What it had to solve
Studio 10119 — a former journalist, an illustrator and a filmmaker — self-publishes the six-volume Wellvern Saga and needed a way to reach readers without a publisher's machinery.
The idea
Germany's only mono-bookstore: 160 sqm stocked with 6,000 copies of a single self-published steampunk saga, staffed by its authors and illustrator.
How it works
A Victorian-flavoured fit-out at Rosenthaler Straße 13: golden counter with a gramophone beside a MacBook, life-size character standees in the window, the illustrator drawing live on a big screen, events and free character-design workshops on the calendar.
What it did
Opened October 2, 2026; passers-by stop to photograph the windows, and the store doubles as the series' community hub with volume two newly out.
Background
On October 2, 2026, the collective Studio 10119 opened the Wellvern-Shop on Rosenthaler Straße in Berlin-Mitte — by its owners' account Germany's only mono-bookstore: 160 square metres stocking a single series, around 6,000 copies of the Wellvern Saga in German and English. Mint-green cassette walls, dark shelves with a Victorian feel, a golden counter holding a gramophone next to a MacBook, and three life-size character standees in the window that stop passers-by for photos.
Behind the shop is the self-publishing collective founded in 2022 by former journalist Tina Gerstung, illustrator Sebastián García Muñoz and filmmaker David Ossa. Their saga follows a friend group of twelve-year-olds at the elite school Eden Hall in a fantasy fourth steam age — a world without internet, full of strange machines. Volume two, 'Eden Hall: Das Geheimnis', landed in mid-September 2026, two years after the 2024 first volume.
Gerstung and Muñoz staff the shop themselves — he draws illustrations live on a big screen for the publishing house's marketing and a planned workshop series, she prepares Instagram posts for the fan community. The programme promises readings, reading parties and free character-design workshops, and Gerstung says ideas from fans that excite the team might even enter the saga.
Why it lands
A whole shop for one series turns scarcity into spectacle — 'what a great series it must be to fill a store,' as one laughing visitor put it.
The authors are the attraction: drawing live and talking to fans in person is the one marketing a self-publisher has that publishers don't.
The store converts retail rent into community infrastructure — workshops and events feed the fan base a six-volume plan depends on.
What you can take
When no channel will carry you, become the channel: a single-product store turns distribution into theatre and the author into the attraction.
Since then
The shop at Rosenthaler Straße 13 is open Monday to Saturday, 11 to 18, with events and workshops to be announced on its site. Gerstung says ideas from fans that excite the team may even find a place in the Wellvern Saga. Volume one, 'Eden Hall: Die Aufnahmeprüfung', appeared in 2024; student assistant Lilja Wallrodt, who read it on holiday with her mother, finished it in a day and a half and ran straight back to her room to keep reading.
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