The company started as a Catholic religious publisher founded by Joseph Charles Benzinger in 1792. In 1833, Benziger's sons, Charles and Nicholas, succeeded their father under the company name of Charles and Nicholas Benziger Brothers. Two years later, in addition to their book-publishing business, the brothers began
lithographing religious pictures, as well as coloring them by hand, before the introduction of
chromolithography. The American firm of Benziger Brothers is now independent of the Swiss house. The
Holy See conferred on the firm the title "Printers to the Holy Apostolic See" in 1867. In July 2007, the Benziger name and product line were purchased from
McGraw-Hill (which had acquired Macmillan's educational division) by
CFM Publishing and merged with Texas-based Catholic publisher RCL (Resources for Christian Living), founded in 1964 by Richard C. Leach, to form RCL Benziger. The new company is now headquartered in
Cincinnati as it was in the 19th century. In 2016, RCL Benziger was sold to
Kendall Hunt Publishing.
Europe Benziger's Swiss operation was also growing at the end of the 19th century. At the peak of its expansion in the 1890s, Benziger published books and magazines in 20 languages and had more than 1,000 employees in Switzerland alone, making it one of the largest Swiss companies at the time. The company opened locations in
Cologne in 1884 and
Strasbourg in 1912. A bookstore in
Waldshut was added as early as 1887, but was sold in 1936 and was closed in 2019. The
First World War brought major setbacks, as the company was separated from its main sales areas. The Benziger family withdrew from the active publishing business. Later, the rise of
National Socialism had a lasting effect on sales of the traditionally Catholic-oriented program. After the
Second World War, the theological program was supplemented by a wide range of books for children and young people. and the children's book division was bought by Arena Publishing in
Würzburg. After a creeping decline, Benziger's Swiss operation was taken over by Patmos Publishing in 1994. In 2003, publishing activities under the Benziger name were discontinued. In 1985, Benziger spun off its publishing distribution. Since 2015, it has been operating under the name Balmer Bücherdienst AG and is the second-largest intermediate book-trade company in Switzerland. In 1986, the printing house in Einsiedeln was separated from the publishing house to become an independent stock corporation like the publishing house. Without the publishing house, however, the company could no longer bring in sufficient revenue and was discontinued in 1995. The Einsiedeln bookstore founded in 1802 was sold in 1987, but, still exists under its old name. ==References==