Christoph Merian Verlag is a Swiss publishing house that specialises in books on architecture, art and photography, culture and society, as well as non-fiction books with a regional relevance. It was founded in 1976 by the Christoph Merian Foundation and is still an institution of that Foundation to this day.
Who was Christoph Merian?
Christoph Merian (1800-1858) came from a patrician family in Basel. Contrary to the family tradition – his father was a successful businessman – the son opted for agriculture. Later in life he acquired great wealth, being his parents’ only heir and having astutely administered his assets. Christoph Merian and his wife Margaretha, née Burckhardt, lived a life marked by piety and a sense of social responsibility.
Together they supported a number of social and religious works. As they had no children of their own, Christoph Merian appointed his wife, and after her his “dear hometown of Basel”, as his one and only heir. He specified that the revenue from his assets be used for “necessary and useful purposes in the city”. Since the death of Margaretha Merian in 1886, the foundation named after Christoph Merian has been involved in non-profit activities.
It all began with the Basler Stadtbuch and the Baseldeutsch Grammatik ...
The Basler Stadtbuch has been published annually since 1879. In the early 1970s, however, it seemed as if the end of that traditional publication was nigh. In order to preserve it, the Christoph Merian Foundation decided to take its publication. The concept was altered and the historiographical publication became an annual chronicle with essays on all aspects of life in the city. From 1973 to 2015, the foundation edited the project in book form. Since May 2017, the Basler Stadtbuch has been published online. The inauguration of the publishing house called Christoph Merian Verlag in 1976 arose from the necessity to provide a functioning framework for editing the important Baseldeutsch Grammatik by Rudolf Suter; at the time, collaboration with the commissioned publisher was becoming increasingly difficult. As a result, the first book published by Christoph Merian Verlag was the Baseldeutsch-Grammatik and it is still listed in its catalogue, along with the Baseldeutsch-Wörterbuch. The Neue Baseldeutsch Wörterbuch followed in 2010 and soon became a standard work on the current vocabulary of the population of Basel.
Today…
… Christoph Merian Verlag issues 15 to 20 publications a year. In addition, it publishes a selection of titles in e-book form.
In the future Christoph Merian Verlag will continue to be a niche for special publications. It publishes top-quality monographs, photography, design and architecture books, often collaborating with important museums and institutions. Books on social issues make up another important segment. In this segment as well an in the art and architecture publications, Christoph Merian Verlag operates at a supra-regional and international level. Many of the titles are published in two language editions, German and English, or in several separate language editions. As we are rooted in the region of Basel, books with a regional relevance are a fixed component of our publishing programme. Among them are the ten-volume Stadt.Geschichte.Basel and the renowned continuous series Beiträge zur Basler Geschichte.
Christoph Merian Verlag adheres to high quality standards as regards preparing the contents and designing and printing the books it publishes. It has already been awarded the prize for the most beautiful book in Switzerland and in Germany several times, along with other prizes in the fields of photography and architecture books. As for book production, the publishing house is also committed to high sustainability standards. In close exchange with authors and with museums and institutions, the publishing house delivers publications whose contents are judiciously processed. It accompanies the whole publication process – from the initial idea to editing, translation, design, production and distribution – with a keen eye for precision and context.
Parallel to its non-fiction programme, Christoph Merian Verlag edited more than 150 audiobooks together with the Swiss radio and television broadcaster SRF between 2005 and 2017. Delivery of the audiobooks on CD was discontinued at the end of 2021 due to the altered market situation.
As part of the Christoph Merian Foundation’s cultural obligation, Christoph Merian Verlag operates according to commercial principles. When it comes to its programme, however, it functions autonomously. The publishing house makes independent decisions on contents and publications and, along with market oriented books, also releases some that are not primarily profit-oriented.
Christoph Merian Verlag is a member of the Schweizer Buchhandels- und Verlags-Verband SBVV, of the Swiss Independent Publishers swips as well as of Buch Raum Basel.
The publishing house presents its programme at the international book fairs in Frankfurt/Main and Leipzig, and at the I never Read - Art Book Fair Basel.