{"id":10563,"date":"2025-07-15T19:08:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-15T17:08:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/?p=10563"},"modified":"2025-08-19T21:11:52","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T19:11:52","slug":"alarmstufe-rot-fuer-deutschlands-buchbranche-der-stille-zusammenbruch-unserer-lesekultur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/2025\/07\/red-alert-for-germanys-book-industry-of-the-silent-collapse-of-our-reading-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"Red alert for Germany's book industry: The silent collapse of our reading culture"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

About a week ago, the German Publishers and Booksellers Association (B\u00f6rsenverein<\/a>) published the figures for the German book market 2024<\/a>. I find these developments quite shocking once again, and I\u2019m appalled at how the attempt is made to paint a positive picture. The performance of the local press in this regard is disappointing. As usual, there\u2019s a complete lack of critical reporting. Anyone who looks even slightly deeper into the data will find the same structural change that has been affecting Germany as a whole for several years. Read in this article how the German book market \u201chas successfully held its ground in challenging times.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

In an earlier article<\/a>, I already shared my opinion on the B\u00f6rsenverein\u2019s 2023 figures. The massive challenges I described there remain entirely valid. The numbers for 2024 confirm this very troubling trend. The most alarming development concerns the number of book buyers. In 2013, there were 36 million. By 2023, that number had dropped to 25 million. And in 2024, it fell again by 2% to 24.5 million. In other words, the book market lost 500,000 buyers last year<\/strong>. Compared to 2013, that\u2019s a decline of 11.5 million. Put differently: 11.5 million people no longer pick up a book<\/strong>. And this despite a population increase of 2.8 million people. From the first half of 2024 to the first half of 2025, the market saw a sales decline of 6.1%. To me, that\u2019s not \u201cholding steady.\u201d That\u2019s a crash. A crash that has been ongoing for more than ten years. Yet both the B\u00f6rsenverein and the public broadcasters describe the market as stable\u2014or even as growing<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The B\u00f6rsenverein celebrates a 1.8% increase in revenue. Inflation in 2024 was 2.2%. That means the book market has shrunk once again.<\/strong> And I don\u2019t even want to imagine how high inflation was for publishers struggling with rising material costs and a wage-price spiral. The average inflation rate of 2.2% is probably understated for them. In short: once again, fewer customers paid significantly more for books. Fiction and children\u2019s and young adult literature achieved higher sales and revenue. Travel, humanities, art, music, science, medicine, IT, technology, social sciences, law, and economics\u2014all of these categories experienced significant declines in revenue. Given the rate of inflation, the declines are even more severe in real terms, and the increases more modest, since inflation is included in revenue figures. The numbers reveal a strong shift toward entertainment literature.<\/strong> That does not bode well for the intellectual capacity of the population. The drop in travel literature is also understandable: in an inflationary environment, fewer people can afford larger trips. And even the B\u00f6rsenverein itself speaks of an \u201ceducational crisis\u201d (\u201cBildungsmisere\u201d):<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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Interest in books is high, but we only reach those who are functionally literate. Every fourth child is left behind because they lack sufficient reading skills. And the effects of this educational crisis continue: according to the latest PIAAC study, one in five adults living in Germany reads at the level of a ten-year-old child or worse.<\/p>\r\nboersenverein.de<\/a>, quote from Karin Schmidt-Friderichs<\/cite><\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

This reflects both demographic trends and a broader social transformation. The shortage of skilled workers is mirrored in reading habits. The influx of people from less-educated backgrounds cannot compensate for this deficit and, in fact, amplifies the trend. Every fourth child lacks sufficient reading skills. That\u2019s hardly surprising\u2014and this development has been warned about for over a decade. But no one cared. The \u201cland of poets and thinkers\u201d? Not anymore.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

It is encouraging, however, to see an increase in younger readers\u2014between 7.7% and 9.6%. That\u2019s remarkable, and the BookTok trend is often cited as the cause. Whether this group remains loyal to books in the long term, and whether this is a lasting trend, remains to be seen. It reminds me of the book blogger hype around 2015\u2014ten years later, not much remains of it. Moreover, this is likely a predominantly female phenomenon. The success of genres such as romantasy is largely driven by a young female audience\u2014an imbalance that probably won\u2019t have a positive social effect either.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Interestingly, first publications have declined by 3.1%. \u201c57 percent are backlist titles, meaning the publication date was more than 12 months before the sale.\u201d This could be interpreted to mean that publishers have well-developed programs that effectively meet readers\u2019 needs. Or one could conclude that publishers have become more cautious in a shrinking market, focusing on their core business. I think this is a good development. 58,346 new titles is still a lot. For me, less is more\u2014better fewer publications of higher quality. After all, there are so many wonderful books that are several years old and still absolutely worth reading.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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Given the ongoing cost pressures and excessive bureaucracy, we also call on the new federal government to eliminate bureaucratic monstrosities\u2014among other things, by simplifying the EU Deforestation Regulation in a practical way. In addition, a structural publishing subsidy must finally be introduced to ensure long-term diversity in the book market.<\/p>\r\nboersenverein.de<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Of course, massive inflation and bureaucracy are taking a toll on the literary industry. As for structural funding for publishers, it\u2019s the usual cry from every industry for tax money and redistribution into their own pockets. And here the B\u00f6rsenverein really makes a fool of itself. They write about how stable everything is and how strong the revenue growth is, boasting of double-digit gains in fiction\u2014yet in the end, they still call for government support. I suspect there\u2019s a political motive behind it: they want to present themselves as an important economic sector, and the B\u00f6rsenverein also has to justify its existence to its members. But in the end, they\u2019re doing the literary world a disservice. The house is on fire, and they should be raising hell in Berlin. This tragic development is one that society and politics must take responsibility for.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

What I\u2019ve read is enough for me to see that things are not going well. Sure, the business is relatively stable. The book market isn\u2019t collapsing overnight. It\u2019s not all falling apart immediately. But a negative trend continues\u2014a mirror of a society that is changing profoundly. Seeing such a dramatic drop in book buyers over ten years despite population growth shows just how rapid this societal transformation is. The fact that fewer people are reading, that books are becoming ever more expensive, that there\u2019s a strong shift toward entertainment literature, that reading competence is declining so sharply, and that cost pressures and bureaucracy are burdening the industry\u2014all this does not speak for a society on the rise, one that is intellectually growing or thriving. It\u2019s a warning signal\u2014to voters and to policymakers. One of many that will go unheard.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

What do you think? Am I misinterpreting something here? Am I exaggerating? Or am I putting my finger on the wound? Or is it simply that younger generations now get their knowledge from other sources? Share your thoughts in the comments\u2014I\u2019m very curious. Sometimes I feel like I\u2019m alone with my concerns.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Sources: B\u00f6rsenverein Economic Data<\/a> and B\u00f6rsenverein Press Release<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

About a week ago, the German Publishers and Booksellers Association (B\u00f6rsenverein) published the figures for the German book market 2024. I find these developments quite shocking once again, and I\u2019m appalled at how the attempt is made to paint a positive picture. The performance of the local press in this regard is disappointing. As usual, … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Red alert for Germany’s book industry: The silent collapse of our reading culture”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10571,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"slim_seo":{"title":"Alarmstufe Rot f\u00fcr Deutschlands Buchbranche: Der stille Zusammenbruch unserer Lesekultur - lesestunden","description":"Vor etwa einer Woche hat der B\u00f6rsenverein die Zahlen f\u00fcr den deutschen Buchmarkt 2024 ver\u00f6ffentlicht. Ich finde die Entwicklung wieder sehr schockierend und bin"},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-market-publishers"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/buchmarkt.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}