The Ullstein Verlag was founded by Leopold Ullstein

Leopold Ullstein

Leopold Ullstein was an important German publisher of Jewish heritage from Fürth, Bavaria. He founded or purchased several successful German language newspapers, including B. Z. and Berliner Morgenpost. Many of these are still published today. He also founded Ullstein-Verlag.-External links:* *...

 in 1877 at Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

 and is one of the largest publishing companies of Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. It published newspapers like B.Z.

B.Z. (newspaper)

B.Z. is a German tabloid newspaper, published in Berlin by Ullstein-Verlag, a subsidiary of Axel Springer AG. As of 2010, it has a circulation of around 200,000....

and Berliner Morgenpost

Berliner Morgenpost

Berliner Morgenpost is a German newspaper, based and mainly read in Berlin, where it is the second most read daily newspaper. Founded in 1898 by Leopold Ullstein, it was taken over by Axel Springer AG in 1959. The paper had a circulation of 145,556 issues in 2009, with an estimated 322,000 readers...

and books through its subsidiaries Ullstein Buchverlage and Propyläen.

The newspaper publishing branch was taken over by Axel Springer AG

Axel Springer AG

Axel Springer AG is one of the largest multimedia companies in Europe, with more than 11,500 employees and with annual revenues of about €2.9 billion. The Company is active in a total of 36 countries, including Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Russia and Germany, France, Spain, Switzerland...

 in 1956.

History

On 14 July 1877 Leopold Ullstein purchased the Neue Berliner Tageblatt newspaper, a subsidiary of the liberal Berliner Tageblatt

Berliner Tageblatt

The Berliner Tageblatt or BT was a German language newspaper published in Berlin from 1872-1939. Along with the Frankfurter Zeitung, it became one of the most important liberal German newspapers of its time.-History:...

published by Rudolf Mosse

Rudolf Mosse

Rudolf Mosse was a German publisher and philanthropist.-Biography:Mosse was born in Grätz, Grand Duchy of Posen, as the son of Dr. Markus Moses, a noted physician...

, and on 1 January 1878 converted it into the Berliner Zeitung (B.Z.). In 1891 he also established the Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung weekly nespaper mostly consisting of pictures. The B.Z. am Mittag relaunched in 1904 became Germany's first tabloid newspaper

Tabloid journalism

Tabloid journalism tends to emphasize topics such as sensational crime stories, astrology, gossip columns about the personal lives of celebrities and sports stars, and junk food news...

. On the other hand, Ullstein's sons on 1 January 1914 acquired the reputable Vossische Zeitung

Vossische Zeitung

The Vossische Zeitung was the well known liberal German newspaper that was published in Berlin . Its predecessor was founded in 1704...

, a liberal newspaper with a tradition dating back to 1617, while the left-wing Berliner Morgenpost established in 1898 reached a high number of subscribers. From 1927 Ullstein also published Die Grüne Post

Green Post

The Green Post was a German newspaper from the Ullstein publishing house. Operations began on 10 April 1927, the paper enjoying a quick rise in popularity in all social classes, reaching a circulation of over one million during its first year. Its founder was future travel writer and journalist...

weekly newspaper under chief editor Ehm Welk

Ehm Welk

Emil Welk, known by his nickname Ehm Welk , was a German journalist, writer, professor and founder of Volkshochschulen...

.

In 1919 the Propyläen Verlag (cf. Propylaea

Propylaea

A Propylaea, Propylea or Propylaia is any monumental gateway based on the original Propylaea that serves as the entrance to the Acropolis in Athens...

) was founded as an imprint

Imprint

In the publishing industry, an imprint can mean several different things:* As a piece of bibliographic information about a book, it refers to the name and address of the book's publisher and its date of publication as given at the foot or on the verso of its title page.* It can mean a trade name...

 for non-fiction books especially on history and art history as well as classical editions, but also for novels like Erich Maria Remarque

Erich Maria Remarque

Erich Maria Remarque was a German author, best known for his novel All Quiet on the Western Front.-Life and work:...

's All Quiet on the Western Front

All Quiet on the Western Front

All Quiet on the Western Front is a novel by Erich Maria Remarque, a German veteran of World War I. The book describes the German soldiers' extreme physical and mental stress during the war, and the detachment from civilian life felt by many of these soldiers upon returning home from the front.The...

first published in 1929. The number of authors working for Ullstein also included Vicki Baum

Vicki Baum

Hedwig Baum was an Austrian writer. She is known for Menschen im Hotel , one of her first international successes....

 and Franz Blei

Franz Blei

Franz Blei was an essayist, playwright and translator from Vienna...

.

Between 1925 and 1927 the Ullstein Verlag had the new Ullsteinhaus print building erected in Berlin-Tempelhof

Tempelhof

Tempelhof is a locality of Berlin within the borough of Tempelhof-Schöneberg. It is the location of the former Tempelhof Airport, one of the earliest commercial airports in the world. It is now deserted and shows as a blank spot on maps of Berlin. Attempts are being made to save the still-existing...

, with a height of 76 m (249.3 ft) a "Brick Expressionist

Brick Expressionism

The term Brick Expressionism describes a specific variant of expressionist architecture that uses bricks, tiles or clinker bricks as the main visible building material...

" landmark with a bronze sculpture of the "Ullstein Owl" by Fritz Klimsch

Fritz Klimsch

Fritz Klimsch was a German sculptor.Klimsch studied at the Royal College for the Academic Fine Arts in Berlin, and was then a student of Fritz Schaper. In 1898 Klimsch was a founding member of the Berlin Secession....

. In 1934 the Jewish Ullstein family was disseized by the Nazi

Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

 authorities and the business "aryanized

Aryanization

Aryanization is a term coined during Nazism referring to the forced expulsion of so-called "non-Aryans", mainly Jews, from business life in Nazi Germany and the territories it controlled....

". In 1937 the company was renamed Deutscher Verlag, affiliated with the Franz Eher Nachfolger

Franz Eher Nachfolger

Franz Eher Nachfolger GmbH was the central publishing house of the Nazi Party and one of the largest book and periodical firms during the Third Reich...

 publishing house of the Nazi Party and editing the Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung

Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung

Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung was a German newspaper that appeared between 1861 and 1945. It was associated with the Stinnes family, and supported right wing nationalist politics in the Weimar period, arguably contributing to the rise of Nazism.Hugo Stinnes took over the DAZ in 1920 in an effort to...

, as well as Das Reich

Das Reich (newspaper)

Das Reich was a weekly newspaper founded by Joseph Goebbels, the propaganda minister of the Third Reich, in May 1940...

and the Signal

Signal (magazine)

Signal was a magazine published by the German Wehrmacht from 1940 through 1945.Signal was a modern, glossy, illustrated photo journal and army propaganda tool, meant specifically for audiences in neutral, allied, and occupied countries. It was available in the United States in English until...

magazine from 1940 until the end of World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

.

After the war the publishing house was restored to the Ullstein family, but soon came into financial problems. In 1956 a share of 26 % was purchased by Axel Springer

Axel Springer

Axel Springer , was a German journalist and the founder and owner of the Axel Springer AG publishing company.-Early life:...

, who reached the majority by 1960. Under Springer the remainig West Berlin

West Berlin

West Berlin was a political exclave that existed between 1949 and 1990. It comprised the western regions of Berlin, which were bordered by East Berlin and parts of East Germany. West Berlin consisted of the American, British, and French occupation sectors, which had been established in 1945...

 newspapers Berliner Morgenpost and B.Z. shifted towards a right-wing alignment with a distinct anticommunist

Anti-communism

Anti-communism is opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed in reaction to the rise of communism, especially after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia and the beginning of the Cold War in 1947.-Objections to communist theory:...

 stance. The Ullstein book-publishing house was sold to Random House

Random House

Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...

 in 2002, it is today part of the Bonnier Group.