Johann König vs Luchterhand Verlag: Appreciation of injunction inspires book sales

King researched, listened to reviews and then commissioned the law firm of the renowned lawyer Christian Schertz to sue the novel and to have it forbidden to violate his personal rights and that of his wife.

So long three months after “inner -city death” had been published and had caused little sensation even in the literary public. But now that the application for an injunction has been submitted to the Hamburg district court, Christoph Peters’s novel is on everyone’s lips; Suddenly there is great interest in it.

This is very located by the Luchterhand Verlag, which is part of the Random House Group, in which the Peters plant appears.

Last weekend, Luchterhand switched a large advertisement in the print edition of the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” in order to advertise “inner -city death” as the conclusion of a novel trilogy. And that with the quote of a literary critic of the “FAZ”: “An artistically fictionalized novel.”

On request, however, the publisher announced that it did not plan any further advertising measures for the time being. “After the numerous press reports, sales attracted the sales of the impending book ban. As long as the book is still available and in demand undisturbed, we will serve the demand with all customary measures. ”

So far, it has not been better for Peters and its publisher, also to court. Because this is a long way from statement to the application for an injunction. It is reading the novel and only wants to decide “in the next few weeks” how it continues. After that, it will presumably negotiate the case and let both sides be heard.

It can be assumed that the interest in the novel will increase again – and all the world will discuss whether the Romangalist from Johann König’s work is very similar or was artfully fictionalized. Can that be in König’s meaning?