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Departing from the serials crisis, this paper seeks to point out the areas of conflict, which are dominated by three principal agents: the scientific community, publishing houses and libraries. In order to facilitate interaction between these agents the open access movement has been formed, which receives considerable support from the librarianship. Abutted to the Anglo-American university presses, it has been postulated in the scientific community that German universities engage in publishing activities too. The focal point of this work is - apart from an assessment of the current situation and an overview of the Anglo-American university presses - a critical account of the German university press. On the basis of qualitative interviews different publishing houses are critically assessed in terms of their services offered. In a short excursus this paper describes subject-related publishing activities in the context of the open access movement. In conclusion this paper will expound the problems of German university presses - and formulate an outlook as to what may be the future course of the industry.