Dorothea Rein

Dorothea Rein (b. 18 March 1945)¹ is a German publisher. She has headed Verlag Neue Kritik since 1972.

Work as a publisher

Verlag Neue Kritik was founded in Frankfurt am Main in 1965; Dorothea Rein joined the management of the publishing house in 1972. Before that, she studied Slavic studies without completing her degree.²

Since the mid-1970s, when Hartmut Dabrowski, the last of the founding members, left the publishing house, she has been its principal head, supported by one or two members of staff.³⁴

Through her personal commitment and interest, Dorothea Rein steadily expanded the publisher’s political and literary list to include translations of Eastern European literature. From the early 1980s onwards, the works of the Czech journalist and resistance fighter Milena Jesenská, the Polish author Hanna Krall and the Russian-Jewish poet and singer Vladimir Semyonovich Vysotsky, among others, were made available to the German-speaking market.⁵⁶ Dorothea Rein made Hanna Krall known in Germany and turned her into the publisher’s most successful Polish author. She won her over for the publishing house by visiting her at home and presenting the publisher’s list to her in person.⁷

In addition, the publisher places texts on Jewish topics, on German-Jewish history and the present day, and on National Socialism and the Holocaust at the centre of the publishing list.⁸

Soon after taking over the management of the publishing house, Dorothea Rein introduced a dedicated section of the list for historical and contemporary texts by women: in 1977 the first German translation of Una Donna (A Woman) appeared, an autobiographical novel by the Italian writer and early feminist Sibilla Aleramo (1876-1960). This was followed by biographical texts on Phoolan Devi (Die Legende einer indischen Banditin – The Legend of an Indian Bandit, 1983) and the psychiatric patient Adalgisa Conti (Im Irrenhaus – In the Madhouse, 1992).

The publishing house also presents women visual artists, for example in the illustrated volumes on the actress, photographer and revolutionary Tina Modotti, the sculptor Camille Claudel and the Czech artist Toyen. Dorothea Rein made important discoveries time and again: the volume Frida Kahlo by Raquel Tibol, published in 1980, for example, is the world’s first monograph on the Mexican painter.⁹

Since 1995, the series „apropos“ has published portraits of „extraordinary women of the 20th century“, including women as diverse as the war photographer Lee Miller, the artist and writer Leonora Carrington, the philosopher Edith Stein, the communist and journalist Margarete Buber-Neumann, the cosmetics entrepreneur Helena Rubinstein and the singer Yma Sumac.

Key works of feminist theory and gender studies, such as the doctoral thesis Die Liebe der Frauen (Women’s Love) by the sociologist Margrit Brückner and Nicht Ich (Not I) by Christina von Braun, have also been published by Verlag Neue Kritik.¹⁰

Dorothea Rein is one of the signatories of the Frankfurter Appell (Frankfurt Appeal) of 2004, a call by well-known authors, publishers, translators, academics and artists opposing the German spelling reform of 1996.

Award

In 2003, Dorothea Rein and Verlag Neue Kritik received the Kurt-Wolff-Preis (Kurt Wolff Prize) of the Kurt-Wolff-Stiftung for their publishing achievements.¹¹

Publication

Rein, Dorothea (2008): Biographische Skizze. In: Dorothea Rein (ed.): Milena Jesenská: Alles ist Leben. Feuilletons und Reportagen 1919-1930. Frankfurt/M.: Verlag Neue Kritik, pp. 247–278, ISBN 978-3-8015-0192-1.

External links

Website of Verlag Neue Kritik

Machine translation: This article was translated automatically from the German original.

1
Bundesanzeiger, Handelsregister/Manager Dossiers. ↩︎
2
Nosbers, Hedwig (1999): Polnische Literatur in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland 1945/1949 bis 1990. Buchwissenschaftliche Aspekte. Buchwissenschaftliche Beiträge aus dem Deutschen Bucharchiv München. Vol. 63. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, p. 156. ↩︎
3
Ziegler, Edda (2014): Buchfrauen. Frauen in der Geschichte des deutschen Buchhandels. Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag, pp. 178–179. ↩︎
4
Verlag Neue Kritik (n.d.): »Gegen den schönen Schein«. Verlagsgeschichte. In: Publisher’s website. Available online at: https://www.neuekritik.de/home/verlagsgeschichte.html (accessed on 27 July 2021). ↩︎
5
Ziegler, Edda (2014): Buchfrauen. Frauen in der Geschichte des deutschen Buchhandels. Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag, p. 178. ↩︎
6
Faure, Ulrich (1991): Programm aus Zufall mit System? In: Börsenblatt, no. 158, p. 162. ↩︎
7
Faure, Ulrich (1991): „Die Gegenwart bewegt sich um ein Dutzend Wörter …“. (Interview with Hanna Krall). In: Börsenblatt, no. 158, p. 165. ↩︎
8
Ziegler, Edda (2014): Buchfrauen. Frauen in der Geschichte des deutschen Buchhandels. Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag, p. 178. ↩︎
9
n.a. (2014): Die wirklich wichtigen Bücher. In: Frankfurter Rundschau, article of 19 December. Available online at: https://www.fr.de/frankfurt/wirklich-wichtigen-buecher-11178224.html (accessed on 27 July 2021). ↩︎
10
Verlag Neue Kritik (n.d.): »Gegen den schönen Schein«. Verlagsgeschichte. In: Publisher’s website. Available online at: https://www.neuekritik.de/home/verlagsgeschichte.html (accessed on 27 July 2021). ↩︎
11
Wagenbach, Klaus (2003): Aus der Laudatio zur Vergabe des Kurt-Wolff-Preises 2003 von Prof. Dr. Klaus Wagenbach, Verleger. In: Website of the Kurt Wolff Stiftung. Available online at: http://www.kurt-wolff-stiftung.de/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/wagenbachlaudatio.pdf (accessed on 27 July 2021). ↩︎

Feminist, Literature, Publisher, Publishing house, Women and media

Empfohlene Zitierweise

Karin Görner
: Dorothea Rein. In: Equalpedia.

Online unter:

https://www.equalpedia.org/en/dorothea-rein-2/

(Zugriff am 26. September 2026).

Erstellt am: 21. September 2026
Verfasser*in: Karin Görner
Zuletzt bearbeitet am: 24. September 2026
Biographies, Culture, Literature, Publishing house, Science
Feminist, Literature, Publisher, Publishing house, Women and media