The world in your living room – Columbus Verlag Paul Oestergaard Company, Krauchenwies

“The floating globe”

Nowadays most people have a pretty good knowledge of our planet. They know the names and positions of the continents and oceans and can recognize countries by their shape. Television and the Internet have played a major role in this. But when Paul Oestergaard founded his publishing company in Berlin in 1909 and began to manufacture globes, things were very different. He wanted as many people as possible to learn what our Earth looks like, and the globe was the best way to do it. His aim was: “A Columbus globe in every home”. And Paul Oestergaard wanted his customers to be well-informed, so he insisted on his globes having detailed maps. He made large production runs of his globes, so for the very first time ordinary people were able to afford one and find out what the world really looked like. Everyone could now bring the world into his living room.

In 1948 the factory was moved to Stuttgart. Production grew steadily and the newly patented “Duo” globe made it possible for the first time to have two different kinds of map on the same globe. Peter Oestergaard took over the company in 1963 – the third generation of Oestergaards. As a trained mechanical engineer, he had the technical skills necessary to guide the development of the “Duplex” globe, first produced in 1965. He also helped to automate the manufacture of the almost revolutionary plastic model. Another milestone in the company’s history was reached with the appearance in 1972 of the “Planet Earth” globe, around half a million copies of which have been sold to date. The new globe incorporated a mass of information and answers to lots of questions. It showed sunrises and sunsets, twilight zones and seasons.

The reunification of Germany in 1990 brought about a difficult time for the industry. Sales figures collapsed and in 1993 Peter Oestergaard decided to move with his son Torsten – the current CEO – to Krauchwies, a village of 5000 souls in the district of Sigmaringen. At a time when cartography and manufacture could hardly keep pace with the rapidly changing world, the local suppliers in Krauchwies were brought much more into the production process, making it possible for the company’s output to be significantly increased. In 1999 the Columbus Verlag took over the core workforce of the Leipzig-based Räthgloben Verlag and the following year saw the launch of a free-floating globe, held in place solely by a magnetic field. In 2003 the CartoDirect subsidiary was founded, which holds the sole European distribution rights for the range of maps and globes produced by the National Geographic Society, the largest non-profit scientific organization in the world. National Geographic has taken over some of the products of the Columbus Verlag Paul Oestergaard Company. Today the company can supply globes to suit all requirements, every taste and every pocket. Its current marketing slogan “Experience the world” keeps alive the spirit of its founder. CEO Torsten Oestergaard reckons that the company has sold “easily 10 million globes” since it was founded nearly one hundred years ago.

Downloads

• The world in your living room – Columbus Verlag Paul Oestergaard Company, Krauchenwies [DOC - 26.5kB]

Links

• Columbus Verlag GmbH

• Cartodirect

 Print page