At the start of the Easter holiday, employees of Penguin Random House Verlagsgruppe visited the Münchner Tafel (Munich Food Bank) for the fourth time. A total of over 800 books were handed out to kids and their parents this year. Picture books were popular with the very youngest; beginning readers were particularly keen to pick up Sven Gerhardt’s MINNA MELONE. As volunteers at Münchner Tafel explained: “We are currently receiving a lot of families who have fled from Ukraine. Children’s books are also great for adults to learn German.”
This annual project has become an integral part of Penguin Random House Verlagsgruppe’s long-standing charitable work to promote reading.
Penguin Random House Verlagsgruppe was the main sponsor of the first reception of the Queer Media Society at the 2024 Frankfurt Book Fair.
Rebecca Prager, Head of Corporate Communications at Penguin Random House Verlagsgruppe, spoke at the reception on behalf of Penguin Random House Verlagsgruppe and be.queer, the network for LGBTIQ employees and allies at Bertelsmann, emphasizing the importance of the network for togetherness and mutual support as well as for visibility and awareness in the workplace.
During a reading marking the end of “Freedom of Expression Week” at Mediacampus Frankfurt, the school for aspiring booksellers, Penguin author Hasnain Kazim entertained around 130 guests with his clever approach to the issues of hate mail and hate speech. In a post-reading discussion with Rebecca Prager, Head of Corporate Communications at Penguin Random House Verlagsgruppe, Kazim shared his experiences with hateful letters from readers and his perspective on freedom of expression and its limits.
Together with readers throughout Germany, Penguin Random House Verlagsgruppe celebrated Read Aloud Day under the motto “Reading aloud creates a future.” Around 130 employees participated and held more than 230 reading sessions for over 5,000 children in kindergartens and elementary schools nationwide. Readers also brought nearly 2.000 books and audiobooks as gifts for the students. The campaign was supplemented by online video and livestream offerings.
For “Freedom of Expression Week” in May 2022 in Germany, we released a widely-shared video online featuring statements from our authors regarding the importance of freedom of expression. Authors Aslı Erdoğan, Hadija Haruna-Oelker, Wladimir Kaminer, Ute Krause, Salman Rushdie, and Michail Schischkin also shared their perspectives on the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
In Germany, our environmental team organized a selection of events and campaigns for Penguin Random House parent company Berteslmann’s Content Alliance to discuss water as a resource and habitat. More than 20 colleagues took action and cleared waste from our office building. The Random House Audio team also produced a new climate podcast exploring the connection between human rights and water, alongside experts.
In December 2020, we took a major step forward in sustainable book production in Germany by signing the Healthy Printing Charter. In addition to the consistent avoidance and compensation of CO2 emissions, our teams in Germany commit to the Healthy Printing principle: To ensure that all materials are returned to the cycle and can continue to be used. That means, for example, that paper can be recycled, and the inks or glues used can be removed without leaving any residue, making all materials as compatible as possible for humans and nature. To learn more, click here.
In honor of National Read Aloud Day on November 20, 2020, Penguin Random House Verlagsgruppe gave more than 1,000 audiobooks and books to schools, kindergartens and children’s daycare centers featuring celebrities, authors and employees, available through the end of the year on the campaign webpage. Rather than in-person visits, children celebrated Read Aloud Day with special book packages personalized with greetings from PRH Verlagsgruppe employees.
“We look forward to being able to meet children face-to-face on Read Aloud Day 2021 again. Reading aloud and telling stories, listening, questions and discussions need closeness. However, we are happy and thankful that we have the technological possibilities to bring stories to homes and classrooms this year,” said Thomas Rathnow, CEO Penguin Random House Verlagsgruppe.
“I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart and on behalf of the children and teachers at our school for the wonderful books you kindly gave to us. The first children who were able to peek into the book package were absolutely delighted and did not want to stop reading,” said Anika Lürssen, Vice Principal of the catholic primary school St. Mauritius in Cologne.
