat of Bermann Fischer Verlag until 1948, when the Bermann-Fischer/Querido Verlag was founded in Amsterdam; in 1950 S. Fischer Verlag was reestablished in Frankfurt am Main, West Germany.) Bermann Fischer became Franz Werfel's new publisher in May of 1938, after meeting with Werfel in London. The first work of Werfel's to be published by Bermann Fischer was the novel Der veruntreute Himmel (1939). Klüsner, Wolff, Schäfer, Eugen-van Nahuys, Kohl, Jürgensmeyer, and Petersen worked for one of Bermann Fischer's publishing firms.

From the description of Correspondence with Alma Mahler, Franz Werfel, and Adolf Klarmann, ca. 1940-1979. (University of Pennsylvania Library). WorldCat record id: 155862937