By Siobhan O’Leary

Germany’s largest publishers have not been as quick to embrace the iPad as their American counterparts. As reported in the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Apple has not signed on any of the largest German book publishers to its iBookstore just three weeks before the launch of the device in Germany (though they had already landed Penguin, Hachette, Macmillan, S&S and HarperCollins prior to the US launch).

Several newspaper and magazine publishers (including the Süddeutsche Zeitung) have announced iPad versions of their publications and several publishers who are already working with Berlin-based textunes, which makes e-books available for the iPhone, will also have a presence in the iBookstore (these include Klett-Cotta and Hoffmann und Campe). The German iBookstore will be open for business on May 28th, according to an Apple spokesman, though it remains to be seen how many publishers will be on board at that point and how many titles will be available.