History

On the 23rd of December 1983, Klaus Leidorf founded the Verlag Marie L. Leidorf in Marburg/Lahn on the initiative of his wife Marie Luise. In June 1983, K. Leidorf had already obtained the degree of Master in Prehistory and Early Medieval Archaeology at the local university. During the 11 years he was in charge - until the publishing house changed hands in the autumn of 1994 - a total of 49 titles, 43 archaeological and 6 scientific ones, was published.

On the 1st of September 1985, he transferred both his residence and the company to Buch am Erlbach, in the Lower Bavarian countryside near Landshut. After several temporary jobs at the Bayerisches Landesamt für Denkmalpflege (Bavarian State Department for the Care of Monuments) in both Landshut and Munich, K. Leidorf began to take flying lessons in January 1987. He acquired his pilot licence in April of the same year and until the end of 1988 was trained as aerial archaeologist by Otto Braasch in Landshut. K. Leidorf has been working freelance since February 1989 and works, amongst others, for the Bayerisches Landesamt für Denkmalpflege in Munich.

Between 1984 and 1990, only 10 specialist publications, printed with the Offset-method, were published by the Leidorf Verlag. This changed at the beginning of 1991, when significant advances in digital printing technology became available. These developments made it possible for the first time to print books in very low print runs and hence at a much lower price than with Offset-printing, and also to produce them on demand. In this context, K. Leidorf's specialist IT knowledge, already acquired early on in his university years, proved very helpful.

Consequently, in 1991 Dr. Claus Dobiat from the Department of Prehistory at Marburg University and Klaus Leidorf founded the new series Internationale Archäologie, which they co-edited. This was the very first time that this new technology for the cost-effective production of specialist literature was employed in European archaeology. At first, the reception of the new printing procedure among the social sciences was rather restrained, probably partially due to a lack of advertising, but also because hardly anybody recognised its economic advantages. The more expensive, but at that time also qualitatively far superior Offset- method continued to be preferred, in spite of the large-scale savings imposed on public spending due to the German re-unification.

Three years later, on the 1st of October 1994, K. Leidorf relinquished control of his publishing house. First and foremost, this was related to the massive increase in publications and to the fact that aerial archaeology became more and more his true vocation. A further reason was that he wanted to help his successor Dr. Bert Wiegel, who was temporarily unemployed, to build up a career as a full-time publisher of specialist archaeological literature. B. Wiegel had also studied Prehistory and Early Medieval Archaeology and had first obtained his Master in 1983 and then his Doctorate in 1989 under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Georg Kossack at the LMU University in Munich. After four years in the civil service, and as a result of K. Leidorf's offer, he decided to become self-employed.

After the change-over, the Leidorf publishing house remained a one-man business. The new permanent company headquarters was established in Espelkamp in the Minden-Lübbecke region of Nordrhein-Westfalen. On the first of October, the company became a private limited liability company (GmbH). Its name changed to VML Verlag Marie Leidorf GmbH. Bert Wiegel became the sole manager. On the 1st of October 1997, the company moved to neighbouring Rahden/Westf. Since the 1st of July 1998, Mrs. Reda Maseiker assists us in running our office. In addition, ten freelance colleagues in Germany and abroad are involved in the editorial work and layout of our books, as well as in the translation and editing of our homepage.

Rahden, October 2004