Abstract
Gottfried Bermann Fischer was a German-Jewish physician and publisher who dedicated
his life to the S. Fischer publishing company which ranks among the most significant
German-language publishers in the 20th century. In 1925 Bermann left his position
as a surgeon and married Brigitte Fischer, daughter of the company’s founder Samuel
Fischer. Now called Bermann Fischer he became a passionate publisher and steered the
company through the Weimar Republic and Nazi years, publishing authors like Hermann
Hesse, Thomas Mann, and Alfred Döblin. Fearing the Nazi terror Bermann-Fischer left
Germany in 1936 with his family and parts of the company. From his exile in Austria,
Sweden, and later in the United States Bermann Fischer carried on with publishing.
In 1950 the S. Fischer publishing company was reestablished in Frankfurt, West Germany.
Bermann Fischer and his wife brought out the works of Sigmund Freud and books like
Alexander Mitscherlich’s “Doctors of Infamy”. Through these publishing activities
Bermann Fischer had a significant impact on public debates about medicine and its
past in Germany.
Die Biografie Gottfried Bermann Fischers folgte keiner klassischen Arztkarriere: Nach Weltkriegsteilnahme,
Medizinstudium und chirurgischer Assistenzzeit heiratete er 1925 die Verlagserbin
Brigitte Fischer und wechselte in den Verlegerberuf. Indem er in der Nachkriegszeit
neben den Werken von Hermann Hesse oder Thomas Mann auch medizinische Themen in das
Spektrum des Verlages aufnahm, beeinflusste er entscheidend den Diskurs über die Medizin
und ihre Vergangenheit in Deutschland.
Schlüsselwörter
Gottfried Bermann Fischer - Exil - Medizin und Literatur - Nationalsozialismus
Key words
Gottfried Bermann Fischer - exile - literature and medicine - National Socialism
