A bold move to Berlin for the Suhrkamp publishing house

The Sunday newspaper Welt am Sonntag welcomes the plans of Germany's renowned Suhrkamp publishing house to move from Frankfurt on Main to Berlin, saying this will give the city an intellectual boost: "Berlin's rich historical past still exerts a magnetic attraction on culture lovers all over the world 20 years after reunification. The decision not to resist this trend and to sacrifice the hermetic exclusiveness of the publishing house was a courageous move by the frequently disliked publisher [Ulla Unseld-Berkéwicz]. It is a step onto a highly varnished, over-popular stage that yearns for authentic players. Rumour has it that the publisher has sought out a location in battle-scarred Berlin that fits in well with the Suhrkamp tradition: The Nikolaihaus, built in 1670, was for centuries a meeting place for enlightened thinkers like Schadow and Schinkel. Next to it stands a rundown concrete pre-fab dating back to the GDR: a superb parcours for a house that publishes realist and deconstructionist works; bourgeois and ultra communist works alike."

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