It's like a very good book: chapter after chapter, the exciting history of the corporate group that now bears the name Springer Science+Business Media unfolds. With one high point after another. But there's one difference: no one knows how the story ends. A series of sequels with all the makings of a "longseller" -- with tradition and innovation on every page. Springer has published big names such as Werner von Siemens, Rudolph Virchow, Max Planck, and Marie Curie. The company has been open to technological innovation for decades and its pioneering role in electronic publishing – publishing journals and books in the internet – is proof of this innovation.Julius Springer came up with the idea for the longseller. In 1842, on his 25th birthday, he opened a bookstore in Berlin, giving the story its distinctive style and direction. This was followed not long afterwards by the second chapter of the story, in which the publishing house was founded, publishing political and philosophical works and papers on agriculture and forestry, pharmacy, and engineering. Children's books were also part of the story: Julius Springer published The Leatherstocking Tales and Uncle Tom's Cabin in German and became one of the nineteenth century's leading booksellers and publishers.Starting in 1881, four years after their father's death, the Springer sons Ferdinand and Fritz consistently expanded the engineering portfolio. Then came pioneering works in the field of medicine, biology, physics, and chemistry, forming the focus of the third generation, the grandchildren of the company's founder. Page after page followed. A key event took place in 1920 when Springer acquired the journal Mathematische Annalen, whose editors included Albert Einstein. Three years previously, Vieweg – now one of Springer Science+Business Media publishing houses – published Einstein’s Relativity: The Special and the General Theory. Springer gained an increasing international reputation. Furthermore, A. E. Kluwer founded his publishing house in 1889 in the Netherlands and gradually expanded his business, later to become Kluwer Academic Publishers, now an integral part of Springer.Under Nazi rule, Springer’s two owners were forced to leave the company. Tönies Lange took over the management and helped secure the company’s financial survival. After the war, he returned the company to the hands of the Springer family, but remained a co-owner until his death.After World War II, the Springer grandchildren began rebuilding the company whose premises were largely destroyed, and created an almost immediate stir with Karl Jaspers' The Idea of the University, the first programmatic post-War publication. In 1949, Heinz Götze joined Springer and, through his commitment for the following 50 years, he significantly influenced the success of the publishing house. From 1957 Götze, as co-owner, turned Springer into a leading global scientific publisher. After the founding of the Vienna office in 1924, Springer opened another branch in New York in 1964, followed by counterparts in Tokyo, London, Paris and Hong Kong shortly thereafter. The company quickly became one of the world’s leading scientific publishers.Under Götze, contacts with academics throughout the world were nurtured, new international markets were opened and the number of English language titles grew significantly. Kluwer expanded its business in the 1970s by acquiring reputable publishing companies such as Reidel and Martin Nijhoff.In 1999, Bertelsmann AG acquired a majority share in the scientific publishing company Springer-Verlag for its professional information division, having previously bought up B.G. Teubner, which it brought into the "marriage" with Springer, along with other well-known publishing houses such as Gabler and Heinrich Vogel, to create BertelsmannSpringer. In April 2003, Kluwer Academic Publishers and then the BertelsmannSpringer Group were taken over by the British financial investors Cinven and Candover. Soon afterwards, in October 2003, the company was renamed Springer Science+Business Media. The merger with the Dutch science publisher in the spring of 2004 marks another successful chapter: The world's second largest supplier of publications in the STM sector now operates under Springer's new logo which is a mark of quality for the world's best academics and authors. In 2009, the sale of Springer to EQT, a Swedish financial investor, and GIC, the investment vehicle of the government of Singapore, was announced.

1999

• Merger of the MMV Medien & Medizin Verlagsgesellschaft with Urban & Vogel publishing house.
• Acquisition of the scientific publishing house B.G.Teubner.
• Acquisition of the French medical publishing house Valdemars.
• Increase in the shares held in Groupe Impact Médecin to 100 percent.
• Acquisition of Burda shares in HOS multimedica and LIFELINE.
• Acquisition of driving school publishing house Grupa Image (Poland), Müszaki Könyvkiadó (Hungary) and the driving school business Bohmann (Austria).
• Acquisition of the building trade publishing house Meritum (Slovakia) and SDEP (France) as well as Forum Press AG Schweiz (Swiss local municipalities magazine).
• Bertelsmann Professional Information Group acquires the majority share in the scientific publishing house Springer-Verlag, Berlin / Heidelberg

1998

• Bertelsmann Professional Information Group divests of Buch AG and becomes an independent business division.

1996

• Bertelsmann Professional Information Group sets up an Internet platform and establishes the first online service Baunetz.

1994

• Bertelsmann Professional Information Group acqirires the French specialist publishing house Codes Rousseau.
• Bertelsmann Professional Information Group purchases 50 percent of Groupe Impact Médecin, Paris.
• Springer acquires the Munich medical publishing house-based Urban & Vogel.
• Foundation of Springer-Verlag Italia.

1992

• Bertelsmann Professional Information Group founds first publishing company in Eastern Europe with the Czech driving school publishing house Vogel Media.

1990

• Bertelsmann Professional Information Group founds Etrasa, the Spanish driving school publishing house, representing the first step towards internationalization.

1989

• Bertelsmann Fachinformation acquires 100 percent of Ärzte Zeitung Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Neu-Isenburg, Germany

1986

• Foundation of Springer-Verlag France

1985

• Springer takes over the Swiss publishing house Birkhäuser, Basel, Boston.

1983

• Springer incorporates the economics publishing house Physica

1980

• Springer takes over the Steinkopff publishing house in Darmstadt

1979

• Bertelsmann Professional Information Group expands in the area of building and construction through the purchase of Heinze Verlag.

1978

• Bertelsmann Professional Information Group incorporates Gabler Verlag which has specialized in economic topics since its founding in 1929.

1977

• Bertelsmann Professional Information Group acquires the majority shares in the publishing house ibau. Subsequent takeover in 1994.

1974

• Bertelsmann Professional Information Group acquires the publishing house Vieweg, which was founded in Berlin in 1786.

1973

• Bertelsmann Professional Information Group enters into the medical field with the purchase of Münchener Medizin Verlag, successor to the Münchener Medizinische Wochenschrift which was founded in 1853.

1970

• Bertelsmann Professional Information Group develops the transport field by taking over Verlag Heinrich Vogel, which was founded in 1935.

1964

• Founding of Springer-Verlag in New York.

1953

• Founding of the publishing house Bertelsmann Fachzeitschriften. Development of the German periodical specializing in building and construction, DBZ Deutsche Bauzeitschrift.

1946

• Springer opens offices in Göttingen and Heidelberg.
  First postwar Springer publication: Karl Jaspers - Die Idee der Universität.

1924

• Founding of Springer-Verlag, Vienna.

1881

• Creation of the Springer logo, the Knight from chess. In the subsequent years systematic development of the Springer engineering and medical programs.

1842

• Founding of Springer-Verlag; primary focus on political writings, youth literature, agriculture and forestry, pharmacy and engineering.