Our History

1872 July 1: Otto Harrassowitz and Oscar Richter founded the companyof Richter & Harrassowitz, Antiquariats- und Verlagsbuchhandlung, in Leipzig/Germany.

1875 The partners separate. Otto Harrassowitz assumes single control of the company, now named OTTO HARRASSOWITZ.

1882 On December 5, 1882, Justin Winsor, the Librarian of the Harvard College Library, writes to ask whether HARRASSOWITZ is ready to supply new German scholarly publications to the Widener Library.

1897 At the 25th anniversary of the firm, more than 40 of the leading US research libraries have chosen HARRASSOWITZ as their supplier for current and antiquarian German publications.

1916 The University of Chicago Library entrusts a Blanket Order to HARRASSOWITZ to collect war materials, pamphlets, propaganda, ephemeral and fugitive materials.

1943 The offices of the company are totally destroyed in the air raid of the night of December 4.

1947 Hans Harrassowitz commissions Richard W. Dorn to establish a branch of the company in Wiesbaden.

1947 Otto Albrecht of the Music Faculty of the University of Pennsylvania, in his capacity as Cultural Officer of the US Military Branch in the American Zone, authorizes the establishment of HARRASSOWITZ in Wiesbaden.

1950 Mr. Keyes Metcalf, Harvard Librarian, visits Wiesbaden and assigns the German Farmington Plan to HARRASSOWITZ.

1964 After the death of Hans Harrassowitz, the company is restructured to form a partnership with Gertrud Harrassowitz and Wilfred Becker Sr., Richard W. Dorn, and Felix O. Weigel as partners and managing directors.

1966 The Library of Congress assigns the Title II responsibility for German publications to HARRASSOWITZ and establishes a Field Office in Wiesbaden to organize the Shared Cataloging Project between LC, the Deutsche Bibliothek in Frankfurt, and HARRASSOWITZ.

1970 HARRASSOWITZ extends its library services to include full coverage of European research publications, books and journals, in all fields.

1971 The Music Department, established in 1968, receives the first approval orders for European music scores from SUNY Buffalo and Northwestern University.

1980 A decade begins in which HARRASSOWITZ extends its role of a Subscription Agency servicing European SCI/TECH/MED journals to Academic and Research Libraries all over the world.

1990 A decade begins in which HARRASSOWITZ extends its subscription services to include North American journals and journals published anywhere in the world. HARRASSOWITZ successfully moves from a European agent to a truly globally operating subscription agent.