[2][3] The history of Georg von Holtzbrink's publishing activities during the Nazi years 1933-1945 has been controversial.

[4][5] After World War II, Georg von Holtzbrinck, a former member of the Nazi party,[6] reestablished a group in 1948, beginning as a German book club.

In the 1960s, it purchased the German publishing companies Droemer, Kindler, Rowohlt and S. Fischer Verlag.

The company also received a good deal of attention when it bought the then leading German social networking platform StudiVZ in January 2007.

Don Weisberg is CEO of Macmillan, the company that unites the US-based businesses of the group.