Franckh-Kosmos Verlags-GmbH & Co. is a media publishing house based in

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, founded in 1822 by Johann Friedrich Franckh. In the nineteenth century the company published the

fairy tales A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic, enchantments, and mythical or fanciful beings. In most cult ...

Wilhelm Hauff Wilhelm Hauff (29 November 180218 November 1827) was a Württembergian poet and novelist. Early life Hauff was born in Stuttgart, the son of August Friedrich Hauff, a secretary in the Württemberg ministry of foreign affairs, and Hedwig Wilhelmi ...

as well as works by

Wilhelm Waiblinger Wilhelm Waiblinger (; 21 November 1804 – 17 or 30 January 1830) was a German romantic poet, mostly remembered today in connection with Friedrich Hölderlin. After he had attended Gymnasium Illustre in Stuttgart, he was a student at the se ...

and

Eduard Mörike Eduard Friedrich Mörike (8 September 18044 June 1875) was a German Lutheran pastor who was also a Romantic poet and writer of novellas and novels. Many of his poems were set to music and became established folk songs, while others were used by ...

. The "Friends of Nature Club" () was set up in 1903 in response to booming public interest in science and technology, and by 1912 100,000 members were receiving its monthly magazine "Cosmos" (''Kosmos''). The company moved into publishing books on popular science topics under the brands ''Franckh’sche Verlagshandlung'' and ''KOSMOS'', including successful non-fiction guidebooks by Hanns Günther and Heinz Richter. Children's fiction and Kosmos-branded science experimentation kits were introduced in the 1920s. Kosmos's current output includes non-fiction, children's books, science kits and

German-style board game A Eurogame, also called a German-style board game, German game, or Euro-style game, (generally just referred to as board games in Europe) is a class of tabletop games that generally has indirect player interaction and abstract physical componen ...

s. Many of their games are translated into English and published by

Thames & Kosmos Thames & Kosmos (T&K) is a publisher of science kits, board games, and craft kits for kids of all ages. The science kits cover topics such as biology, physics, astronomy, and alternative energy. The company places an emphasis on teaching real-wo ...

. Their line of experiment kits and science kits is distributed in North America and the United Kingdom by Thames & Kosmos.

Notable games

* '' Beowulf: The Legend'' * Exit: The Game * ''

Jambo Jambo (17 April 1961 – 16 September 1992) was a gorilla housed at Durrell Wildlife Park in Jersey, Channel Islands. He was involved in an incident in which he was seen to be protective of a child who fell into his enclosure. Early life '' J ...

'' * ''

Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an epic high-fantasy novel by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, intended to be Earth at some time in the distant past, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's boo ...

'' * ''

Lost Cities ''Lost Cities'' is a 60-card card game, designed in 1999 by game designer Reiner Knizia and published by several publishers. The objective of the game is to mount profitable expeditions to one or more of the five lost cities (the Himalayas, the ...

'' * ''

The Settlers of Catan ''Catan'', previously known as ''The Settlers of Catan'' or simply ''Settlers'', is a multiplayer board game designed by Klaus Teuber. It was first published in 1995 in Germany by Franckh-Kosmos Verlag (Kosmos) as ''Die Siedler von Catan''. Pl ...

'' * ''

TwixT TwixT is a two-player strategy board game, an early entrant in the 1960s 3M bookshelf game series. It became one of the most popular and enduring games in the series. It is a connection game where players alternate turns placing pegs and ...

External links

* * Board game publishing companies Children's book publishers Publishing companies of Germany Toy companies of Germany Construction toys Toy companies established in the 19th century Manufacturing companies established in 1822 Publishing companies established in 1822 German companies established in 1822 {{board-game-stub