Year | Total | Fiction | Popular writings | 1840 | 10,808 | | | 1841 | 11,080 | 993 | | 1842 | 12,509 | | | 1843 | 14,039 | | | 1844 | 13,119 | | | 1845 | 13,008 | | | 1846 | 10,536 | | | 1847 | 10,684 | | | 1848 | 9,942 | | | 1849 | 8,197 | | | 1850 | 9,053 | | | 1851 | 8,326 | 829 | 167 | 1852 | 8,857 | 844 | 175 | 1853 | 8,750 | 908 | 171 | 1854 | 8,705 | 848 | 158 | 1855 | 8,794 | 887 | 168 | 1856 | 8,540 | 945 | 134 | 1857 | 8,699 | 950 | 135 | 1858 | 8,672 | 888 | 135 | 1859 | 8,666 | 913 | 209 | 1860 | 9,496 | | | 1861 | 9,566 | | | 1862 | 9,779 | | | 1863 | 9,889 | | | 1864 | 9,564 | 971 | 196 | 1865 | 9,661 | 935 | 212 | 1866 | 8,669 | 704 | 165 | 1867 | 9,855 | 852 | 212 | 1868 | 10,563 | 958 | 237 | 1869 | 11,305 | 999 | 335 | 1870 | 10,108 | 739 | 271 | 1871 | 10,669 | 950 | 236 | 1872 | 11,127 | 998 | 209 | 1873 | 11,315 | 948 | 205 | 1874 | 12,070 | 912 | 388 | 1875 | 12,516 | 1,061 | 471 | 1876 | 13,356 | 1,070 | 547 | 1877 | 13,925 | 1,126 | 540 | 1878 | 13,912 | 1,181 | 715 | 1879 | 14,179 | 1,170 | 642 | 1880 | 14,941 | 1,209 | 657 | 1881 | 15,191 | 1,226 | 639 | 1882 | 14,794 | 1,260 | 654 | 1883 | 14,802 | 1,207 | 724 | (by comparison, Federal Republic of Germany, including West Berlin:) | 1971 | 42,957 | 8,165 | | Note: Data from 1860-1863 was not available. These figures also include German-language book production in Austria-Hungary and Switzerland, insofar as these titles were distributed in the German Empire (by way of Leipzig) after 1871.
Source: “Systematische Übersicht der literarischen Erzeugnisse des deutschen Buchhandels” [“Systematic Review of Literary Products by the German Book Trade”], published annually in the financial newspaper for the German book trade by J.C. Hinrichs’schen Bookstore. Original German data reprinted in Max Bucher, Werner Hal, Georg Jäger, and Reinhard Wittmann, eds. Realismus und Gründerzeit: Manifeste und Dokumente zur deutschen Literatur 1848-1880 [Realism and the Founding Era: Public Statements and Documents on German Literature 1848-1880], 2 vols. Stuttgart: J.B. Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1975, vol. 1, pp. 166-69. Translation: Erwin Fink
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