From 1937 onwards, the writer Thomas Mann formed a close friendship with the Zurich publisher Emil Oprecht (1895-1952). In the same year, Oprecht published an edition of the well-known correspondence between Mann and the faculty of philosophy at the University of Bonn. The first 10.000 editions sold out in a short time. One year later, Oprecht published the magazine Maß und Wert [Standards and Values], edited by Mann, which was in existence until 1940.

Between 1933 and 1945, the qualified economist and bookseller established his publishing house as one of the leading platforms for exile literature in Switzerland. Situated in the direct vicinity of the German Consulate General, the headquarters of the publishing house at Raemistrasse 5 became an important meeting point for expelled artists and intellectuals. Despite the Nazis’ concerted efforts to subdue him, including the prohibition of his entire 1938 catalogue, Emil Oprecht continued to work on consistently. During the Second World War, Oprecht and his wife Emmie Oprecht provided help to those fleeing Germany, for which Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt wrote him a personal letter of thanks. In 1952, already terminally ill with cancer, he greeted Thomas Mann at the airport in Zurich upon his return from the USA.