In 2023, the award “Bavaria’s bookstore of the year” goes to the bookstore Buecher Lehmann in Nördlingen. This was announced by Minister of Art Markus Blume in Munich: “Bücher Lehmann has truly earned the title of ‘Bavaria’s Bookstore of the Year’: With its deep roots in the city and its stimulating range, the bookstore is an important cultural anchorage in the Nördlinger Ries,” said Blume . In 2015, the Free State of Bavaria offered the prize to recognize outstanding achievements by bookstores in Bavaria in conveying culture.
Matthis Lehmann, 39, is “extremely pleased” with the award, as he says on the phone: He completed his bookseller apprenticeship with his father Ralf in the shop. He then went to the LMU in Munich to study modern German literature, book science and business administration, after which he worked for almost eight years at publishing houses, including Random House. “But then I realized that nowhere in the office was as nice as in my own bookshop – and I decided to go back to Nördlingen”. That was six years ago now. At first he formed a dual leadership with his father, who retired three years ago and since then he has been the sole owner of the Lehmann books.
The award is endowed with 8,000 euros and is being presented for the sixth time this year by the Bavarian Ministry of Art at the suggestion of an independent jury. She emphasized the special commitment of the bookstore, which is run by Matthis Lehmann in the second generation: “In the best sense of the word, it is Bavaria’s bookstore of the year 2023 because it has made the transition to the successor in the last two years, and in the course of the corona pandemic it moved to ventured a larger area and held its ground economically in the local competition.” Lehmann’s innovative ideas include, for example, the fact that he has organized the position of town clerk for authors of children’s and young adult books, which is unique in Germany.