»Born translated«?

Abstract With the authorized edition of Henrik Ibsen’s complete works in German as a focal point, this paper analyzes the functions of authorization in the 19th century, seen in light of the European publishing trade and international copyright regulations. Special attention is paid to the conditions under which translations could precede the publication of the original text, allowing the original and its translation(s) to be published simultaneously. It is argued that Ibsen’s oeuvre, conceptualized by the author himself not simply as everything he had ever written but as a continuous and coherent whole, did not emerge primarily in the context of Norwegian or Scandinavian literature, but rather in the context of authorizing translations and the planning of a uniform German edition.