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r Mrs Schmidt-Friderichs, you have studied architecture, changed profession
and, together with your husband, you became self-employed as a publisher.
What was it that made you change your profession?
I used to be an enthusiastic and committed architecture student in Stuttgart, in an
environment where, in the 1980s and the 1990s, renowned old-established architec-
tural offices were booming and new high-flyers gained momentum. I was a young
mother, married, and yet did not have the slightest doubt whether I would achieve
a certain success in architecture. Then my husband took over a medium-sized prin-
ting company in Mainz, I followed him there, completed my diploma by commuting
between Mainz and Stuttgart as a mother who more or less managed to bring up my
children on my own – and then had to find out that I did not have a network in Mainz
where my capacity was seen as something to be appreciated – and that Mainz offe-
red far less chances for young female architects. My husband conceived impossible
printing challenges as training on the job for his employees which were then made
possible nevertheless and were successfully established as a field service of the prin-
ting firm. The books which were published in this way were repeatedly awarded and
gained increasing attention far beyond the region and the nation. I never witnessed
him being as happy as when he was working on these projects and I suggested ma-
king a second mainstay of this, with me as the sales engine. I preferred to get started
full of positive energy in a new field to having the feeling of stalling in my treasured
architecture.

r How did you master this step? From where did you take your motivation and
which personal characteristics helped you most in this?
I probably already learnt to consider chances in my parental home. I never believed
– and I do not believe this either today, at the age of 61 – that one finishes learning
and one’s own development at a certain point in time. And I firmly believe that one
can achieve as much as one dares whenever one bases one’s bold plans on solid
further training. I like to face new challenges, I see this as a chance to grow. And per-
haps “failing” is also not stored in my head as the “certain outcome” so that there
is not always a sword of Damocles hanging over all the dreams.

r Parallel to your independence, you were also the mother of two daughters.
How did you manage the familial and the professional challenges at the same
time? How much time did your self-employment require of you, particularly du-
ring the founding phase, and what did the division of tasks with your husband
look like?
Through my daughters, I learnt radical self-organization. And there was something
else I unintentionally learnt through them: There is no living on the one hand and
working on the other hand. In my opinion, work-life balance leads down a wrong
path. It is rather a question of how do I best reconcile the different facets of who I
am? And is this kind of work the right one for me? Does it fulfil me? Is it worth it that
I sit down and work again when the children are in bed? And it was worth it to me.
I really cared about the publishing company. My girlfriends used to say that the com-
pany was something like a third child for me. If you like what you are doing, this
also gives you the energy to do it. All the same, when looking back I have to admit
that there have been times when I quite overexerted myself. I would have wished
for a more equal and “equally obligatory” relationship with my husband. Today, he
is sorry that he was not able to live up to this at the time.

r What do you see as the recipe for success of your Hermann Schmidt publisher?
After we had shown the book treasures my husband had produced as a field service Schöne Schale, harter Kern.
of the printing company for the first time at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 1992, two
things became clear to us. First: The response to these very specially designed and Die SPC - CORE COLLECTION ist die
produced books was enormous, there was and is potential in this. And secondly:
Beauty alone is not a programme, we need a distinct profile. At the time, the Apple schnelle und saubere Boden-Lösung.
Macintosh had just started its triumphant progress, people had a gigantic “case Einfach zu verlegen und sofort begehbar.
room” available to them and lacked the knowhow to use it. Bertram was a trained
typesetter, Chairman des Type Directors Club of New York in Germany, a foundation www.project-floors.com.
member of the Forum Typografie, in short, he was a typography maniac. Typography
thus became our topic. From the consistent orientation on the needs and wants of
the target group, the publishing programme evolved. For 30 years now, we have
been assisting the target group of the creative minds through the various challenges