Rowohlt had two sons, who were both illegitimate: Heinrich Maria Ledig-Rowohlt (1908–1992), who succeeded him as head of the publishing house, and Harry Rowohlt (born 1945), a writer.
Richard J. Evans: Tod in Hamburg: Stadt, Gesellschaft und Politik in den Cholera-Jahren 1830-1910, Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1996.
Together with S. Fischer, Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Rowohlt, and other publishers, it was a member of the “Article 19 publisher”, who in 1989 printed Salman Rushdie The Satanic Verses in Germany.
Kathrin Passig and Ira Strübel: Die Wahl der Qual. Rowohlt-Verlag 2004, ISBN 3-499-61692-0 (German)