---
category: Private Organization
end: 2017
location: Berlin, Germany
start: 1981
summary: Bruno Gmunder Verlag was a German publishing house that absorbed Spartacus
  International after John Stamford transferred control of the operation from Amsterdam
  to Germany.
tags:
- Organization
- Publisher
- Germany
- 1980s
- Spartacus_Network
---

Bruno Gmunder Verlag was a German publishing house that absorbed [Spartacus International](/organizations/spartacus-international/) after [John Stamford](/people/john-stamford/) transferred control of the operation from [Amsterdam](/places/amsterdam/) to Germany. When authorities cracked down on [Stamford](/people/john-stamford/)'s operation in [Amsterdam](/places/amsterdam/), he hopscotched across to Germany and transferred control of [Spartacus International](/organizations/spartacus-international/) to Bruno Gmunder Verlag. [Stamford](/people/john-stamford/) then fell under investigation by German authorities and fled to Belgium, where he was finally charged with incitement to the sexual exploitation of children in 1993 and brought to trial in 1995, facing a maximum sentence of one year.[^1]

Bruno Gmunder Verlag continued publishing operations under the [Spartacus International](/organizations/spartacus-international/) brand after absorbing the network. The German holding company maintained the distribution infrastructure for pedophile materials that [Stamford](/people/john-stamford/) had built, including the [Spartacus](/organizations/spartacus-international/) travel guides used by pedophiles to locate child sex tourism destinations worldwide. The publisher operated from Germany throughout the 1980s as part of the broader [Spartacus Network](/organizations/spartacus-network/) infrastructure.[^1]

[^1]: Dovey, S. (2023). *Eye of the Chickenhawk*. United States: Thehotstar.