About Liboriusblatt

Liboriusblatt

The Liboriusblatt is a weekly Catholic family magazine published in Hamm, North Rhine-Westphalia, by the Verlag Liboriusblatt. Appearing every week since 13 March 1899 as an independent Catholic family journal, it is one of the oldest continuously published Catholic magazines in Germany, with roots reaching back to 1884. Named after Saint Liborius, the late-antique patron saint of the Archdiocese of Paderborn, to which the city of Hamm belongs, the magazine combines faith, family life and general interest in the tradition of the Catholic family press. With a circulation of around 40,000 copies, it reaches Catholic households across Germany, and its publishing house has grown into a small group of Catholic weeklies with the Bayrisches Sonntagsblatt, the Kassler Sonntagsblatt and the Neues Ruhrwort as sister titles.

Overview

The Liboriusblatt is a classic Catholic Familienzeitschrift: a weekly magazine for the Catholic family, combining religious content with family reading. Its programme addresses believing readers and their families: faith and spirituality, the life of the church, family topics, and the general-interest mix of the illustrated family magazine. The magazine appears weekly and is distributed primarily by subscription to loyal readers, many of whom have read it for decades and some for generations.

The magazine is named after Saint Liborius, the fourth-century bishop of Le Mans whose relics were transferred to Paderborn in the ninth century, making him the patron of the city and the archdiocese. The choice of name anchors the magazine in the Catholic identity of its region: Hamm belongs to the Archdiocese of Paderborn, and the Liboriusblatt has always understood itself as the Catholic voice of its home region and beyond.

The publisher is the Verlag Liboriusblatt, based in Hamm with the postal address 59067 Hamm. The publishing house has expanded over the years into a small group of Catholic weeklies: the Bayrisches Sonntagsblatt, in cooperation since 1975 and fully taken over in 1983; the Kassler Sonntagsblatt, taken over in 2018; and the Neues Ruhrwort, taken over in 2024 and scheduled to merge completely into the Liboriusblatt in 2026. These titles appear as head editions, sharing content with regional adaptations, a structure that gives the small Catholic press the economies of scale it needs to survive.

With a circulation of around 40,000 copies, the Liboriusblatt is a medium-sized title in the German magazine market, but in the shrinking segment of the Catholic press it is one of the established survivors. Its readership is predominantly older, Catholic, and loyal: the classic audience of the denominational family press.

History

The history of the Liboriusblatt begins in 1884, when the "Hammer Sonntagsblatt" appeared with the subtitle "Liboriusblatt" as the Saturday supplement of the "Hammer Volkszeitung". The newspaper was founded to represent Catholic positions in the Kulturkampf, the struggle between the German Empire and the Catholic Church that shaped German Catholic identity in the late nineteenth century. From these militant beginnings, the supplement developed into a family magazine.

On 13 March 1899 the Liboriusblatt became an independent Catholic family magazine. The paper shortages of the First World War and the economic crisis led to a collapse from which the magazine only recovered in the 1920s under editor-in-chief Hermann Josef Berges. Under Berges the magazine reached a circulation of more than 100,000 copies, making it one of the most widely read Catholic papers of the Weimar Republic.

The National Socialist era brought the rupture. In 1936 Berges was forced to resign his office, the name had to be changed to "Familienbote", and Catholic topics were banned. The magazine survived the war years in this diminished form until the autumn of 1944, when publication was discontinued after the print house in Hamm was destroyed by bombing. The first postwar issue, again under the name "Liboriusblatt", appeared on 15 May 1949, in the founding year of the Federal Republic.

The postwar decades were the golden age of the denominational press, and the Liboriusblatt shared in it. For its centenary, on 13 March 1999, Pope John Paul II received 320 readers of the magazine, members of the editorial team and the publishing house in a private audience in the Vatican. The Pope honoured the magazine and its makers, saying that in not always easy times they had succeeded in preserving and sharpening the Catholic profile of their journal, and that they had thus occupied an important place in the press landscape of twentieth-century Germany.

In recent years the publishing house has consolidated the Catholic weekly press through takeovers: the Kassler Sonntagsblatt in 2018 and the Neues Ruhrwort in 2024, the latter to be fully merged into the Liboriusblatt in 2026. These moves reflect the economic logic of the denominational press: only through cooperation and consolidation can the small Catholic weeklies maintain their publishing operations.

Content and Sections

The content of the Liboriusblatt follows the programme of the Catholic family magazine. Faith and church form the core: reports on the life of the church, from the Vatican to the local parish, reflections on the liturgical year, introductions to prayer and spirituality, and portraits of saints and witnesses of faith. The magazine addresses the questions of believing readers in a secularised society: how to live the faith, how to pass it on, how to find orientation in the church's crises.

Family content addresses the life of Catholic families: relationships, parenting, education, health and the challenges of family life, treated from a Christian perspective. The general-interest sections continue the tradition of the illustrated family magazine: stories, reportage, practical advice and lighter reading. The combination of the religious and the general-interest is the magazine's defining feature: it is neither a pure devotional paper nor a secular family magazine, but the Catholic family magazine in the full sense.

The regional anchoring in the Archdiocese of Paderborn and in Hamm gives the magazine its local colour: reports from the region, from the church life of Westphalia and beyond, connect the universal church to the reader's home. The sister titles extend this regional principle: the Bayrisches Sonntagsblatt for Bavaria, the Kassler Sonntagsblatt for northern Hesse, each with the shared editorial core and regional adaptations.

Publisher and Organization

The Liboriusblatt is published by the Verlag Liboriusblatt, based in Hamm, North Rhine-Westphalia, with the postal address 59067 Hamm. The publishing house is a Catholic family enterprise that has published the magazine for more than a century. Detailed information about the current editorial leadership is not publicly confirmed in the sources consulted.

The publishing group's structure, with the Liboriusblatt as the main title and the Bayrisches Sonntagsblatt, the Kassler Sonntagsblatt and the Neues Ruhrwort as head editions, reflects the consolidation strategy of the Catholic press. The takeover of the Neues Ruhrwort in 2024, with its planned complete merger into the Liboriusblatt in 2026, continues this logic: the small denominational titles can only survive by pooling their resources.

The business model is subscription-based, with the magazine's loyal readership providing the stable foundation. Advertising plays a subordinate role in the denominational press; the magazine lives from its subscribers, many of whom have been loyal for decades. The website liborius.de presents the publishing house and its titles digitally, with subscription services and information about the magazines.

Digital Presence

The website liborius.de is the digital home of the publishing house and its magazines. The site presents the Liboriusblatt and its sister titles, with information about the publications and subscription services. The digital offering is modest compared to commercial magazines, reflecting the title's identity as a print-first family magazine for a loyal, largely older readership.

The digital strategy is consistent with the magazine's mission: the website serves as an information and subscription channel, while the print magazine remains the core product that readers hold in their hands each week. For a Catholic family magazine with roots reaching back to 1884 and an independent history since 1899, the essential task is continuity: to keep faith with its readers across generations. With its sister titles and its consolidated publishing structure, the Liboriusblatt remains one of the enduring voices of the German Catholic press, in print every week from Hamm.