About Beschaffung aktuell

Beschaffung aktuell

Beschaffung aktuell is the German specialist magazine for purchasing, materials management, and logistics — the professional journal of the buyers, published by the Konradin Mediengruppe in Leinfelden-Echterdingen. Currently in its 73rd volume (2026), it accompanies the purchasing profession since December 1954, when the first issue appeared as "Der Industrielle Einkauf" alongside the founding of the buyers' association BIE. Appearing monthly (with double issues), the magazine addresses the decision-makers in purchasing, supply management, technical and indirect purchasing, and logistics, as well as the managing directors and board members of small, medium, and large companies across all industries. With a distributed print circulation of 12,000 copies, the e-paper, the website beschaffung-aktuell.de, and the newsletters, it is the supply-management profession's medium. The members of the Bundesverband Materialwirtschaft, Einkauf und Logistik (BME) — as well as the Austrian ÖPWZ and BMÖ — receive the magazine through their membership.

Overview

Purchasing is the industry's value lever: the buyers decide the suppliers, negotiate the conditions, and manage the supply risks — and their profession has grown from the order-placing clerk to the strategic supply manager. Beschaffung aktuell addresses this profession in its full breadth. The 2024 content analysis shows the editorial weight: strategic purchasing 52 percent, technical purchasing 21 percent, logistics, the BME association pages, and the magazine sections. The target group — the decision-makers in purchasing and supply management, the technical and indirect buyers, the logistics managers, and the C-level executives — is the supply side's professional leadership.

The magazine's program follows the supply-management agenda: the sourcing strategies, the supplier management, the price and contract negotiations, the digitalization (the e-procurement, the AI in purchasing), the sustainability and the supply-chain laws, and the logistics. The BME connection — the members receiving the magazine through their association membership — binds the profession's organization to the journal: the association's matters, the events, and the professional development flow through its pages. The digital channels — the website with its monthly 25,000 users, the editorial newsletter reaching 3,691 recipients twice monthly, the e-paper with 3,754 readers — extend the monthly print rhythm into the continuous flow.

History

In autumn 1954, the first nationwide buyers' meeting took place in Stuttgart — and the Bundesarbeitsgemeinschaft Industrieller Einkauf (BIE) was founded. In December, the first issue of the specialist magazine "Der Industrielle Einkauf" appeared: Max Rembeck held the editorship, Hans Dannemann acted as publisher, and the men of the first hour included Kind, Hans Ovelgönne, and H. Rump. The beginnings were laborious: the six-times-a-year magazine was run in a small civil-law publishing company, and the hoped-for collaboration from buyer circles largely failed to materialize. In winter 1969/70, the workload became too heavy for the founders — and from 1970, the Konradin Verlag took over the title.

Under Konradin, the magazine grew: ten issues in 1971, the four-color cover in 1972, and with the first issue of 1973, the new title "Beschaffung aktuell" saw the light of day. The association evolved alongside: the BIE was renamed Bundesverband Materialwirtschaft und Einkauf (BME) in 1979, and in October 1988 discovered logistics under the aspect of integrated materials management, taking it into the name — Bundesverband Materialwirtschaft, Einkauf und Logistik. With five relaunches in 60 years, the specialist magazine for purchasing, materials management, and logistics has walked a straight path, accompanying the purchasing profession to its present societal standing. The magazine's straight path — five relaunches in 60 years, the title unchanged since 1973 — reflects the purchasing profession's own professionalization arc. In 1954, the buyers were the order-placers, struggling to be heard in their companies; the magazine's founders hoped in vain for the buyers' editorial collaboration. Seven decades later, the purchasers are the supply managers, the category strategists, the risk managers — and the magazine's readership includes the managing directors and board members. Beschaffung aktuell documented and accompanied this ascent: from the "Industrielle Einkauf" through the materials-management era to the supply-management present, each relaunch marking the profession's new self-understanding. The BME's name changes — from the industrial purchasing through materials management to the logistics-inclusive present — map the same trajectory in the association's mirror. The journal and the association, the medium and the profession, grew up together: the magazine is the purchasing profession's memory and its mirror.

Coverage and Content

Each issue follows the supply-management agenda. The strategic-purchasing coverage — the magazine's core at 52 percent of the editorial content — treats the sourcing strategies, the category management, the supplier relationship management, and the cost and value optimization. The technical-purchasing coverage addresses the industrial buyers' material world: the direct materials, the technical specifications, and the quality. The logistics coverage treats the supply chain's physical side: the transport, the warehousing, and the supply-chain management.

The digitalization coverage follows the purchasing function's transformation: the e-procurement systems, the data analytics, and the artificial intelligence in sourcing and supplier evaluation. The sustainability coverage addresses the supply-chain responsibility: the supply-chain laws, the CO₂ in the supply chain, and the circular economy. The BME pages carry the association's matters: the events, the working groups, and the professional positions. The management coverage addresses the C-level readers: the purchasing organization's leadership, the talent, and the function's strategic role. The combination — the strategic depth, the technical breadth, and the association's voice — makes the magazine the buyers' professional companion.

Organization and Ownership

Beschaffung aktuell is published by the Konradin-Verlag Robert Kohlhammer GmbH — the Konradin Mediengruppe — seated at Ernst-Mey-Straße 8, 70771 Leinfelden-Echterdingen. The Konradin Mediengruppe's trade-press portfolio — the industry titles alongside the purchasing magazine — gives Beschaffung aktuell its publishing context: the buyers' journal within the industrial press house, sharing the editorial infrastructure, the media-sales organization, and the digital platforms with the sibling titles. The Leinfelden-Echterdingen seat places the magazine in the Stuttgart region's industrial heartland, where the automotive and mechanical-engineering buyers form the readership's core. The association triangle — the German BME, the Austrian ÖPWZ and BMÖ — extends the magazine's reach across the German-speaking purchasing profession: the members in three countries receive the journal through their associations, making it the DACH region's buyers' medium. The magazine's institutional partner is the Bundesverband Materialwirtschaft, Einkauf und Logistik e.V. (BME) — the buyers' professional association whose members (as well as the Austrian ÖPWZ and BMÖ members) receive the magazine through their membership.

Commercially, the magazine follows the B2B trade-press model: subscriptions (189 euros domestic per year, 194.40 abroad) from the companies' purchasing organizations, the association's membership distribution, and advertising from the suppliers and service providers targeting the buyers — the IT and e-procurement providers, the logistics companies, the consultancies. The 2026 media data document the reach: the distributed print circulation of 12,000 copies; the e-paper with 3,754 readers; the website with 24,933 users and 39,356 page impressions per month; the newsletters reaching 3,691 recipients twice monthly — 15,754 contact chances per publication date plus the print co-readers. The ISSN 0341-4507 documents the title's bibliographic standing.

Digital Presence

The brand's digital home is beschaffung-aktuell.de (within the industrie.de portal family), carrying the news flow — the purchasing news, the market developments, the event coverage — and the magazine's digital services. The editorial newsletter, sent twice monthly to 3,691 recipients, is the profession's regular briefing; the total newsletter reach of 7,382 per month doubles the touchpoints. The e-paper provides the digital reading of the monthly issues. The website's monthly 25,000 users make it the supply-management web's professional portal.

After more than 70 years — from the December 1954 "Der Industrielle Einkauf" through the 1973 renaming to the present monthly — Beschaffung aktuell operates as the purchasing profession's magazine: the strategic and technical purchasing coverage, the logistics, and the BME's association voice — monthly in print, continuously online, and in the newsletters, for the buyers who manage German industry's supply.