Bruno Gmünder Verlag or the Bruno Gmünder Group was founded in 1981 by Bruno Gmünder and Christian von Maltzahn.
It was a German book publishing house that specialized in fiction and non-fiction books, as well as photo and art books, for the LGBT community. The company grew to become one of the world’s leading companies in gay publishing media. It was best known for Männer, an LGBT lifestyle magazine, and the Spartacus International Gay Guide, the best-selling gay travel book in the world.
It was sold on in 2011 to a new management consisting of Tino Henn, Nik Reis and Michael Taubenheim.
On 28 May 2014 the company announced on their web site that they had entered a “restructuring insolvency” with their bankers. Sales of their products were declining; they had invested in new media such as apps – including a Spartacus app – and relaunched magazines – but unfortunately sales had been disappointing. The restructuring insolvency was hoped to allow the Bruno Gmünder Group to save the company, meet regular debt obligations and allow the company to avoid a bankruptcy, and to get “back in the black”.
Unfortunately, it eventually had to declare bankruptcy in 2014 but was purchased by private investor Frank Zahn. When Zahn died unexpectedly in February 2017, the company again declared bankruptcy and dissolved shortly thereafter.
See also[]
- Spartacus International Gay Guide
- John D. Stamford
References[]
Acknowledgements[]
This article was written by Roy Tan.