Thienemann Merges with Esslinger

Today, Bonnier Media Deutschland announced the merger of children’s book publishers Thienemann and Esslinger, set for January 1, 2014. The new Thienemann Esslinger will be housed at Thienemann’s current offices in Stuttgart. The publisher will be a part of Bonnier Media Deutschland’s operations. Esslinger’s current owners, the Klett Group, will serve as a strategic partner, with representation on the board.

Taking over as publisher for the merged company will be Bärbel Dorweiler, who from 2001-2013 was publisher at Querido, the Dutch children’s publishing house. There she worked with authors such as Guus Kuijer, Rebecca Stead and Cornelia Funke. The new commercial director will be Thomas Seng, who became managing director for Esslinger in 2012 after ten years running children’s book publisher Tessloff.

Current Thienemann publisher and managing director Klaus Willberg will be leaving the company under a mutual agreement.

“The solution we came up together with the Klett Group opens up the two publishing houses to new programs and sales opportunities for authors and their books,” says Hartmut Jedicke, CEO of Bonnier Media Deutschland. “I owe a big thanks to Klaus Willberg, who ran Thienemann for over a decade,  for a valuable and productive cooperation.”

The merger is subject to approval by competition authorities.