About Oldtimer Praxis

Oldtimer Praxis

Oldtimer Praxis is the workshop magazine for classic-vehicle enthusiasts, published monthly by the VF Verlagsgesellschaft in Mainz as the sister title of Oldtimer Markt. Founded in 1990, it serves the hands-on side of the oldtimer scene: step-by-step restoration reports, dissected technology features, tool guides and workshop news for the restorers, tinkerers and do-it-yourself mechanics who keep historic cars and motorcycles running. Under editor-in-chief Lars Rosenbrock, it reached a sold circulation of 91,437 copies (IVW III/2014), making it one of the largest workshop magazines in the German-speaking world.

Overview

Oldtimer Praxis is a monthly German-language special-interest magazine (ISSN 0937-6291) from the VF Verlagsgesellschaft mbH in Mainz — the workshop counterpart to the flagship Oldtimer Markt. Where the Markt covers the vehicles, the market and the scene, the Praxis covers the work: restorations documented step by step, technology explained by dissection, and the tools, materials and techniques of the classic-vehicle workshop. The editorial address is Redaktion Oldtimer Praxis, Lise-Meitner-Straße 2, 55129 Mainz (redaktion@oldtimerpraxis.de). The magazine appears monthly with the standard VF distribution through newsstands and subscriptions, and its content is archived on the oldtimer-markt.de portal. The formula pairs the automobile and the motorcycle in every issue: the table of contents is split into Automobil and Motorrad sections, each with its own restoration stories, technology features and experience reports. The title's commercial heart is the same enthusiast economy as its sister: parts suppliers, tool manufacturers, paint and bodywork specialists, and the classified ads for project vehicles — the barn finds waiting for their "Restauriert" story, issue after issue, from the Mainz workshop of German motoring journalism, since 1990, every month, without fail.

History

Oldtimer Praxis was founded in 1990 as the workshop sister of Oldtimer Markt, ten years after the flagship's launch. The timing captured the maturation of the German oldtimer scene: by 1990 the hobby had moved beyond buying and driving into restoring, and a magazine dedicated to the practical work — the welding, the painting, the engine rebuilds — filled a gap the market-oriented flagship could not. The title grew with the restoration boom of the 1990s and 2000s, reaching its IVW-recorded sold circulation of 91,437 copies in the third quarter of 2014. The editorial concept proved durable: the "Restauriert" restoration series, the "Seziert" technology dissections and the workshop guides have structured the magazine for three decades. A 2021 editorial marked a symbolic moment — the first-ever restoration story of an electric car, a VW Golf 2 CitySTROMer, one of only 50 electric test cars of the second Golf generation — with the editor noting that automotive history is exciting beyond the combustion engine, even as he confessed his affection for the combustion-engine underdogs. The magazine has thus kept its workshop identity while acknowledging the scene's evolution.

Coverage and Content

The content architecture is built around the workshop. "Restauriert" presents restoration stories step by step: the September 2025 issue showed a Citroën 2CV 6 transformed from a worn-out duck into a fine car, a Ford Taunus TC3 given proper legs, a Willys Jeep's side-valve engine under the loupe, a BMW 2002 Touring refurbished by a devoted enthusiast, and a Borgward Isabella TS preserved with its patina — harder, the magazine notes, than making everything new. "Seziert" dissects technology in detail: the Fiat ohv six-cylinder's four-bearing crankshaft and V-hanging valves, the starter motor's pre-engaged drive, the DC dynamo as the engine's small power station. The "Ratgeber Werkzeug" tool guide goes shopping with the magazine's "Schraubergott" (wrench god) Thomas Geis for sheet-metal and bodywork tools. "Unterbodenschutz" treats underbody protection; "Erfahrungen" collects long-term ownership reports — a Kawasaki Z1000 R with over 200,000 kilometres, a Benelli 125, an NSU Max. "Szene-News" and "Werkstatt-News" cover the scene and the trade. Youngtimer tips (Mazda MX-5 NC, BMW M3 E36/E46 weak points) bridge to the younger classics. The June 2024 issue's mix — BMW 3.0 CSi restoration, DKW Hobby scooter dissection, Citroën Type H food-truck conversion, Opel Kadett B profile — shows the breadth: from concours candidates to everyday classics, from cars to motorcycles. The December 2022 issue added the long-view stories: a VW 1200 Cabriolet bought before the driving licence and restored fifteen years later, kept for 44 years — a question of patience; a BMW R 100 turned into a 155-kilo, 100-horsepower classic racer; an Opel Rekord C and a Rover P6 3500 that broke with British car-building traditions. The "Erfahrungen" format gives the magazine its distinctive voice: not the journalist's test drive but the owner's decade — the convinced Opel enthusiasts and their individual access to the fascinating coupé, the fan's balance sheet after a 200,000-kilometre endurance test. This is the workshop magazine as oral history: the knowledge that lives in the scene's hands, written down before it disappears with the generation that built it.

Organization and Ownership

Oldtimer Praxis is published by the VF Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Lise-Meitner-Straße 2, 55129 Mainz, the mid-sized special-interest publisher that the media data describes as Europe's leading publisher of oldtimer publications. The editor-in-chief is Lars Rosenbrock. The title is the workshop sister of Oldtimer Markt within the VF portfolio that also includes Oldtimer Traktor, American Classics and Last & Kraft, plus the annual special publications. The editorial team works from the Mainz address shared with the sister titles, with reader contact through redaktion@oldtimerpraxis.de, the subscription service (oldtimerpraxis@vuservice.de, 06123/9238-280) and the dates-and-classifieds service (termineservice@oldtimerpraxis.de, kleinanzeigen@oldtimerpraxis.de). The commercial model mirrors the flagship's: single-copy sales and subscriptions, display advertising from the workshop-supply industry — tools, paints, parts, restoration services — and the classified ads. The publisher's training programmes for media designers cover the Praxis titles as well, with apprentices learning photo shoots, editorial work, ad sales and page production across the house's magazines.

Digital Presence

The digital home is oldtimer-praxis.de, integrated into the oldtimer-markt.de portal, which hosts the magazine's archive with downloadable tables of contents going back years — the September 2025, April 2022, June 2024 and December 2022 issues are documented with full contents, giving the archive a research function for restorers seeking specific model coverage. The free newsletter at oldtimermarkt.de serves the whole VF readership. The Facebook page at facebook.com/oldtimerpraxis extends the workshop community into social media. The kleinanzeigen.oldtimermarkt.de marketplace is the digital counterpart of the classified sections. Between the monthly print magazine, the online archive, the newsletter, the marketplace and social media, Oldtimer Praxis maintains the full digital apparatus of the VF house — while the print issue remains the workshop manual that readers keep on the shelf above the workbench, grease-stained and indispensable. The archive function deserves emphasis: with downloadable contents going back years, the portal lets a restorer find exactly the issue that dissected the Fiat 2300's heart or restored the Glas 04 — the magazine as a technical reference library, searchable by model. The April 2022 issue's WSK 125 M06 story — a fine Polish 125 built on the DKW RT pattern — and the Suzuki T500/GT500 dissection show the title's reach beyond the German mainstream into the Eastern-bloc and Japanese classics that the scene increasingly restores. Founded in 1990 as the workshop sister of the 1980 flagship, Oldtimer Praxis has kept its promise for over three decades: the magazine for those who don't just own oldtimers but keep them alive — with wrench, welder and patience — in Mainz and in ten thousand garages across the German-speaking world.