The 30 volume Brockhaus Enzyklopädie, the largest print encyclopedia in German language, is history. In 2005/06 the last edition appeared, and in 2008 a short-lived online experiment failed. A year later, Bertelsmann bought Brockhaus, and even the German anti trust agency said: Yeah, it’s a monopoly, but the market for print encyclopedias has shrunk so much that the Bertelsmann monopoly would be the least problem to a newcomer.
History? Last edition? Bertelsmann now surprised the literary world with the announcement of a new edition, to be expected for 2014 or 2015. The 22nd edition will be available for tablet pc and other mobile instruments, and the buyer can order excerpts from it by print-on-demand.
We’ll see.
(According to buchreport.de, thanks to Mathias Schindler for the link.)
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