How it all began 50 years ago
A new German-as-a-Foreign-Language course is published
Ernst Hueber has long been known
as a tireless, on-the-road publisher
profiting from his many travels and
contacts. He recognizes the trend:
interest in learning German is growing
fast. Reacting quickly, he buys in an
already existing course first published
before the war in 1929: Schulz and
Sundermeyer's Deutsche Sprachlehre
für Ausländer.
On the road again promoting the
course, he visits (on his bicycle!) in
the autumn of 1954 Dr. Dora Schulz,
director of the newly re-founded
Goethe Institute. During their conversation,
she mentions in passing
that she knows of a manuscript for
a new beginners' course in German
for foreign learners developed under
the guidance of one of her colleagues,
Dr. Heinz Griesbach, and already tried
and tested at the Goethe Institute
in Bad Reichenhall in 1953. Ernst
Hueber was not to know – neither
would it have interested him – that
the manuscript had in fact already
been turned down by two other
publishing houses specialising in
languages. He made an on-the-spot
decision and the contract was signed
on 19th November 1954.
The title he chose deliberately –
Schulz/Griesbach, Deutsche Sprachlehre
für Ausländer – for its immediate
association with the long-established
Schulz/Sundermeyer course.
And thus in 1955 with the publication
of "Schulz/Griesbach", a course
that sold in its millions and initiated
countless other products, there
began a new era both for the Max
Hueber Verlag and for the teaching
of German as a Foreign Language.
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