Self Political Publishing

Die Praxis des Textes

Symposium on Pirated Editions and Political Self-Publishing from the 1960s to the Present.

Pirated Editions and Political Self-Publishing from the 1960s to the Present. The history of political movements is inextricably intertwined with the development of self-publishing. From the 1960s onward, numerous publishers, pirated editions, and journals emerged in West Germany, serving not only to inform and mobilise the political left, but also as a means of (self-)education. Frankfurt, too, saw the emergence of numerous projects and publications. Pirated editions of socialist classics and works of the Frankfurt School circulated among students, while students’ magazines such as Diskus experimented with new forms of expression. The symposium explores these alternative print publications from a variety of perspectives.

Entry is free of charge.

Programme and Schedule

11:00–11:15 Welcome and Introduction

11:15–12:00 Michaela Filla-Raquin: Publishing as Experiment. Diskus and the Beginnings of a Student Counter-Public Sphere

12:10–13:00 Annette Gilbert: The Lost Library: Reprints between Public Benefit, Profit, and Law

13:00–14:00 Lunch Break

14:00–14:45 Hannah Stöwe: From Amazons to Witches. Lesbian-Feminist Self-Publishing in West Berlin

14:50–15:35 Jasper Otto Eisenecker: Learning from Pirated Editions: On Access, Circulation, and Counter-Publicity in the Present

15:45–16:30 Benedikt Sepp: Making Counter-Knowledge Ourselves. Pirated Editions as a Genuine Form of Theory in the Anti-Authoritarian Movement

16:40–17:25 Jonas von Lenthe: Distributing Wirklichkeit: A History of the Distribution of Wirklichkeit Books

Organised by Adrian Baczyk, Emma Bieck, Finn Gölitzer, Nina Sieverding und Adrian Nießler with the support of the HfG Offenbach.