Suhrkamp continuance

       I mentioned the turmoil at leading German literary publishing house Suhrkamp a couple of months ago, and the case came to court of Wednesday.
       The verdict ?
       A continuance, until September -- just the kind of non-resolution this case doesn't need.
       At DeutscheWelle Sonya Angelica Diehn and Petra Lambeck summarize things, in Legal battle threatens cultural institution.
       I don't think they're quite right -- though this is the way it's being portrayed in the German press, too -- when they claim:

The conflict, on some level, boils down to whether book publishing as a cultural institution can survive in today's market-driven economy.

       Unfortunately, under the ... leadership of Ulla Unseld-Berkéwicz, Suhrkamp isn't quite the Suhrkamp of old (of Peter Suhrkamp and Siegfried Unseld), the exodus of authors and editors over the past decade (and an oddly handled move from longtime headquarters in Frankfurt to Berlin) hollowing out the hallowed institution. Nevertheless, Barlach is seen as the bad guy here by authors and cultural commentators alike, in what seems to boil down to a choice between bad and worse.
       For some German reports about the recent court (non-)decision, see, for example, Nichts ist vorbei am Aschermittwoch by Sandra Kegel in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Gericht vertagt Entscheidung über Suhrkamp-Verlag in Die Zeit.