Steidl Verlag is a German publishing house whose program focuses primarily on international photography as well as literary fiction. The publisher is directed by Gerhard Steidl.

History

After completing secondary school in Göttingen, Gerhard Steidl worked as a printer and graphic designer from 1969 onward. In the same year, he founded his own publishing house. Influenced by artists such as Andy Warhol and Joseph Beuys, Steidl began collaborating in 1970 with Klaus Staeck, whose posters and prints were published by Steidl. In 1972, the first book published by Steidl Verlag appeared under the title Befragung zur documenta.

From 1974 onward, the publishing program expanded to include political non-fiction, followed by literary fiction in the early 1980s and the first paperback edition in 1989. In 1993, when Günter Grass left his longtime publisher Luchterhand in protest, he found a new publishing home at Steidl Verlag. To mark Grass’s 80th birthday, Steidl published a twelve-volume collected edition of his works, which Gerhard Steidl emphasized was especially important to complete during the author’s lifetime.

In contemporary literature, Steidl has published, in addition to Günter Grass, authors such as Erich Loest, John McGahern, A. L. Kennedy, Nobel Prize laureate Halldór Laxness, as well as public intellectuals including Oskar Negt and Hans Leyendecker.

From 1996 onward, Steidl increasingly specialized in photography, publishing works by internationally renowned photographers and artists such as Robert Frank, Joel Sternfeld, Richard Serra, Bruce Davidson, Arnold Odermatt, Edward Ruscha, Susan Meiselas, Karl Lagerfeld, Saul Leiter, Lou Reed, Martin Schoeller, Juergen Teller, and many others. The publishing house also produces advertising materials for Chanel, including catalogs, flyers, and invitations for haute couture shows.

The collaboration between Steidl and Karl Lagerfeld began in the early 1990s. In 2006, Lagerfeld described Gerhard Steidl as “the best printer in the world.” From 2010 until Lagerfeld’s death in 2019, he also served as program director for the Steidl imprint Lagerfeld. Steidl. Druckerei. (L.S.D.), under which 51 titles were published.

Reference List

Steidl Verlag. (n.d.). Wikipedia. Retrieved January 19, 2026, from https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steidl_Verlag

Steidl Website: https://steidl.de