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Private company

Evangelische Verlagsanstalt

German religious publication

The Evangelische Verlagsanstalt (EVA) is a denominational media company founded in Berlin in 1946. Its shareholders are the Gemeinschaftswerk der Evangelischen Publizistik and the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Saxony. The managing director is Sebastian Knöfel.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

May 10, 1946Founded1
  • Industrypublishing industry1
  • HeadquartersLeipzig1
  • Websitewww.eva-leipzig.de
  • Legal formGesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung1

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The Evangelische Verlagsanstalt (EVA) is a denominational media company founded in Berlin in 1946. Its shareholders are the Gemeinschaftswerk der Evangelischen Publizistik and the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Saxony. The managing director is Sebastian Knöfel.2

Corporate structure

Evangelische Verlagsanstalt sits at the top of its group. 2 entities, 1 country on record. Switch between the flow chart and the network, and select any entity to see its details.

Built from subsidiaries, stakes and holdings from Wikidata (CC0); major holders from Schedules 13D and 13G. Each entity in the chart links to its source.

The story

History 1946–1989

Under the licence number 54 of the Soviet Military Administration in Germany, the Evangelische Verlagsanstalt GmbH was founded in 1946 with headquarters in Berlin; in 1953 a publishing department in Leipzig was added. The first publishing director was the later Kirchenrat Friedrich Bartsch.

The first publication, the Christmas Carol book Ihr Kinderlein kommet, was immediately out of print despite a considerable initial print run of 28,000 copies.

In the following years, the number of publications rose steadily, so that the publishing house eventually became the largest Protestant publishing house in Germany.

Under the umbrella of the EVA, those private Protestant publishers in the GDR who had not received their own licence also published; the publishing profile was accordingly broad: from scientific theology to congregational literature, Christian fiction to Christian devotional literature and Christian calendars. Some classics are still published today, for example the Kirchliche Amtskalender or the daily abreißkalender Sonne und Schild. Every book had to go through the procedure of censorship in East Germany before it was published: from appraisals by state censors to discussions with the publisher, sometimes lasting months or even years, to state paper allocation.

History since 1989

With the Peaceful Revolution and the German reunification, the situation of EVA also changed fundamentally. After a change of shareholders, the publishing seat was moved to Leipzig in 1991. With effect from 1 January 2010, Hansisches Druck- und Verlagshaus GmbH Frankfurt (HDV) took over the majority of shares in Evangelische Verlagsanstalt GmbH Leipzig (EVA) from the previous sole shareholder, the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Saxony (EvLKS). The EvLKS remains a shareholder in the publishing house and is the sole shareholder of Evangelisches Medienhaus GmbH Leipzig, which bundles the publishing activities of the Saxon regional church.

By the time of its 60th anniversary in 2006, around 11,000 titles had been published with a total circulation of around 150 million copies.

The publishing house is an institutional member of the Forum Thomanum.

From Wikipedia’s article on Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3

Subsidiaries and ownership

Owners

  • Evangelical Church in Central Germany 51%
  • Gemeinschaftswerk der Evangelischen Publizistik 49%

From Wikidata.1

Timeline

  1. May 10, 1946Founded Founded1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

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