About HZwei

HZwei

HZwei, with the full title "HZwei – Das Magazin für Wasserstoff und Brennstoffzellen," is the German specialist magazine for hydrogen and fuel-cell technology, published by the Gentner Energy Media GmbH, part of the Alfons W. Gentner Verlag group in Stuttgart. As the first German magazine dedicated to hydrogen since 2004, it reports on trends, innovations, and developments in hydrogen technology, the market, and politics. The quarterly journal, averaging around 64 pages per issue, focuses on detailed specialist contributions by experts from science, research, and practice, covering hydrogen and fuel-cell technology, electromobility, and energy storage. Its English-language sister title, H2-International – The e-journal on Hydrogen and Fuel Cells, addresses an international specialist audience.

Overview

HZwei covers the full spectrum of the hydrogen economy: the decarbonization of industry, hydrogen as a fuel in logistics, hydrogen derivatives for shipping, the use of hydrogen to bridge periods of weak wind and solar production, and the construction of hydrogen infrastructure in Germany and Europe, including import terminals, pipeline networks, and storage facilities. Technical advances in electrolyzer and fuel-cell development receive detailed treatment, and the international market is covered alongside the national perspective.

The magazine's editorial concept centers on expert contributions: detailed specialist articles by authors from science, research, and practice form the core of each issue, giving readers depth that daily news cannot provide. Current focal topics reflect the hydrogen boom: industrial decarbonization, hydrogen logistics, infrastructure build-out, and the policy frameworks shaping the market. The online portal hzwei.info extends the print magazine with news, a newsletter, e-paper editions, and trade-fair coverage, including the HZwei Travel Guide that helps readers navigate hydrogen exhibitions such as the Hamburg fair.

History

The magazine's origins lie at the turn of the millennium, when the SunMedia Verlags GmbH in Hanover, also publisher of the journal Erneuerbare Energien, launched the title under the name H2Tec. The early issues appeared semi-annually, printed primarily in two colors (blue and black) with a modest 20 to 24 pages. After six years, the Hanover publisher parted with the specialist journal and entrusted it to the Hydrogeit Verlag, in which books on hydrogen and fuel cells were already appearing, under founder Sven Geitmann, one of the pioneers of the hydrogen industry in Germany and Europe.

With the transition to HZwei, the frequency increased to quarterly and the page count to 32, later growing to an average of 64 pages as interest in the technology expanded. The Hydrogeit Verlag gave the magazine a completely new layout and, five years into its stewardship, launched the English edition H2-International as an e-journal. On the magazine's twentieth anniversary, Geitmann noted that in its fifteenth year the HZwei was more in demand than ever, thanking all who had contributed to the journal's long run with ever-new, exciting topics, and promising that the Hydrogeit Verlag would continue as a critical observer and companion of developments in the hydrogen and fuel-cell sector.

Effective April 1, 2025, the Gentner Energy Media GmbH, a company of the Gentner publishing group, took over HZwei and H2-International from the Hydrogeit Verlag. The acquisition rounds out Gentner Energy Media's existing portfolio with hydrogen and deepens its editorial focus on renewable energies and sustainability in the energy sector; the publisher now covers hydrogen, wind power, photovoltaics, and solar thermal with its specialist media. CEO Robert Reisch emphasized the close cooperation with the Berlin-based sister titles Erneuerbare Energien and photovoltaik, offering new possibilities for joint focal topics, new digital products, and deepened editorial content, and expressed the intention to continue founder Sven Geitmann's successful work and develop the media formats further on a strong basis.

Coverage and Content

Each issue combines market, technology, and policy coverage. Technology articles examine electrolyzers, fuel cells, storage systems, and applications from industrial processes to heavy transport and shipping. Market coverage follows project developments, company strategies, and investment trends in the hydrogen economy. Policy reporting addresses the regulatory frameworks at German and European level that determine the pace of the hydrogen ramp-up, from funding programs to infrastructure planning.

The expert-article format distinguishes the magazine from news-driven media: scientists, engineers, and practitioners contribute detailed technical pieces that assume a knowledgeable readership. Trade-fair coverage, including the HZwei Travel Guide for hydrogen exhibitions, serves the industry's networking needs. The English-language H2-International e-journal mirrors this content for the global market, focusing on international trends, developments, and innovations in hydrogen technologies, infrastructure, and policy frameworks. Together, the two titles cover the hydrogen story from the German workshop to the world market.

Organization and Ownership

Since April 2025, HZwei has been published by the Gentner Energy Media GmbH, part of the Alfons W. Gentner Verlag group based in Stuttgart, one of Germany's established specialist publishers with a strong energy portfolio. The editor-in-chief is Eva Augsten, supported by deputy editor-in-chief Monika Rößiger, with the editorial team also drawing on colleagues from the sister magazine Erneuerbare Energien. Media sales contacts handle the advertising business.

The journal carries the ISSN 1862-393X and is available in print and online full-text editions, with paid access models including campus and single-workstation licenses documented in the Electronic Journals Library. The Gentner group's energy titles, now spanning hydrogen, wind, photovoltaics, and solar thermal, create synergies in reporting, events, and digital products. The takeover from the founder-led Hydrogeit Verlag to the publishing group represents the magazine's transition from a pioneer's project to an established portfolio title, reflecting the hydrogen sector's own maturation from niche to mainstream energy topic.

The Hydrogen Media Landscape

HZwei operates at the intersection of energy journalism and industrial specialist media. The hydrogen economy's rise has created demand for dedicated coverage that general energy media cannot provide in sufficient depth: the technology's complexity, from electrochemistry to pipeline engineering, requires specialist knowledge, while the policy dimension demands continuous monitoring of funding and regulation. HZwei's expert-driven format meets this demand, positioning the magazine as the German-language reference for the sector.

The international dimension, served by H2-International, acknowledges that hydrogen is a global story: production in regions with abundant renewables, international transport chains, and the competition between national hydrogen strategies all require coverage beyond German borders. The magazine's presence at trade fairs, with its editorial team reporting from the exhibition floors and its Travel Guide orienting visitors, makes it a physical meeting point for the industry as well as a publication. In a sector where the technology, the market, and the politics evolve simultaneously, the magazine's role as a critical, knowledgeable companion has become more valuable as the stakes have grown.

Digital Presence

The portal hzwei.info is the magazine's digital hub, offering news, the e-paper editions of the magazine, newsletters in German and English, and LinkedIn presence for the editorial team. The HZwei newsletter and the H2-International newsletter deliver updates to subscribers, while the e-paper provides the print magazine's content in digital form with added value. Media data for both titles is available through the Gentner media service.

The digital offering reflects the publisher's strategy of developing new digital products around the hydrogen topic, leveraging the synergies with the group's other energy titles. For a specialist magazine that began as a 20-page two-color journal at the turn of the millennium, the current multi-channel presence, print quarterly, e-paper, bilingual newsletters, online portal, and trade-fair activities, demonstrates how a niche B2B title can grow with its sector into a comprehensive media brand.