About Off Road

Off Road

OFF ROAD is a German special-interest magazine for four-wheel-drive vehicles, SUVs and off-road travel. Founded in 1978 by the publisher Alfons Czerny, it is the pioneering German 4x4 magazine — published monthly until the end of 2023 and quarterly since 2024. Its themes are test reports, clubs and the scene, adventure and travel reports, technology topics and motorsport coverage, aimed at off-road enthusiasts and the growing SUV audience. The magazine is published by the family-owned company now operating as THE VIEW AG in Ottobrunn near Munich, under editor-in-chief Cornelia Czerny. Its website is off-road.de.

Overview

OFF ROAD is the magazine "for freedom on wheels" — the title's long-standing tagline. It covers the entire spectrum of the all-wheel world: the classic off-roaders, the modern SUVs, the expedition vehicles and the accessories, technology and travel that belong to them. Test reports assess new 4x4 models on and off the road; the scene pages cover the clubs, events and community; adventure features take readers to the deserts, mountains and jungles where four-wheel drive earns its keep; and motorsport coverage follows rally raids including the Dakar.

The magazine's readership is the off-road believer: drivers who use the capabilities of their vehicles — whether the traditional ladder-frame off-roader or the modern SUV — out of conviction, for travel, sport and the outdoor life. The annual readers' vote for the "Geländewagen des Jahres" (Off-roader of the Year) is the scene's great democratic event.

History

OFF ROAD was founded in 1978 by Alfons Czerny in the AC Verlags- und Messe GmbH — the first German magazine devoted to the off-road vehicle, appearing at a time when the Geländewagen was still a specialist tool for the technically enthusiastic, the long-distance traveller and the forester. Czerny recognised the vehicle category's potential before the market did, and the magazine grew with the segment it had helped to define.

In 2004 the OFF ROAD Verlag AG was founded, continuing the title as a medium-sized family business devoted to the off-road theme. On 1 January 2024 the company was renamed THE VIEW AG, reflecting the broadened activities — the magazine, its specials, experience worlds, travel cooperations, driving training and events with partners from the automotive and tyre industries — beyond the printed page. The change of rhythm came with it: published monthly until the end of 2023, OFF ROAD has appeared four times a year since 2024, each issue a substantial compendium of the 4x4 world.

The 1978 founding moment is worth imagining: Alfons Czerny launching a magazine for the Geländewagen when the category barely existed as a consumer market — the readers then were the technically enthusiastic, the long-distance travellers, the foresters. The magazine's subsequent history is the history of the segment's conquest of the mainstream: the SUV boom that made all-wheel drive the German market's defining body style, the expedition scene's growth, the electronics revolution in traction systems. That a family business in Ottobrunn documented the entire arc — from the niche to the mass market — gives the title an institutional memory no competitor can match.

Through nearly five decades the magazine documented the transformation of its subject: from the specialist off-roader to the SUV boom that made all-wheel drive a mass-market phenomenon, from the Camel Trophy era to the modern expedition scene, from mechanical four-wheel drive to electronic terrain-response systems.

Content

Test reports are the foundation: new 4x4 models and SUVs are tested on road and trail, with the off-road capability assessed where it matters — in mud, sand, rock and snow — as well as in the everyday use where most SUVs actually live. Comparison tests, long-term reports and the presentation of new trends give readers the market overview; the used-4x4 market receives the attention of a magazine whose readers keep their vehicles for decades.

Clubs and scene coverage connects the community: the off-road clubs, their events and trials, the gatherings and the personalities. Adventure and travel reports are the magazine's soul — expeditions to the Sahara, the Andes, Iceland, the Balkans, Mongolia — with route descriptions, vehicle preparation advice and the photography of the great off-road journeys. Technology topics explain all-wheel-drive systems, tyres, suspension, recovery equipment and expedition outfitting; motorsport reports follow the rally raids and the off-road racing scene.

The "Geländewagen des Jahres" readers' vote — the annual election of the off-roader of the year by the magazine's opinion-forming readership — is the scene's honours list, watched by manufacturers and debated by the community. The vote's significance lies in its electorate: OFF ROAD's readers are the people who actually use the vehicles' capabilities — the jury, as the magazine puts it, that knows exactly what it wants. For manufacturers, winning the vote is an endorsement from the most demanding audience in the segment; for readers, it is the community's collective verdict on the model year.

Coverage & Audience

OFF ROAD is sold throughout Germany, Austria and Switzerland at newsstands and by subscription, appearing quarterly since 2024, and off-road.de serves the brand online. The readership is the off-road and SUV community: freetime-active, with strong purchasing power, cultivating the outdoor lifestyle — readers who, in the magazine's words, do not merely inform themselves comprehensively about the 4x4 theme but live it.

The magazine's media data has long emphasised the quality of its audience: young, high-income, brand-oriented and interested in innovative products — the ideal platform for advertisers in the automotive, tyre, accessory and travel sectors. The quarterly rhythm concentrates the content into substantial issues worthy of the enthusiast's bookshelf.

Ownership

OFF ROAD is published by THE VIEW AG (until 1 January 2024 the OFF ROAD Verlag AG), the family-owned company based in Ottobrunn near Munich. Founded as the publishing vehicle of Alfons Czerny's 4x4 vision and constituted as an AG in 2004, the company has remained a medium-sized family business devoted to the off-road theme — a rarity in the consolidated German magazine market.

The editor-in-chief is Cornelia Czerny. The company's activities extend beyond the magazine into the "Erlebniswelten" — experience worlds, travel cooperations, driving training and events with industry partners — that make the brand a platform for the off-road lifestyle as well as a publication.

Digital Presence

The magazine's website, off-road.de, carries news from the 4x4 world, test content, travel features and the media data for the advertising market, extending the quarterly magazine's rhythm into digital currency. The brand's experience worlds, events and the "Geländewagen des Jahres" vote generate the community content that lives on social media and video platforms.

For the off-road enthusiast, the combination covers the passion from every angle: the quarterly magazine's definitive test and great expedition narrative, the digital platforms' news and community, and the real-world events where the readers meet their vehicles' limits — and each other. Since 1978, OFF ROAD has been the synonym for competence in the all-wheel domain.

The quarterly rhythm — in place since 2024 — gives each issue the compendium character: the substantial volume of the 4x4 world, to be read at leisure and kept as reference. THE VIEW AG, the renamed OFF ROAD Verlag AG since 1 January 2024, reflects the broadened activities: the magazine and its specials, the experience worlds, the travel cooperations, the driving training and the events — the off-road theme extended beyond the printed page. The "Geländewagen des Jahres" readers' vote remains the scene's honours list: the off-roader of the year elected by the opinion-forming readership — the jury that knows exactly what it wants. The driving training and events bring the magazine's expertise to the readers directly: the off-road instruction, the experience days, the travel cooperations with the automotive and tyre industry partners. The Ottobrunn base — the Bavarian family business — preserves the independent character: the medium-sized publisher devoted to the off-road theme since 1978. In the German 4x4 press, OFF ROAD is the institution: the magazine that documented the segment's entire arc — from the forester's tool to the mass market — with the family business's continuity and the enthusiast's authority.