ABSTRACT
In the majority of cases, it is the task of publishing houses to select, edit and publish texts. However, all these activities take place within a social context and are affected by political policies, administrative structures and other social interactions of the society in which they take place. Therefore, in order to gain a better insight into translation processes in East Germany, it is helpful to take a look at publishing policies and strategies as they developed under the socialist regime. It is the objective of this chapter to explore the processes put in place within the publishing machinery and to investigate where key decisions about the publication of books were made and, further, how they were reached. Hence, this chapter examines the hierarchical structures in the planning and monitoring processes and, also, the instruments with which this control was exercised.
