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Kopp Verlag

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Kopp Verlag is a German publisher based in Rottenburg am Neckar. It publishes books and an online news website notably in the field of right-wing esotericism, populism and extremism, as well as pseudoscience and conspiracy theories. Other topics include wellness, outdoor equipment, survival skills and self-defense.

Kopp Verlag in 2019

Topics and publications

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Founded by the former policeman Jochen Kopp,[1] the company ships up to 25,000 books per day and has about 80 employees, according to its own account.[1]

Among the topics addressed by Kopp's books are ancient astronauts, ufology, the phantom time hypothesis, creationism, astrology, geomancy, Germanic mythology, Islamism, Freiwirtschaft and "gender and gender mainstreaming".

Eva Herman was approving of the 2010 Love Parade disaster as a response by "other powers" to the "shameless display",[2] one by Udo Ulfkotte about how the 2011 E. coli outbreak was supposedly spread by "oriental" farmhands waging a "fecal jihad", and one by Gerhard Wisnewski about the supposed transsexuality of Michelle Obama.[3]

In addition to its own books and media, Kopp also sells books by other publishers as well as food and survival equipment.

Online

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Over time, Kopp-Verlag has built its own online media, some of which have since been discontinued or replaced by new formats.

From 2010 to 2012, Kopp produced the five-minute "Kopp News" on weekdays, hosted by former Tagesschau anchor Eva Herman. The news portal "Kopp Online," which was discontinued in 2016, had around six million hits per month in January 2016.

The information portal "Kopp-Report" has existed since September 2017.

From February 2012 to October 2016, Kopp-Verlag hosted lectures and conferences in several cities in southern Germany. The speakers were mostly its own authors.

In addition to Kopp exklusiv, an eight-page newsletter,[4] the company publishes Kopp Online, a website with articles and previously also videos covering the abovementioned topics.

History

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The publisher's company founder, Jochen Kopp, was a police officer until the mid-1990s. Then he founded the publishing house and published books about UFOs, secret societies and other conspiracies. Later, the Euro crisis and the global financial system were added as important topics. Since the attacks of September 11, 2001, it has focused on conspiracy theories. In addition to original editions of books by authors such as Udo Ulfkotte and Bruno Bandulet, Kopp-Verlag also publishes translations and reprints of older books.[5]

Most of them involve conspiracies, sometimes they come from the US Federal Reserve Bank, sometimes from the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, which allegedly wants to bring about the collapse of the financial system.

In 2013 the publisher moved to a larger building.[6]

Reception

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According to Stefan Kaiser in Spiegel Online, Kopp publishes conspiracy theorists alongside "serious" anti-European authors such as the professors Joachim Starbatty, Wilhelm Nölling, Karl Albrecht Schachtschneider and Dieter Spethmann.[3]

In 2010, Die Welt described Kopp Verlag as a company specializing in "esotericism, conspiracy theories and disinformation",[7][8][9] and the Schwäbisches Tagblatt characterized its range as encompassing "ufology, the 'Germanic New Medicine' of the spirit healer Ryke Geerd Hamer and supposed revelations about the Communist background of ecologism or the Islamization of the West".[10] The Gemeinschaftswerk der Evangelischen Publizistik described Kopp's authors in 2010 as a "who-is-who of German conspiracism", including several authors espousing right-wing and esoteric ideologies.[11]

The FAZ referred to the Kopp-Verlag in 2015 as part of a growing "industry of fear",[12] and Spiegel Online wrote in 2014 that the publisher's "business model of fear" made it, with its "mixture of right-wing populism, anticapitalism and taboo-breaker's attitude" a pioneer of the zeitgeist of anti-political correctness.[3]

On October 29, 2016, the publishing house held another congress in Augsburg, this time on the topic of geopolitics. Speakers were Udo Ulfkotte, Wolfgang Effenberger, F. William Engdahl, Peter Orzechowski and Daniele Ganser.[13]

Support of AfD

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Individual authors from Kopp Publishing are or were active as politicians, employees, or speakers for the AfD, such as AfD member of the Bundestag Peter Boehringer and Thor Kunkel, an AfD advisor for the 2017 federal election. Author Joachim Starbatty was an AfD MEP before leaving the party in 2015 and wrote a right-wing critique of the EU and the euro.

Jürgen Elsässer, the best-known right-wing propagandist and AfD supporter, is an author for Kopp.[5]

Authors

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Among the Kopp Verlag's authors are the following:

References

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  • Ulrike Heß-Meining: Right-Wing Esotericism in Europe. In: Uwe Backes, Patrick Moreau (Hrsg.): The Extreme Right in Europe. Current Trends and Perspectives (= Schriften des Hannah-Arendt-Instituts für Totalitarismusforschung. Vol. 46). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen u. a. 2012, ISBN 978-3-525-36922-7, S. 383–408, hier: S. 402 f.
  • Anna Hunger: Gut vernetzt – Der Kopp-Verlag und die schillernde rechte Publizistenszene. In: Stephan Braun, Alexander Geisler, Martin Gerster (Hrsg.): Strategien der extremen Rechten: Hintergründe – Analysen – Antworten. 2. aktualisierte und erweiterte Auflage, Springer Fachmedien, Wiesbaden 2015, ISBN 978-3-658-01983-9, S. 425 ff.
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Footnotes

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  1. ^ a b Anna Hunger, Brücke nach rechts, in: Kontext Ausgabe 160, 26/27 April 2014, S. 1.
  2. ^ Hete Henning: Zugpferd Eva Herman – Was der Rottenburger Kopp-Verlag machtArchived 6 September 2010 at the Wayback Machine, Verlagsporträt, Schwäbisches Tagblatt, 15 August 2010.
  3. ^ a b c Verschwörungstheorien: Das Geschäft mit der Angst, Spiegel Online 22 May 2015.
  4. ^ Kopp exklusiv
  5. ^ a b "Kopp-Verlag | apabiz". www.apabiz.de (in German). 2024-12-18. Retrieved 2025-07-13.
  6. ^ Kaiser, Stefan (2014-05-22). "Verschwörungstheorien: Der Kopp-Verlag macht Geschäfte mit der Angst". Der Spiegel (in German). ISSN 2195-1349. Retrieved 2023-11-03.
  7. ^ Eva Hermans Kampf gegen die Loveparade, Die Welt, 26 July 2010.
  8. ^ Eva Herman und die „Wolken der Entfesselung", Die Welt, 27 July 2010.
  9. ^ Ich weiß Dinge, die ihr niemals glauben würdet, Die Welt, retrieved 27 November 2004.
  10. ^ Trittbrettfahrer der Loveparade-Katastrophe Archived 2010-07-31 at the Wayback Machine, Schwäbisches Tagblatt 28 July 2010.
  11. ^ Eva Herman und die rechten Ufologen, evangelisch.de des Gemeinschaftswerk der Evangelischen Publizistik 26 July 2010.
  12. ^ Die Angstindustrie, FAZ, 17 January 2015.
  13. ^ Soldt, Rüdiger; Rottenburg. "Kopp-Verlag: Auf dem Heimatplaneten für rechtsextreme Ufologen". FAZ.NET (in German). ISSN 0174-4909. Retrieved 2022-11-19.
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