Ever since it was founded in 1993, the Akademie des Deutschen Buchhandels (ADB) has specialised in providing practical training to skilled personnel and management staff working in the fields of publishing and the media. While the organisation’s initial mission in the 1990s was to systematically develop a range of continuing-education courses for the publishing and media sector, the ADB soon exten
ded its task of offering vocational training to people in this area by providing a broad range of courses to the media departments of industrial companies as well. With over 3,200 participants in its training events, 280 different seminars and around 80 inhouse projects each year, the ADB is now one of Germany’s leading media academies. Having specialised in publishing, the ADB conducts seminars, courses leading to certificates and coaching schemes with a view to providing specific vocational training. The aim of all these events is to achieve the highest degree of relevance possible regarding the topics and practical knowledge handled in the courses. Amongst other bodies it is involved in, the ADB is a member of the “Wuppertaler Kreis”, the “Münchner Kreis”, LIMA and ABPTOE (the Association of Bookseller and Publisher Training Organizations in Europe). The ADB’s managing director, Bernd Zanetti, has been president of ABPTOE since 2009. The ADB’s headquarters are at the “Literaturhaus”, a listed building in the heart of Munich. Varying in size, the rooms there are suitable for a wide range of events. A non-profit-making limited company since 1999, the ADB is owned by eleven shareholders. This broad base of ownership gives it the scope to create a rich and comprehensive variety of educational offerings in each of the main areas of publishing and media work. Being a non-profit organisation, the ADB additionally pursues the goal of offering high-quality education at comparatively little cost.
