The rise and fall of the Catholic Church's lewd book empire

Weltbild is finally bankrupt
The rise and fall of the Catholic Church's lewd book empire

The last branches of the Weltbild bookstore chain are closing these days. They were once part of a billion-dollar corporation that was so embarrassing to its owner, the Catholic Church, that it eventually wanted to get rid of it.

It is a word of power from the Pope that puts an end to the rapid expansion of the Catholic book empire in Germany. In 2011 Benedict XVI demanded. from the German bishops to immediately stop “the distribution of material with erotic or pornographic content, especially via the Internet.” What this means is the Weltbild Group’s offering. At the time it was the second largest bookseller in the country with more than 400 branches and at times the industry's leading mail order and internet offering. The company is owned by the German Bishops' Conference, several individual dioceses and the Catholic chaplaincy for soldiers.

These shareholders were extremely embarrassed when it was reported in the trade magazine “Buchreport” that a search for the keyword “erotic” produced no fewer than 2,500 hits in the Weltbild offering. Attempts to reconcile this 21st century entrepreneurship with the values ​​of Benedict and other conservative church representatives fail, as does the attempt to sell the company. Only when Weltbild went bankrupt in 2014 did the bishops get rid of their indecent subsidiary. A new owner is taking over some of the branches and online trading, which are now finally being wound down after another insolvency.

It all started with a magazine

The later company was founded in 1948 as Winfried-Werk in Augsburg. The publisher initially publishes a single magazine called “Mann in der Zeit” with the participation of the Catholic men’s organization. This was later renamed “Weltbild” and, as the small publishing house developed into a corporation, it became the name for the entire company. The expansion really took off after the Dutchman Carel Halff took over management in 1975. When he took up his post, the strictly Catholic publishing house and the book mail order company that was now part of it were turning over 600,000 marks per year. When Halff left the company almost 40 years later – not least because of the unresolved conflict between commerce and Catholic values ​​- the annual turnover was 1.6 billion euros.

Through acquisitions, investments and collaborations, Halff has created a conglomerate that is barely manageable. In addition to books and magazines, tools, gardening supplies and baby fashion are also sold online and in brick-and-mortar branches. Brands such as Thousandkind, Joker and buecher.de belong to the group. The publisher also has several subsidiaries. The group is expanding to Poland, the Netherlands and Russia. Many of these activities are partnerships with, for example, the bookseller Hugendubel, the Holtzbrinck publishing group, Burda or Deutsche Telekom.

Media reports later cited a lack of “focus” on a brand core as a reason for Weltbild’s decline. It begins with the first difficulties in the global financial crisis of 2008. At the same time, Amazon is emerging as an increasingly powerful competitor. As business goes worse, the church's criticism of its own company becomes louder. “It's not possible for us to earn money during the week, which we preach against on Sundays,” says the then Cologne Cardinal Joachim Meisner. Actions do not initially follow this displeasure – until the Pope personally intervenes.

“Sex sells” at Weltbild too

However, simply removing all offensive titles from the Weltbild offering has proven to be impractical. On the one hand, a bookseller can hardly do without revenue generators such as Charlotte Roche's “Wetlands” or the US bestseller “Fifty Shades of Grey” during this time, and on the other hand, there are parts of the Weltbild program, such as magazines and e-books sold online, and partnerships with secular companies that want to continue making money from selling erotic titles. The bishops ultimately want to get rid of the group of companies, whose financial difficulties are increasing at the same time. Since a suitable buyer cannot be found, Weltbild is to be converted into an independent foundation.

But before this plan can be implemented, Weltbild has to file for bankruptcy at the beginning of 2014. The bishops are now free of their problem company, but not the trouble with it. The works council and unions accuse the men of God of having shirked their responsibility towards their employees by “pulling the plug” on the unpleasant company. The then Archbishop of Munich justified the decision not to use the diocese's funds to finance the additional capital requirement of 120 million euros estimated by the insolvency administrator for restructuring with his “responsibility for church taxpayers”.

This is over for a large part of the corporate group and the more than 6,000 employees. The service group Droege takes over some of the branches in Germany, Austria and Switzerland that were still profitable at the time, as well as online trading. The Weltbild brand will remain intact for ten years until the new owner has to give up the fight against the retail crisis and Amazon.

As part of the second bankruptcy, the last remnants of the former publishing and bookselling giant are currently being liquidated. Internet trading is no longer accessible. The very last Weltbild deliveries are due to arrive at the customers' homes in these days. Some branches are still conducting clearance sales – then the Weltbild brand will have disappeared from German city centers. The last 440 or so employees are due to be laid off in September. According to the management, a “long-term and sustainable continuation of operations” is not possible. “Immense cost increases” and increased competition from “new aggressive providers” are cited as reasons for the eventual end.