Tessloff Verlag

The TESSLOFF publishing house

Curiosity is the beginning of everything. It makes us wonder, question and think further. At TESSLOFF publishing house we believe in the power of curiosity – and that it is the key to knowledge, education and self-confidence. We have been helping children to discover the world for generations: making knowledge come alive through books, ideas and concepts – well researched, child-oriented and on eye-level. The approach to introduce kids of all ages to factual knowledge in a playful way and to encourage their curiosity was coined by our founder Ragnar TESSLOFF and is still our guideline today. His life’s work is a story of success that we will gladly continue.

TESSLOFF is one of the leading publishers of non-fiction books for children Germany today. As the first publishing house in the world TESSLOFF has a climate strategy that is verifiably helping them turn into a 1.5° company. TESSLOFF is also the first children's and young people’s book publisher to report non-financial performance indicators in accordance with the German Sustainability Code (DNK) and is committed to climate protection and environmental education as well as social issues such as the promotion of reading and democracy. In May 2025 TESSLOFF was awarded the Deutscher Preis für Unternehmensengagement (German Prize for Company Dedication) for their democracy initiative.

TESSLOFF wants to inspire children with knowledge and encourage them to use it to help shape the future. The publisher wants children to go through life with self-confidence and to find their individual place in the world and in society. This self-image is the basis for the multimedia publishing program, which introduces kids of all ages to factual knowledge in a playful way – of the highest standard, simply explained, and always at eye level.

With the brands WAS IST WAS, WAS IST WAS Kids, WAS IST WAS Junior and WAS IST WAS My World, the publishing house has created brands that are already published in 45 languages and more than 100 countries. The motto: “Because knowledge empowers”. WAS IST WAS has become a cult brand in the children's book segment, offering knowledge transfer for different age groups and in different media formats - from books, quiz books and puzzle books to the WAS IST WAS online presence and audio plays.

The series WAS IST WAS First Reading and WAS IST WAS First Reading easy! provide factual knowledge specifically tailored to the needs of early readers in elementary school and offer didactical sound support for learning to read, one of the most important skills. The new First Reading Quiz Books in the series are TESSLOFF's answer to IGLU and PISA.

WAS IST WAS has also established itself as a strong brand in the digital world. With the Alexa skill "WAS IST WAS Quiz", you can playfully become an expert in areas such as technology, animals, space, etc. Since 2021, the vast world of knowledge from WAS IST WAS has also been available as a podcast. With more than 4 million downloads, it is one of the most popular audio formats in the "Kids and Family" category.

TESSLOFF has also been a very successful publisher of knowledge-based children's literature for several years. In the series Little Major Tom, based on an idea by singer Peter Schilling, everything revolves around the adventures in space and on Earth of the main character Tom, his friend Stella, and the robot cat Plutinchen. With Benjamin Schreuder's Time Travel Gang, it has been publishing a children's detective series in a historical setting, which presents historical background knowledge in an exciting way.

Individual titles such as "Who’s behind it?”, “Biomes of the Oceans” and "Fantastic Female Scientists”, with a strong illustrative approach to knowledge transfer, complete the book portfolio.

The successful Fit for School series, popular with school kids, parents and teachers, makes the learning process easy and fun. While the "Learn and Understand" booklets explain and repeat school material, the varied exercise books, test booklets and 5-minute blocks allow students to practice and consolidate what they have learned in a playful way.

Another mainstay of the TESSLOFF programme is activity books for kindergarten, preschool and elementary school children. These include colouring, puzzling and sticker books.

With the BOOKii digital audio pen, TESSLOFF has successfully bridged the gap between the analogue world of print and the digital age. BOOKii allows children to explore books with their eyes and ears. They simply tap the tip of the digital audio pen on pictures or text and original sounds are heard, characters begin to speak, or text is read aloud.

More information available at:
https://www.tessloff.com