Carl Hanser Verlag

What Carl Hanser Verlag does

Carl Hanser Verlag GmbH & Co. KG is a privately held German publishing house headquartered in Munich, founded in 1928, operating two distinct divisions: a literary publishing arm (HANSER, HANSER Berlin, HANSERBLAU, ZSOLNAY, and HANSER Kinder- und Jugendbuch) and a technical/professional arm (HANSER Fachbuch, HANSER Publications, and five B2B trade journals — HANSER automotive, FORM+Werkzeug, Kunststoffe/Plastics Insights, QZ Qualität und Zuverlässigkeit, and WB Werkstatt + Betrieb). The company serves general readers of literary fiction and non-fiction as well as engineering and manufacturing professionals in automotive, plastics, tooling, quality management and workshop operations, with an academic/lecturer channel for textbook adoption. Its core technology is a digital publishing platform that distributes watermarked e-books, supports e-commerce through two owned storefronts (hanser-fachbuch.de, hanser-literaturverlage.de), and operates HANSER eCampus for digital professional learning. Recent product additions include AI-branded vertical portals plastics.ai and QualityManagement.ai.

Carl Hanser Verlag generates revenue through four streams: print book sales and e-book sales (one-time, with prices fixed by the German Preisbindungsgesetz in Germany and Austria), recurring annual subscriptions to its five trade journals with digital archive access, and subscription-style access to HANSER eCampus. Distribution is direct-to-consumer via owned e-commerce and a Bonn-based Hanser Kundencenter for subscriptions, with physical fulfillment handled by service partner Verlegerdienst München GmbH. Marketing is conducted through an extensive organic social footprint (YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, XING, Twitter/X, Facebook), email newsletters dispatched via Emarsys, and website analytics from etracker. The company maintains GDPR, CCPA and BITV 2.0 (partial) compliance and operates with 101–250 employees under the leadership of Managing Directors Oliver Rohloff and Jo Lendle, with a dedicated sustainability function led by Antje Bieber.

Name

Carl Hanser Verlag

Legal name

Carl Hanser Verlag GmbH & Co. KG

Website

https://hanser.de

Company type

Private

Founded year

1928

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

Carl Hanser Verlag is a Munich-based, privately held German publishing house (founded 1928) operating literary imprints (HANSER, ZSOLNAY, HANSER Berlin, HANSERBLAU, children's books) and a technical/professional division with five B2B trade journals, e-learning (HANSER eCampus), and AI-themed industry portals serving consumer readers and engineering/manufacturing professionals across DACH and internationally.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Book and Trade Journal Publishing

NAICS

Book Publishers (513130), Periodical Publishers (513120), Newspaper, Periodical, Book, and Directory Publishers (5131)

SIC

Books: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2731), Periodicals: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2721)

akta.pro primary industry

General Trade Publishing (Adult Fiction & Nonfiction) (MPAJAAAA)

akta.pro secondary industry

Children’s Nonfiction Educational (Science, History, Nature) (EDAGAIAC)

Keywords

• Book publishing
• Literary fiction publishing
• Technical publishing
• Trade journals
• E-learning platforms

Headquarters

HQ city

München

HQ country

Germany

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

Personnel

Revenue model

1. Book Sales (Print): Sale of printed books through direct e-commerce channels with fixed pricing per German law (Preisbindungsgesetz). Delivery to addresses provided by customers via service partner.
2. E-book Sales: Digital book sales via download links with watermarked personal digital signature. Simple, non-transferable license for personal use only per copyright law.
3. Trade Journal Subscriptions: Recurring subscription revenue from professional journals including HANSER automotive, FORM+Werkzeug, Kunststoffe/Plastics Insights, QZ Qualität und Zuverlässigkeit, WB Werkstatt + Betrieb. Subscriptions include digital content and online archive access.
4. Digital Learning (HANSER eCampus): E-learning platform offering digital educational content and courses for professional development.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels9 records

Core offering

Carl Hanser Verlag is a German publishing house founded in 1928 that publishes printed books, e-books, and digital content across two divisions: a literary publishing operation with multiple imprints (HANSER, HANSER Berlin, HANSERBLAU, ZSOLNAY, Kinder- und Jugendbuch) and a technical/professional publishing operation (HANSER Fachbuch, HANSER Publications) including five specialized trade journals, an e-learning platform (HANSER eCampus), and AI-based industry portals (plastics.ai, QualityManagement.ai). The company sells directly to readers, professionals, and enterprises through its own e-commerce storefronts and a managed subscription center.

Product overview

Carl Hanser Verlag is a diversified German publishing house operating under a platform-plus-modules architecture with two main divisions: Literature (HANSER Literaturverlage) and Technical/Fachbuch. The Literature division encompasses multiple imprints (HANSER, HANSER Berlin, HANSERBLAU, ZSOLNAY, Kinder- und Jugendbuch) publishing literary fiction, non-fiction, and children's books. The Technical division includes HANSER Fachbuch (professional books and e-books), HANSER Publications (English-language international offerings), and HANSER eCampus (e-learning). The company also publishes five trade journals: HANSER automotive, FORM+Werkzeug, Kunststoffe/Plastics Insights, QZ Qualität und Zuverlässigkeit, and WB Werkstatt + Betrieb. Digital special platforms include plastics.ai and QualityManagement.ai for industry-specific online content.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• HANSER: Literature and non-fiction book publishing division
• HANSER Berlin
• HANSERBLAU
• ZSOLNAY
• HANSER Kinder- und Jugendbuch
• HANSER Fachbuch
• HANSER Publications
• HANSER automotive
• FORM+Werkzeug
• Kunststoffe/Plastics Insights
• QZ Qualität und Zuverlässigkeit
• WB Werkstatt + Betrieb
• HANSER eCampus
• plastics.ai
• QualityManagement.ai

Products and services

• HANSER Fachbuch

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration5 records

Feature1 record

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Verlegerdienst München GmbHcoreImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerService partner handling delivery of printed books and physical products. Located at Gutenbergstraße 1, 82205 Gilching, Germany. Provides customer service via toll-free phone (0800 44 55 644) and email ([email protected]). Handles returns processing for book orders.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• dtv Verlagsgesellschaft: Large independent German trade publisher with fiction, non-fiction, and children's/youth imprints. Comparable dual literary/children's structure and similar scale of German-language backlist, though with stronger paperback distribution reach.
• Wiley-VCH: German technical/scientific publishing arm of Wiley, covering chemistry, materials, and engineering. Comparable on technical book and journal publishing for professional engineering audiences overlapping with Hanser's automotive, plastics, and quality-management journals.
• Suhrkamp Verlag: Prestigious German literary and academic publisher with comparable fiction, non-fiction, and scholarly catalog depth. Direct peer in the upper-tier German literary trade market with similar imprint prestige and author relationship dynamics.
• S. Fischer Verlag: Major German literary trade publisher (part of Holtzbrinck) publishing fiction and non-fiction across multiple imprints. Directly comparable as a prestige German-language literary publisher with overlapping author profiles, literary prizes exposure, and similar trade-book distribution mechanics.
• WEKA Media: German B2B information and e-learning provider serving technical and professional audiences. Comparable to Hanser's combined trade journal plus HANSER eCampus positioning, with overlapping professional development and compliance training offerings.
• Rowohlt Verlag: Major German trade publisher (Holzbrinck group) covering literary fiction, non-fiction, and children's titles. Comparable in scale and dual literary/children's positioning, particularly vis-à-vis Hanser's HANSER Literaturverlage and Kinder- und Jugendbuch division.
• Springer Nature / Springer Fachmedien: Major technical and scientific publisher with strong German engineering and manufacturing book/journal portfolio. Directly comparable on the Hanser Fachbuch side for technical books, professional references, and engineering society journals.
• DuMont Buchverlag: German literary and non-fiction trade publisher with comparable imprint breadth and prize-winning literary author roster. Mid-sized peer operating in the same upper-tier literary segment of the German trade market.
• Vogel Business Media: German B2B trade journal and technical media publisher serving automotive, manufacturing, and industrial markets. Closely comparable to Hanser's trade journal portfolio (HANSER automotive, FORM+Werkzeug, WB Werkstatt + Betrieb) with overlapping advertiser and subscriber base.

Broad incumbents

• Penguin Random House Germany: Largest German-language trade publisher (part of global Penguin Random House). Comparable in publishing activity but operates at substantially greater scale, broader catalog, and with significantly larger marketing and author-advance capacity.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xtwitter.com/hanserliteratur
• YouTubeyoutube.com/user/HanserVerlag
• Facebookfacebook.com/HanserLiteraturverlage
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/hanser-verlag
• Instagraminstagram.com/hanserliteratur

Compliance5 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Carl Hanser Verlag