2023: 75 Years of “Finest Urtext Editions”
In October 1948, a difficult period, the music-loving industrialist Günter Henle founded his music publishing house. His passion was “Urtext”: correct, unadulterated and beautiful editions of great works of classical music. Today we can look back on a great success story: 75 years of “Finest Urtext Editions”. Thus throughout 2023 we will be celebrating Urtext and our special anniversary. The highlight will be a large gala concert with numerous internationally renowned artists in Munich’s Prinzregententheater at the beginning of November. Come and celebrate with us!
Anniversary Edition
Further editions of this title
The HENLE ALBUM: “From Bach to Gershwin”
Our special anniversary edition is a particular treat for all pianists: it contains the best-known, most frequently played piano pieces from the Henle programme. Allow yourself to be tempted to sit down at the piano with Bach’s C major Invention, Mozart’s D minor Fantasy, Beethoven’s Elise or Satie’s first Gymnopedie – to name just four of the 17 titles of easy to medium difficulty. There are also wonderful pieces by Schönberg, Bartók and Gershwin. Arranged chronologically, this very reasonably priced edition (EUR 7.50, 44 pages) gives you an opportunity to explore the history of piano music from Bach to Gershwin.
Discover many more attractive gift articles!
75 YEARS AGO, not only an idea was born, but its outstanding realisation: On 20 October 1948 the diplomat, politician and industrial magnate Günter Henle (1899–1979) founded his “publishing house for Urtext editions” in Munich. An accomplished pianist himself, he had noticed that there were hardly any editions that accurately reproduced the composer's musical text. It was an important concern for him to change this!
Browse through the company's history of 75 years and see how G. Henle Publishers developed from the very first steps in 1948 to one of the world's leading publishing houses for classical sheet music.
-
1950s
Artist friends of Günter Henle – such as pianist Rudolf Serkin – pay tribute to him and his publishing work. Until today, friendship and close collaborations with renowned musicians are maintained and highly appreciated by G. Henle Publishers.
-
1968
The publishing house's source archive contains more than 70,000 photocopies of autographs, first editions and early manuscript copies. By 2023, the collection will include 40,000 complete reproductions of sources.
-
1969
Dr Martin Bente is appointed Head of Production. He is commercial director from 1972 and General Manager of G. Henle Publishers from 1979 to 2000.
-
1972
Dr Günter Henle establishes the Günter Henle Foundation with its headquarters in Munich. The foundation assumes ownership of G. Henle Publishers on his death.
-
1978
Acquisition of the offices in Forstenrieder Allee in Munich, still home to the publishing house today. The photo shows the building in its current state.
-
1990
Dr Wolf-Dieter Seiffert becomes an editor. Since 2000, he has been General Manager of the publishing house.
-
2000
... digital music notation!
-
2000
The company's logo and text layout are carefully modernised.
-
2019
Donation of the entire Henle Urtext sheet music catalogue, comprising 1,250 music books to the Barenboim-Said Akademie, Berlin (in the photo: Felix Henle together with Daniel Barenboim). Learn more about the wide range of corporate responsibility activities by the publishing house and the Günter Henle Foundation by clicking on this text.
-
2023
After 75 years, G. Henle Publishers is the global market leader in this segment with around 1,500 published Urtext editions. The export business accounts for around 70% with the most important markets being the USA, South Korea, Japan, China and France.
Frank Peter Zimmermann has a longstanding and close relationship with G. Henle Publishers. In the video, he is one of the first to congratulate us on our 75th anniversary! Listen to his thoughts on Urtext, fingerings and bowings, his favourite works and his very close ties to the Henle family:
Our close friendship with numerous outstanding musicians around the world is especially close to our hearts. So on our 75th anniversary, we are delighted to have received so many birthday wishes in writing and in the form of pictures and videos!
Truly the highlight of an exciting anniversary year: the glorious gala concert to mark G. Henle Publishers' 75th birthday on November 3, 2023 at Munich's Prinzregententheater! We are still overwhelmed by the brilliant performances of the world-class artists Grigory Sokolov, Frank Peter Zimmermann, Martin Helmchen, Nils Mönkemeyer, Claire Huangci, Tianwa Yang, Julian Steckel and William Youn – with accompaniment of the amazing Munich Chamber Orchestra under the direction of the great Christoph Poppen. All artists performed for no fee. All ticket proceeds from the benefit concert will go to the Kulturkreis der deutschen Wirtschaft im BDI e. V. and the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben.
Our heartfelt thanks to all the artists, to our partner MünchenMusik and to a wonderful audience!
Photos: Astrid Ackermann

Do you miss meeting and mingling as much as we do?
It goes without saying that, at G. Henle Verlag, our first and foremost endeavor is to carry on the mission of the founder, Günter Henle, to make classical music available to all the music lovers in the world, in the highest possible quality.
Increasingly in the past years we have actively reached out to professional musicians and to our customers. Why so? Because, by talking and listening to what you have to say, we can steadily improve our products.
By becoming more and more active on social media, facebook and Instagram especially, we are in touch with our customers. That way we know what they like about Henle Urtext and what is important to them. Finally, we talk to our music dealers daily. We want to support their sales and find out from them what is moving the market.
We used to look forward with eager excitement to music fairs in Frankfurt and Shanghai, and also smaller conferences in other locations. Now that some are not taking place at all or being postponed, we decided to celebrate the 75th anniversary of G. Henle Verlag with a virtual Open Day that gives us – and you – the opportunity to get together.
» More Information and Registration