A generationIn the morning light of the union building, a small shop was huddled in a cobblestone alley that had practically ceased to exist. An orange rectangular logo protrudes from the front and is screwed to the door arch made of light clinker bricks. It says in black letters: Gutenberg Book Guild. This store in the center of Giessen is accessible via three narrow basalt steps, flanked by two shop windows. Dagmar Tenten, the owner, usually greets with a smile on the left behind the counter. Tameo, a collie and greyhound mixed breed, looked at the guests curiously. Looking around, other shops use artificially painted patinas to create a retro look-this is a retro style.
Tenten makes no secret of the internal aging. “There used to be a jewelry store here, and the operator already had a shelf,” she reported. Her parents took over the shelves. That was in 1970. Anyone looking behind the counter will see the tablet. Dagmar Tenten also owns a smartphone. Otherwise, the modern equipment that has been common in bookstores for a long time will not be found. But the owner runs a French second-hand bookstore. After all, as she said, she loves languages and has lived in France for ten years.
“You can no longer live only on the stuff of the Book Guild”
However, the most important thing is that the works of the Book Guild dominate the exhibition. This is a special thing. Because in most of the cooperative bookstores of the Frankfurt-based cooperative, Büchergilde products are only a small part of the range. “You can no longer live on the stuff of the book club,” Teng Teng said. The 375 members of Giessen and the surrounding area basically constitute their customer base, as it is called at the headquarters in Frankfurt Braubachstrasse. And: Therefore, there is only one Verdi bookstore in Berlin that specializes in the products of the book guild, except for the trade union books, which are available there. Between these two, in Tenten’s small empire, there are still jewels made of wood and metal—as she emphasized, “used and sterilized”. This work sells for five euros. A small bookshelf is reserved for books by regional authors.
Customers think this store is more than just a place with books and other beautiful things. Dagmar Tenten even exaggerates: her shop is “at least a bookstore”—more precisely, it used to be, and still is, a place of encounter. Customers and neighbors have become friends. Your parents established this business. At that time, in 1954, a year before the daughter was born, the Book Guild was still part of the union’s investment portfolio. It was not until 1998 that the trade union controlling BGAG was separated from the subsidiary that had been established to provide literary education for workers and their families. As a result, the connection with the trade union circle gradually became loose.
Tentens gradually established a kind of communication in their “book distribution center”. In the 1980s, her shop also became the focus of the local peace movement. For so many members and so many friends, this shop became a meeting place for chatting at one of the tavern tables. But this is not a one-way street: “When my mother dies, I have someone who can talk to me,” Dagma Tenten said.
“Bring home a good book”
Initially, her parents set up a book guild in their apartment. The “shop” consists of two shelves with curtains in front. “One is in the basement and the other is in the garage. And I also have a curtain,” Dagmar Tenten said. She is preserving and developing her parents’ legacy, as evidenced by some framed newspaper articles and photos in the shop. She organized readings, small concerts, vernissages and round tables with regional writers. There are already many dates in 2020. Then came the coronavirus pandemic.
As a result, like other booksellers, sales fell. So Tianteng gets along very well. When she could be reached in the store, the former teacher notified her customers through the answering machine. Especially in order to accommodate the old members of the Book Guild, it provides bicycle express delivery services.
Side effect of the pandemic: The role of the store is to exchange information, chat spaces, and where anyone who likes to play can pick up the waiting guitar-“The whole culture is gone,” said Tenten, but confident: “That’s it again It’s set up.” Then the owner again kept the correct display window to get information about her own event. At the same time, the motto is: read books, wait for the development of the epidemic, and plan. “You have to admire the fact that she persisted for so long to publish a good book,” said a person who has known her for a long time. This, in turn, is strongly reminiscent of the motto of the Book Association ten years ago: “Bring good books into your home”.
The cited source also proves that Tenten has made self-sacrificing work while staying away from a large number of buyers. Now she is not getting rich in her shop, and she is at the age when everyone else is considering retirement. How is she doing after retirement? She didn’t even think about it, and said with a smile: “My mother is still here when she is 84 years old.”
