In 1956, Ragnar Tessloff founded the NEUEN TESSLOFF VERLAG in Hamburg after having gained a lot of experience in his father’s ERNST-TESSLOFF VERLAG. His first published product was the magazine TOM & JERRY, originally from the USA, which he marketed successfully in Germany. Other popular comics such as LASSIE, FURY or the TEXAS RANGERS were soon added. In the early sixties, the NEUE TESSLOFF VERLAG was Germany’s comic publisher with highest sales.

Ragnar Tessloff frequently visited the United States to purchase licences for comics. While there, he often visited bookshops taking special notice of  the well-assorted specialised non-fiction book series for children and young people. This type of books was unknown in Germany. Ragnar Tessloff was enthusiastic – these books presented complex subjects to young readers in a concise, competent and comprehensible way. Having identified this market niche, he acquired the licence for the HOW & WHY fact book series.

The direct translation of the title was copyrighted in Germany so he decided to call the series WAS IST WAS. In autumn of 1961, the first WAS IST WAS issue was published – at first in form of a monthly magazine sold through newsstands. It was such a success that by 1963 it was published in form of a book.

 

WAS IST WAS became a synonym for youth fact books. After the original American series was discontinued in the seventies, German authors wrote the volumes within the scope of the regular updating, and the TESSLOFF VERLAG took over the series’ global rights.

The TESSLOFF VERLAG became the leading German publisher for children and youth fact books.

 

The WAS IST WAS Concept

Over the years, well-know experts wrote WAS IST WAS books, such as the famous animal videographer Heinz Sielmann (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinz_Sielmann), the physicist and technology writer Prof. Heinz Haber (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinz_Haber) or the popular TV moderator Sven Lorig, who recently wrote volume 126 GERMANY. The WAS IST WAS series covers both general and very special subjects, such as nature, fauna, history, science and technology. Using a question-and-answer style, each book presents 48 pages of extensive and fascinating facts, supported by high-quality photographs and detailed, descriptive illustrations. In particular, the WAS IST WAS brand distinguishes itself in communicating coherences in an age-based manner that is easy to understand.

By the mid-eighties, after 30 successful years as a publisher, Ragnar Tessloff sold his publishing house, which then moved to its present location at Nuremberg. The range of products was now supplemented by books for children in kindergarten, pre-school and primary school, who were developed by expert pedagogues based on the motto of communicating learning contents, such as reading, writing, and arithmetic, playfully.

In 1991, the TESSLOFF VERLAG took over a part of the Buchverlag JUNGE WELT in Berlin, the largest publishing house for children and youth fact books in the German Democratic Republic. This publishing house was known foremost for its comic series MOSAIK by Hannes Hegen, which had reached cult status in the German Democratic Republic. According to the motto "keeping children occupied intelligently", successful products were continued and supplemented by books with the popular characters SANDMÄNNCHEN (Sandman) or DER KLEINE KÖNIG (The Little King).

Since the reorganisation of the publishing programme in 2006, the TESSLOFF VERLAG assortment today comprises three fields:

Tessloff PLAYING

Tessloff LEARNING

Tessloff KNOWLEDGE

The publishing house meets the demands of the altered media use behaviour of the young target group with its WAS IST WAS product world. Today, knowledge transfer also happens through popular TV series, audio plays, Nintendo DS games and the comprehensive online portal www.wasistwas.de, which has received numerous awards. 

For more than 20 years now, children in other countries can also grow up with TESSLOFF products. Today, WAS IST WAS products are available in 37 languages in more than 75 countries, for example in Russian, Chinese, Arabic, Rumanian, Spanish, Turkish or Georgian.