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

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, 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, household tale, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the Folklore, folklore genre. Such stories typically feature Magic (supernatural), magic, Incantation, e ...

of Wilhelm Hauff as well as works by Wilhelm Waiblinger 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 b ...

. 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, first in the field of electronics and then chemistry and other areas. In 1937, this effort led to a gold medal at the world exhibition in Paris. Kosmos's current output includes non-fiction, children's books, science kits and German-style board games. Many of their games are translated into English and published by Thames & Kosmos. 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'' * '' Lord of the Rings'' * ''

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, th ...

'' * ''

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'' (). ...

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TwixT TwixT is a two-player Abstract strategy game, 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 tu ...

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