Latvian National Library commemorates outstanding German-Baltic publisher
by Alexander Welscher
Latvians pride themselves on being a nation of readers and book lovers. This is particularly evident in the National Library of Latvia, where a huge, impressive wall of books known as the "People's Bookshelf" is stretching over several floors. Almost 8 000 books in 50 languages from all over the world are stored in there behind glass– all donated with personal messages to the Library by Latvians and visitors. Among them are also many books published by a very special publishing house: Harro von Hirschheydt apgāds
The publishing house is named after its founder and former owner Harro von Hirschheydt (1925-2017), a renowned Rīga-born German-Baltic bookseller and publisher who would have celebrated his 100th birthday in 2025. While his centenary was already marked in mid-April with a very personal event held in Aizpute, the Latvian National Library now remembered the vast merits of this important figure for the Latvian literature and the German-Baltic literature world with a special evening on 4 December 2025 that was organized together with Latvian Baltic-German culture association Domus Rigensis.
„Harro von Hirschheydt is significant in at least two ways: On the one hand, his publishing activities in the later stages of the 1990s after Latvia regained its independence, when he was trying to systematically introduce Baltic German authors that he considered significant by commissioning and publishing their translation into Latvian. And then on the other hand, he was translating the works of Latvian authors into German“, distinguished book historian Viesturs Zanders told Baltic Business Quartely after his lecture about the late publisher.
Being one of the leading researchers of book publishing and library history in Latvia, Zanders outlined von Hirschheydt’s extensive work and activities in the book and publishing field both in Latvia and Germany. Asked about what is the legacy that the devoted German-Baltic publisher has brought and left behind, the academic scholar answered without much thinking and gets it to the point in just in few words: „To put it simply: Read and enjoy books. Because this is already a value in itself.“
Preserving and cultivating the literary heritage of the Baltics
Von Hirschheydt moved back in 1993 to what is now Aizpute (formerly Hasenpoth), where he had grown up and attended school until his forced until the forced relocation of the Baltic Germans in 1939. In the beloved city of his childhood the then 68 years old returnee founded Harro von Hirschheydt apgāds which focused on publishing Latvian children's and young adult literature, regional historical literature, and translations of Baltic German authors into Latvian.
In Germany, von Hirschheydt had already previously worked as book publisher. After the Second World War, was trained as a bookseller and in 1950 founded his own bookstore along with a publishing house and an antiquarian bookshop. Initially, he catered to the demand for reprints and antiquarian books that were no longer available in the West due to the Iron Curtain. Later, he published original works by Latvian authors to make them accessible to German-speaking readers, some of whom he had translated into German himself.
Back in Latvia, he started to work together with authors, illustrators, translators and artists, some of which he had met and connect with during previous visit to his Latvia during Soviet times. Starting from the 1970s he regularly travelled to his homeland that always has remained very close to his heart. Following the ultimate collapse of the Soviet Union, von Hirschheydt became one of the few Baltic Germans that returned to Latvia and made the move back in challenging times. He bought a house in Aizpute where then he regularly spent his summers.
„I do not remember anymore how we met, and it is also not really important. What is important is that I then encountered a distinguished, elegant, and self-assured gentleman – which was quite unusual – with impeccable manners and very pleasant“, renowned Latvian translator Silvija Brice recalled her first encounter with von Hirschheydt in the mid-1990es at a time when not everyone in Latvia was well-versed in closing book licensing deals and not all agreements were always honoured.
„Our purely professional relationship, through which also a touch of friendship was shimmering trough, was like a graphic, like a work of art. You know exactly where everything is. Not one line too many and not one too few. That was great,“ Brice told the audience in her speech, highlighted during the cooperation between von Hirschheydt and her as translator „everything always went wonderfully smoothly. No one ever broke their word.“
Something special and unknown
Brice is considered to one of the most outstanding and recognized translators in Latvia, and clearly remembers her first assignment from von Hirschheydt. „The ,first book was Louise Pantenius. This has been something special because the first book is always something special,“ she said, while holding up a Latvian copy of the book titled „Jaunības atmiņas per veco Rīgu” (Childhood memories from Old Riga). „It had a nice yellow cover, which at least attracted attention in the book stores because there was actually no advertising at all.“
But even more then the outward appearance, it was the content of the book that has deeply etched in her memory. „It was my first translation of a Baltic-German author“, Brice recalled, adding that working on this book was „incredibly exiting“ for her. Not least because she had to find the right style and vocabulary. „It was not fiction. It was a collection of youthful memories, very vivid, colourful, unusual – and something almost completely unknown to me.“
Many more books were about to follow. Von Hirschheydt published translations of works from Eduard von Keyserling (1855-1918), Werner Bergengruen (1892-1964) and other key Baltic-German writers that until then were largely unknown to Latvian readers because they were for ideological reason sidelined during Soviet times. “I deeply believed in the power of literature to overcome borders and re-establish connections that had been torn apart by history”, he once described his mission, indicating that he considered books to always be bridges between cultures and between the past and the present.
Guided by the idea of preserving and sharing the literature of the Baltic region, von Hirschheydt in total published around 500 book titles and collections from and about the Baltic region with his two publishing houses. Some of them were exhibited at the memorial event in the “Retumu pasaule” room of the LNB at a book table – similar like the ones with which the publisher used to be present at many events. Along with his commercial activities, von Hirschheydt also tried to popularize German-Baltic and Latvian authors through lectures and readings both in Latvia and Germany.
„I have to think about how lucky I was to have met him. Because he was a person who did and achieved so much in his life and left behind such a vast legacy, and published so much incredible book. This is exceptional, it is a miracle“, Brice commended the life’s work of von Hirschheydt, highlighting that he was one of those people who did so much for the Latvian cultural scene and ensured that people ultimately learned more about Baltic-German authors.
While von Hirschheydt’s publishing house in Aizpute existed until 2011, its activities are still continued on a smaller scale by the German lawyer Theis Klauberg. The longstanding resident of Latvia acquired the publishing rights from bookseller a few years before his death. „I then asked him, if we could continue publishing books under the name Harro von Hirschheydt apgāds. And he told me: 'You are welcome to do that, Mr. Klauberg. Just one stipulation: no Nazi stuff. ' Those were his words, and that was his style – he was very direct.“
Klauberg has since then published several books, which he also distributes via the bookstore of Harro's son Robert who took over the business of his father in 1997 and continues it until today. Based in Wedemark-Elze near Hannover in the German state of Lower Saxony, the publishing house and antique store Harro von Hirschheydt holds an inexhaustible collection with more 14,000 titles in stock and is the first address when it comes to historical publications and books from and about the Baltic States in German.
Strong connection to Latvia
„It is a great joy and a great honour for us. I consider it to be a great sign of respect and for my father that the National Library is holding such an event here and values my father's work in this way“, Robert von Hirschheydt told LSM at the sidelines of the event, for which he came to Riga together with his family, his sister Monika and other relatives. „We are all the more pleased, of course, that my father has not been forgotten, but that his work is still clearly recognized and appreciated today.
In partly very personal reflections, Robert shared at the event that Harro von Hirschheydt’s love for book began in childhood and explained how his father started his book selling business with a starting capital of just a few Deutsche Mark and a bike with which he went from house to house and from village to village to deliver books and stationery. This laid the foundation for his publishing activities, which he began shortly afterwards and gradually expanded first in Germany and then after 1991 also in Latvia.
Von Hirschheydt junior also shared own memories about Latvia that he visited together with his father as child. "I was in Riga for the first time in 1978, still during the Brezhnev era. Those were the days – what an unforgettable trip!", he told the audience in Latvian, adding that during the visits the whole family experienced his father as a completely different person. „He quickly came to life and blossomed here in Latvia; he felt at home here, we could feel it."
While his father considered Aizpute to be his only hometown and never truly arrived and settled in Germany, Robert von Hirschheydt feels comfortable and at home in Germany where he and his five brothers and sisters were born between 1954 and 1969. But the has also strong ties to Latvia, which he has visited regularly ever since he took first his first step on the ground almost 50 years ago.
„Latvia is different for me than other countries. It's a very different feeling when I travel to Latvia compared to any other country“, von Hirschheydt said, adding that this personal connection is very strong for him. „It is quite a big different whether you travel to your father's and ancestors' homeland or whether you are just there as a tourist.“
