Bulgarian Margarita Stein has been living in Berlin for 27 years and in 2007 she founded the first family-owned publishing house in the German capital. Together with her husband - a historian and researcher of the Balkans, she focused on the goal of popularizing the literature, culture and politics of the countries of Eastern Europe and the Balkan Peninsula, but especially of Bulgaria.

Four years after the opening of the first publishing house "Centre for Eastern Europe", the Stein family opened another one called Anthea Verlag, Berlin. It has published dozens of fiction books, mostly by authors from Eastern Europe and Bulgaria. For just a few years, the works of eight Bulgarians have been translated.

In 2015, Margarita Stein expanded her publishing activities with specialized and scientific literature, but she is most proud of two series of books - "Bulgarian History" and "Bibliographies of Culture and Politics in Europe". In the second of them, alongside the materials on Albania and Serbia, on Bucharest and Kaliningrad, a bibliography on Plovdiv is also published, and the occasion is that this Bulgarian city, known for its architecture and sights became the European Capital of Culture in 2019.

"People interested in the history of Plovdiv can find everything that has been published over the years in German and English," Margarita Stein tells Radio Bulgaria and adds:

"In the Bulgarian History series, we started by reprinting old editions of books that are no longer available on the German market. Among them is Danube Bulgaria by Felix Kanitz. All these books are particularly important for the history of the Balkan countries and for people who wish to study it. We are very proud of the biographies of our national hero Vasil Levski, of revolutionary and poet Hristo Botev and the patriarch of Bulgarian literature Ivan Vazov, which are collected in ‘Classic Writers of the Bulgarian National Revival’. This book is especially sought after by our compatriots abroad, who give it to German friends they know. This is precisely the goal of our publishing house - to promote Bulgarian heroes, personalities, artists who have become pillars of our National Revival and literature."

And since books by Bulgarian authors translated into German must reach the readers, in the spring of 2022 Margarita Stein organized a literary tour for three Bulgarian authors in different German cities. Despite the pandemic measures, Georgi Bardarov presented his novel "Absolvo te". Poet Angela Dimcheva and Prof. Zlatimir Kolarov together with the translator Rumyana Zaharieva also presented their books in Berlin, Dresden and Hamburg.

"Our main goal was to meet the German readers,” Margarita Stein says. “The books by Bulgarian authors enjoy great interest in Germany, but we still have a lot of work to do. That is why we, as a publishing house, participate every year in both the Leipzig Book Fair and the Frankfurt Book Fair. It is important that my favorite series Bulgarian History is present at these exhibitions together with the books of German authors. We also have a book about the Bulgarian haiduks by a German author and a book about Knyaz Ferdinand of Bulgaria. Obviously, Bulgarian history arouses the greatest interest and is even more popular than fiction.”

Margarita Stein has addressed the Bulgarian administration, which also has a role for translating and publishing more Bulgarian books abroad. According to her, cumbersome and bureaucratic translation rules hinder the publication of many Bulgarian authors in Germany. Margarita Stein says that it is high time to ease the procedure, in order for Bulgarian writers and publishing houses to be able to freely contact publishing houses from abroad.

Publication in English: Al. Markov

Photos: personal archive, Facebook / Anthea Verlag Berlin, anthea-verlag.de