In 1968, the German teacher sent the freshly graduated high school graduate out into the world: "Don't turn your hobby into a profession, otherwise you'll end up like me ..." Benno Käsmayr followed the advice and first began to study mathematics, but literature had him firmly in its grip. The Technical University of Munich interested him less than the "Maistrassenpresse" with authors such as Herbert Achternbusch, Peter Handke and G. F. Jonke, in which he worked. A visit to the Frankfurt Book Fair in 1969 then tipped the scales: Benno Käsmayr and his friend Franz Bermeitinger founded Maroverlag in the "Schwarze Katz" over Äppelwoi, while in the next room H.C. Artmann lost to Peter Handke at table football.

MaroVerlag was founded alongside his studies, so to speak, first with the magazine UND - "zeitschrift für angebliche literatur und andere branchenunübliche kommunikationsformen in demsprechendder aufmachung" (magazine for alleged literature and other unusual forms of communication in the industry with a corresponding layout), and books from spring 1970. The fact that the small publishing house was celebrated as the "Wagenbach of the 70s" (Darmstädter Echo) in the first few years despite its small print run was more due to its program. The established publishers were hardly a port of call for the young poets of the time, who were strongly oriented towards American models. As early as 1971, Rowohlt asked for paperback rights for a title that had originally been reproduced using spirit matrices, as offset printing would not have been affordable. However, this was made possible in the following years by a lucky coincidence: after moving to the University of Augsburg, where he then studied social sciences, the small publisher worked in a dissertation printing company and after a few weeks there was an exchange in kind: working time for paper and machine time, an ideal symbiosis.

The "Bücher die man sonst nicht findet" catalogs published by the publishing house, in which small publishers could present their range, were already small hits in the book trade at the time (due to the lack of VLB and VLL(inker)B). For Benno Käsmayr, contacts with colleagues in the small publishing scene were also important in another way: his diploma thesis "The so-called alternative press - an example of counter-publicity" was only possible as a result.

Then came the "dirty old man". Carl Weissner, the translator and friend of Charles Bukowski, had broken off his search for a larger publisher with the sentence "Better a book in a small publishing house than no book at all" and ran into open doors at Maro. "Gedichte, die einer schrieb, bevor er im 8. Stockwerk aus dem Fenster sprang" was published for the 1974 trade fair and turned a leisure activity into a full-time job. After a year, Benno Käsmayr quit his job as operations manager at the print shop, moved into a store apartment in the student district of Augsburg and set up a small offset print shop next to the publishing house - after all, he had spent three years learning how to make books as a student.

Publishing representatives came of their own accord, the American program was expanded with W.S. Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, John Fante, Raymond Carver, Paul Bowles, prose volumes by Bukowski. The paperback publishers took notice. With Günter Ohnemus, Andreas Mand, Uli Becker and Michael Schulte, up-and-coming German authors once again joined the publishing house. The encounter with Rotraut Susanne Berner decisively changed the look of the publishing house from 1980 onwards. Book covers were printed almost exclusively as offset lithographs in the company's own print shop from hand-drawn color separations in true colors. This set the look of the Maro books apart from the usual 4-color prints. R.S. Berner was awarded the Piatti Prize for book graphics for the first three covers. From 1991, the "Tolle Hefte" (since 2001 in the Büchergilde Gutenberg), published by Armin Abmeier in loose series, were printed in the same technique, accompanied by the series "Die tollen Bücher".

Another branch of publishing emerged with so-called "excavations" - forgotten books that were published as reprints or new editions: Titles from März Verlag's stock, typography classics by Jan Tschichold and Paul Renner, the Beat anthology by Rowohlt Verlag, Bertolt Brecht's Harvest, almost all of which are still part of the backlist today.

Crazy projects were a recurring theme throughout the years. In 1997, the year of the "Mulligan Stew Project", representatives doubted the publisher's sanity, calling him foolhardy. Sorrentino's book "Mulligan Stew" was not only considered untranslatable, but also unsellable. The project envisaged 100 numbered and signed special editions at the proud price of 360 DM, which, despite all the skeptics, were sold and prepaid in 3 weeks, the financing was secured.

What else does a publisher and printer do? In the 1980s/90s, he was sent to Asia, Africa and Latin America as a speaker in cooperation with the exhibition and trade fair company Ausstellungs- und Messe GmbH, together with various colleagues, to give seminars on the basics of economic publishing, as small and third-world publishers have one thing in common: good ideas and little money.

In 2002, Benno Käsmayr was awarded the Kurt Wolff Prize for the promotion of a diverse publishing and literary scene, and the "tightrope act of what is possible" was also recognized by the public. Since last year, Maroverlag's literary program has been complemented by a "textile" branch. Specialist and gallery books on the subject of textiles are now being published, preferably "felt-heavy". I'd also like to briefly mention a further discovery: "Solidarism" by Rudolf Diesel, the completely forgotten social reform book by the gifted Augsburg motor engineer.

In 2017, MaroVerlag received the award "for a small publisher in Bavaria", as well as the "Young Book Design" prize from the Stiftung Buchkunst for "Small Satellites" by Lydia Daher and Warren Craghead III. In 2019 and 2020, Maro was awarded the German Publishing Prize. In 2020 and 2021, he also received a publishing award from the Free State of Bavaria.