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Celebrated alumni look back at their time at the University of Zurich. This time we feature author and publisher Bruno Meier, who 20 years ago founded the Baden publisher Hier und Jetzt.
The walk from Baden train station to the offices of Hier und Jetzt is unconventional – visitors take the promenade lift directly down to the banks of the Limmat, from where it’s just a short stroll to the lower part of town. Down by the riverside a creative scene has blossomed in the last few years, the industrial grime long-since cleaned up.
Bruno Meier welcomes us into the premises of the publishing house. His new book 1291 came out a few weeks ago. Its subject is that mythical year which, thanks to the Federal Charter of 1291, many take to be the year of the Swiss Confederation’s founding. But according to historian Bruno Meier, that document only began its sharp rise to prominence in the 19th century.
The question that springs to mind is: How does writing about events of more than 700 years ago fit in with a publisher whose name translates as Here and Now? “Writing about history always takes place in the present,” explains Meier. “And 1291 is a very emotive topic.” The truth of the latter statement is clear from an article about the book published in the Tages-Anzeiger which provoked over 100 comments from readers. His chosen concept of concentrating on one single year is not new, says Meier. He cites Florian Illies’ book 1913, which portrays the art scene in Vienna and Berlin shortly before the outbreak of the First World War, as a well-known example. But while Illies had a wide range of source material to draw on, the number of reliable sources from 1291 was limited.
Twenty years ago, Bruno Meier and two colleagues decided to start a publishing company dedicated to culture and history. “It was almost by accident,” says Meier. After a seven-year stint working at the Baden Historical Museum, he wanted a new challenge. Meier had a contract with a printers who also ran a publishing house, which he was given the task of developing. But it soon became clear that for financial reasons the publishing arm would have to fold. Meier was disappointed – he had had various projects in the pipeline. “That’s when we decided to set something up ourselves,” recalls Meier. One of their first books which came out in 1999 was about death and dying and was the accompanying publication to an exhibition in the Lenzburg Stapferhaus called Last Minute. The book received a lot of attention, sold well, and got the fledgling publisher off to a good start.
Bruno Meier’s decision to study history at the University of Zurich has had a strong impact on his subsequent career. When he studied the subject in the 1980s, gender and environmental history were hot new topics alongside the standard courses on economic and social history. “We had a huge amount of freedom with our studies and took an associative approach,” he says looking back. Students would try out lots of different courses to find what they wanted to focus on. Meier found his place with Middle Ages specialist Roger Sablonier. He had already begun working when he wrote his dissertation, on the late Middle Ages in the Aargau valley of Surbtal.
Meier thinks that the most valuable thing he learnt from studying history was the ability to recognize connections in society and politics. The aim of his publishing house is to make history accessible to a wider public. Roger Sablonier was a role model for Meier in terms of getting history out of the ivory tower and sharing it with the public. “Many of his students now have careers in which they bring history to the public in some way,” says Meier. Not surprisingly, Sablonier has also published a book with Hier und Jetzt. His work Gründungszeit ohne Eidgenossen, about the founding of the Swiss Confederation, was published in 2008 and is now in its fourth edition. Another success story from the publishing house is the standard text Geschichte der Schweiz [History of Switzerland] by Thomas Maissen. Two new publications about more recent Swiss history will come out in September: Fremde Richter [Foreign Judges] by Georg Kreis and Völkerrecht [International Law] by Oliver Diggelmann. The timing is no coincidence: Both books will be published shortly before the referendum on the Selbstbestimmungsinitiative, which aims to give Swiss law precedence over EU law.
What of the future of printed books? Publishing has always been a precarious business, says Meier. The often small print runs mean that in many cases it’s necessary to look for additional funding. But it’s still possible to publish in Switzerland despite the comparatively small market thanks to the support of various foundations and of the cantonal governments, explains Meier. For the last three years the federal government has also provided a support fund for publishers. Meier believes that books will survive. The more important question is how reading habits will change in the future. Are people still willing to commit to reading longer texts? The old culture of long slow reading is being challenged by the fast-paced world of digital media. But many people find that those quickly consumed online snippets are not always satisfying enough – perhaps the pendulum will soon start to swing back after all.
