Ravensburger AG is a German game and toy company, publishing house and market leader in the European

jigsaw puzzle A jigsaw puzzle is a tiling puzzle that requires the assembly of often irregularly shaped interlocking and mosaiced pieces, each of which typically has a portion of a picture. When assembled, the puzzle pieces produce a complete picture. In t ...

market.

History

The company was founded by Otto Robert Maier in

Ravensburg Ravensburg ( Swabian: ''Raveschburg'') is a city in Upper Swabia in Southern Germany, capital of the district of Ravensburg, Baden-Württemberg. Ravensburg was first mentioned in 1088. In the Middle Ages, it was an Imperial Free City and an im ...

, a town in

Upper Swabia Upper Swabia (german: Oberschwaben or ) is a region in Germany in the federal states of Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria.''Brockhaus Enzyklopädie.'' 19. Auflage. Band 16, 1991, p. 72. The name refers to the area between the Swa ...

in southern

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

. He began publishing in 1883 with his first author contract. He started publishing instruction folders for craftsmen and architects, which soon acquired him a solid financial basis. His first board game appeared in 1884, named ''Journey Around the World''. At the turn of the 20th century, his product line broadened to include picture books, books, children’s activity books, art instruction manuals, non-fiction books, and reference books as well as children’s games,

Happy Families Happy Families is a traditional British card game usually with a specially made set of picture cards, featuring illustrations of fictional families of four, most often based on occupation types. The object of the game is to collect complete fami ...

, and activity kits. In 1900, the Ravensburger blue triangle

trademark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from oth ...

was registered with the Imperial patent office. As of 1912, many

board Board or Boards may refer to: Flat surface * Lumber, or other rigid material, milled or sawn flat ** Plank (wood) ** Cutting board ** Sounding board, of a musical instrument * Cardboard (paper product) * Paperboard * Fiberboard ** Hardboa ...

and activity games had an export version that was distributed to

Western Europe Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's countries and territories vary depending on context. The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the ancient Mediterranean ...

, the countries of the

Danube Monarchy The Habsburg monarchy (german: Habsburgermonarchie, ), also known as the Danubian monarchy (german: Donaumonarchie, ), or Habsburg Empire (german: Habsburgerreich, ), was the collection of empires, kingdoms, duchies, counties and other polities ...

as well as

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...

. Before the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fig ...

, Ravensburger had around 800 products. The publishing house was damaged during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

and continued to produce games in the years of the reconstruction. The company focused on children's games and books and specialized books for art, architecture, and hobbies, and from 1962 grew strongly. The company started to produce jigsaw puzzle games in 1964, and in the same year opened subsidiaries in

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

, the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, Switzerland and the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. In 1977, the company split into a book publishing arm and a game publishing arm. Today there are approximately 1800 available books and 850 games as well as puzzles, hobby products, and CD-ROM titles at Ravensburger and its subsidiaries, which include Alea for "hobby and ardent game players" and

F.X. Schmid For over a century until 1996, F.X. Schmid was an important German manufacturer of playing cards (traditional card games and quartets), board games and puzzles. It was considered one of the major European manufacturers. In 1995, its turnover was 67 ...

for games, playing cards and children's books. Ravensburger products are exported to more than fifty countries. Under the label

, Ravensburger produces one of the only two packs of true

Tarock Tarot games are card games played with tarot decks, that is, decks with numbered permanent trumps parallel to the suit cards. The games and decks which English-speakers call by the French name Tarot are called Tarocchi in the original Italian, ...

cards in Germany: a 54-card pack of the

Bourgeois Tarot The Bourgeois Tarot deck is a mid-19th century pattern of tarot cards of German origin that is still used for playing card games today in western Europe and Canada. It is not designed for divinatory purposes.Cego Cego is a Tarot game for three or four players played with eponymous German Tarot playing cards. The game was probably derived from the three-player Badenese tarot game of Dreierles after soldiers returned from the Iberian Peninsula during the N ...

, popular in the

Black Forest The Black Forest (german: Schwarzwald ) is a large forested mountain range in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland. It is ...

region. In September 2010, Ravensburger broke Educa's record for the world's largest jigsaw puzzle of 24000 pieces. Ravensburger's new puzzle design by late pop artist

Keith Haring Keith Allen Haring (May 4, 1958 – February 16, 1990) was an American artist whose pop art emerged from the New York City graffiti subculture of the 1980s. His animated imagery has "become a widely recognized visual language". Much of his wor ...

, titled "Keith Haring: Double Retrospect", breaks the

Guinness Book of World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

. Built from 32,000 pieces, it measures 17' × 6' (5.18 m x 1.82 m) and comes with its own dolley cart for toting. Currently, the largest commercial puzzle in the world is Grafika's "Travel by Art", with 54,000 pieces. Ravensburger's currently largest puzzles are "Memorable Disney Moments" and "Making Mickey Magic" with 40,320 pieces. Swedish toy train company

BRIO Brio (stylized BRIO) is a wooden toy company founded in Sweden. The company was founded in the small town of Boalt, Scania, Götaland in 1884 by basket maker Ivar Bengtsson. For a long time the company was based in Osby, Scania, in southern Swed ...

was acquired by the Ravensburger Group on 8 January 2015. In 2017, Ravensburger acquired American game company Wonder Forge. The company's North American division, Ravensburger NA, is based in

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

and releases approximately 25 games per year, the most successfully of which so far is ''Villainous'', based on various

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

properties. Ravensbuger NA sold about 3 million copies of games in 2018.

Media Subsidiaries

Ravensburger Interactive Media

''Ravensburger Interactive Media GmbH'' was a video game and software subsidiary of Ravensburger which published and distributed various games in

. The company had two brands; Ravensburger Interactive, which published family-friendly games and educational software, and

Fishtank Interactive Fishtank Interactive was a German publishing label and was a division of Ravensburger Spieleverlag's Ravensburger Interactive. It was founded in 2000 to try to expand the horizons of Ravensburger Spieleverlag by publishing more mature games than ...

, which published games for mature players. In May 2002, Ravensburger Interactive was sold with Fishtank Interactive to

JoWooD Productions JoWooD Entertainment AG (formerly JoWooD Productions Software AG, commonly referred to as JoWooD) was an Austrian video game publisher that was founded in 1995. JoWooD went into administration in 2011 and all assets were purchased by Nordic Game ...

Ravensburger Film + TV

''Ravensburger Film + TV GmbH'' is a former

motion picture A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmospher ...

and

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication Media (communication), medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of Transmission (telecommunications), television tra ...

subsidiary of Ravensburger. In late 1998, Ravensburger sold off the unit, with the new owners rebranding the company as ''RTV Family Entertainment AG''. Ravensburger remained as a shareholder and continued to allow RTV to license their branding. The company launched a ''Ravensburger TV'' block on

Super RTL Super RTL is a German free-to-air television network owned by the RTL Group. The channel originally launched in 1995 as a joint venture between RTL Group predecessor company CLT-UFA and Disney's Buena Vista International Television Investments ...

in 2001. In 2005, Ravensburger sold all their shares in the business, and in mid-2006, the company rebranded as ''Your Family Entertainment AG''.

Notable games

Games sold under the "Ravensburger" imprint: * '' Dingbats'' * ''Emoji'' * ''

Enchanted Forest In folklore and fantasy, an enchanted forest is a forest under, or containing, enchantments. Such forests are described in the oldest folklore from regions where forests are common, and occur throughout the centuries to modern works of fantas ...

'' * '' Havannah'' * ''

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mo ...

'' * '' Journey through Europe'' * ''Know Interactive Board Game'' * ''

Labyrinth (board game) ''Labyrinth'' is a board game for two to four players, published by Ravensburger in 1986. Gameplay The game board forms a maze built of both fixed and moving pieces. The players rearrange the maze to their advantage by moving a row of pieces ...

'' *''

Lotus Lotus may refer to: Plants *Lotus (plant), various botanical taxa commonly known as lotus, particularly: ** ''Lotus'' (genus), a genus of terrestrial plants in the family Fabaceae **Lotus flower, a symbolically important aquatic Asian plant also ...

'' * ''Make 'n' Break'' * ''

Malefiz ''Malefiz'' (also known as ''Barricade'') is a strategy board game, invented by Werner Schöppner and published by Ravensburger since 1960. It is a non-circular descendant of the ancient Indian board game Pachisi. Etymology The name of the game b ...

'' * '' Mexica'' * ''The Name of the Rose'' (2008) * ''Nobody is Perfect'' * ''Quest'' * ''

Reversi Reversi is a strategy board game for two players, played on an 8×8 uncheckered board. It was invented in 1883. Othello, a variant with a fixed initial setup of the board, was patented in 1971. Basics There are sixty-four identical game pieces ...

'' * '' Rivers, Roads & Rails'' * '' Scotland Yard'' * ''Star Wars'' * ''Tactil'' * ''

Take It Easy "Take It Easy" is the debut single by the American rock band Eagles, written by Jackson Browne and Eagles band member Glenn Frey, who also provides lead vocals. It was released on May 1, 1972, and peaked at No. 12 on the ''Billboard'' Hot ...

'' * ''

Tikal Tikal () (''Tik’al'' in modern Mayan orthography) is the ruin of an ancient city, which was likely to have been called Yax Mutal, found in a rainforest in Guatemala. It is one of the largest archeological sites and urban centers of the pre-Co ...

'' * ''

Top Secret Spies ''Top Secret Spies'' (German name: ''Heimlich & Co.'') is a spy-themed German-style board game designed by Wolfgang Kramer and published in 1984 by Ravensburger. The game, also known as ''Under Cover'' or ''Detective & Co'', won the Spiel des Ja ...

'' * ''Villainous'' * ''What Do You Hear?'' Games sold under the "Alea" label: * '' Broom Service'' * '' Castles of Burgundy'' * ''Chinatown'' * ''

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish language, Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the List of United States cities by population, 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the U.S. state, state of Neva ...

'' * '' Princes of Florence'' * ''

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...

'' * '' Ra'' * ''

San Juan San Juan, Spanish for Saint John, may refer to: Places Argentina * San Juan Province, Argentina * San Juan, Argentina, the capital of that province * San Juan, Salta, a village in Iruya, Salta Province * San Juan (Buenos Aires Underground), ...

'' Games sold under the

label: * ''

Auf Achse ''Auf Achse'' (, "on the road", "on the axle") is a logistics-themed board game designed by Wolfgang Kramer and published in 1987 by FX Schmid For over a century until 1996, F.X. Schmid was an important German manufacturer of playing cards ...

'' * '' Torres'' * ''

Black Forest Cego The Bourgeois Tarot deck is a mid-19th century pattern of tarot cards of German origin that is still used for playing card games today in western Europe and Canada. It is not designed for divinatory purposes.Concentration In chemistry, concentration is the abundance of a constituent divided by the total volume of a mixture. Several types of mathematical description can be distinguished: '' mass concentration'', '' molar concentration'', '' number concentration'' ...

'' in various editions

References

External links

* * {{Authority control Board game publishing companies Jigsaw puzzle manufacturers Toy companies of Germany Companies based in Baden-Württemberg Manufacturing companies established in 1883 Playing card manufacturers Ravensburg Toy companies established in the 19th century German companies established in 1883