Motto
“Magnificent works, the sort only beggars could dream of, and so cheap that beggars can afford them.”
So be it. [1]
Works in preparationBettler series
– In the ‘Bettler’ series, we produce the ‘Unheard’, beggars’ books, works by beggars for all non-conformists, the distribution of which enables the authors to promote their independence. We do not give alms. We take people seriously as partners and as agents of their own destiny.
– Anti-social elements and career criminals, a modern encyclopaedia of prescribed horror
Revolt series
Multilingual critical reissues from French Surrealism. Lost and forgotten texts with contemporary explosive power.
Work Series
A taxi book and later many taxi books spanning 60 years of the rise and fall of a popular trade
Children’s Series
First publications
Classics, multilingual and newly illustrated
Taxifilmfest
Bettlerverlag is developing the organisation of the 3rd Taxifilmfest in cooperation with the previous organisers. It will take place in Berlin in late August / early September 2026.
https://www.taxifilmfest.de/
Editorial PrinciplesFree Content
We source texts that are free from copyright restrictions and make the versions we have produced available to our friends.
Magnificent and affordable
We make translations and new texts available as affordably as possible. Wherever possible, we distribute free copies to those in need. Profits from our publications enable Bettlerverlag’s free content, its social initiatives and its campaigns. [2]
A Club without a Club
We present new projects to our friends and they propose their own. We put ideas up for discussion and help bring them to fruition through collaborative work.
Subscription
We use subscription funding to assess the relevance of publications. Subscribers receive special attention, personal dedications, copies of a print run designed especially for them, and other lovely things. We use subscriptions to support social projects and authors in need.
Publications on request
Bettlerverlag offers its technical and editorial expertise as a service provider. The publisher only accepts commissions that align with its principles and quality standards. If Bettlerverlag’s ISBNs are used, the publications must be thematically aligned with Bettlerverlag’s programme.
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[1] Brecht’s conception of The Threepenny Opera: “You are now going to hear an opera. Because this opera was conceived to be as magnificent as only beggars could dream of, and because it was to be so cheap that beggars could afford it, it is called The Threepenny Opera”. This is how Bettlerverlag does it with all media 98 years later.
[2] The spelling of all texts follows the original as far as possible. Modernisations, such as reinterpreting the biography of Pippi Longstocking’s father, are avoided because they obstruct access to the état d’esprit of the original text. At most, we point out changes in the meaning of expressions. We follow Jakob Grimm’s critique of German spelling not to the letter but in spirit.
Jakob Grimm in 1847 in his lecture ‘On Pedantry in the German Language’:
It pains me deeply to have found that, of all the peoples known to me, none today writes its language as barbarically as the Germans, (...). What occurs in every good text – the use of simple symbols for common consonant combinations, such as ‘ch’ and ‘sch’ in our language – is entirely avoided, thereby creating the impression of a sluggish, cumbersome style.
...
The French write nous, vous, the Italians noi, voi, the Danes vi, i, the Poles my, wy, (only) the Germans have made the pedantic distinction between wir and ihr. No differently do they write grün and kühn, schnüren but führen, Heer, Meer, Beere but wehre and nähre, schwöre, Haar but wahr, Jahr, words to which the same sound is due everywhere. From schaffen we form the third person schafft; in the noun Geschäft we retain the simple sound.
...
They wish to place dashes, as far as possible, in the middle of compounds, and hooks wherever vowels seem to be missing. They love to write himmel-blau, engel-rein, fehl-schlagen and Buch’s, Kind’s, lies’t, iß’t, leb’te, geleb’t.
...
The equally reprehensible misuse of capital letters for nouns, which may be called the height of our pedantic bad habit, I and those who agree with me have cast aside, (...). Yet with what timid deliberation is it avoided, and on what feeble grounds are objections raised against a reform that is nothing other than a restoration of the natural spelling to which our ancestors remained faithful until the fifteenth century, and our neighbours remain faithful to this day.
