Max Brockhaus Musikverlag

The company was founded by Max Brockhaus (1867–1957) in 1893 in Leipzig. In the year of the company’s foundation, Brockhaus met Engelbert Humperdinck and in 1896 he acquired the fairy tale opera “Königskinder” for his company’s publishing programme. This represented an important step towards the company becoming a publisher of stage works. The collaboration with Humperdinck was to be one of the most intensive and fruitful in the company’s history. Over the following years, many of the composer’s works were published by Max Brockhaus. Around the turn of the century, works by Eugen d’Albert, Ruggiero Leoncavallo and Alfredo Piatti were acquired.

In 1898 a close collaboration with Hans Pfitzner began, through which the opera “Der arme Heinrich”, some symphonic works and a large number of songs were added to the catalogue. At the same time contact was established with Siegfried Wagner, son of the composer Richard Wagner. Over the following years Brockhaus published several of the composer’s operas. In 1910, at the express wish of the Wagner family, Brockhaus published Richard Wagner’s youthful Symphony in C major.

In 1940 Brockhaus’s daughter Elisabeth “Lilli” Gruner took over the publishing company, continuing the business with her husband Friedrich Gruner. After the Second World War and the destruction of the company’s premises, reconstruction took place at Lörrach in the Baden region, south west Germany.

In 1976 the company was taken over by the Bonn publisher Joachim von Roebel and it moved to Bonn-Bad Godesberg. Since 2004 Sophie von Roebel has run the company, and its head office moved to Remagen-Rolandswerth in 2006.

In January 2020 the entire publishing catalogue of Max Brockhaus Musikverlag was acquired by Bärenreiter.