250 years of Schott! There are only few family businesses that can celebrate such a proud anniversary. This publishing history tells of it: of the beginnings of young Bernhard Schott as a music engraver, of the turbulent times during the French Revolution, of the first heyday under "B. Schott's Söhne" in the 19th century, when important late works by Beethoven like Symphony No. 9 and "Missa solemnis" were published by the publishing house, of the collaboration with Richard Wagner and the enormous financial investments in his stage works "The Mastersingers of Nuremberg", "The Ring of the Nibelung" and "Parsifal". It also deals with the Schott and (since 1874) Strecker families of publishers, the dawn of modernity, the effects of two devastating world wars, the arduous years of reconstruction after 1945 and the consistent expansion into a modern media company and an internationally operating publishing group.
The book is structured chronologically and conveys that the long company history is also a weighty piece of musical, social, intellectual and economic history. It deals with the development of the publishing programme from its early beginnings to the present day and contains portraits of the individual leading figures of the publishing house. The richly illustrated volume is complemented by essays on the most important areas of the publishing house, especially on its educational commitment, as well as on topics such as the publishing archives and sheet music production.