About Der Praktiker

Der Praktiker

Der Praktiker is a German trade journal for joining, cutting and coating technology, published by DVS Media GmbH in Düsseldorf. Appearing monthly, it is aimed squarely at small and medium-sized enterprises and craft businesses where welding, soldering, adhesive bonding and coating are part of daily production or repair work. Its editorial motto is "from practice for practice": application-oriented specialist articles explain processes, materials and equipment in terms that workshop managers, welding supervisors and skilled craftspeople can put to use immediately. Regular sections cover industry news, quality management and standardisation, occupational safety and environmental protection, and legal questions with court rulings relevant to the trade. With a distributed circulation of around 7,200 copies, it is one of the established voices of the German welding community.

Overview

Der Praktiker is the practice-oriented journal in the portfolio of DVS Media, the publishing arm of the German Welding Society (DVS – Deutscher Verband für Schweißen und verwandte Verfahren). While its sister journal Schweissen und Schneiden addresses engineers and researchers with scientific depth, Der Praktiker speaks to the people who apply joining technology on the shop floor: master welders, workshop owners, production managers in metalworking SMEs, and instructors in vocational training. The journal appears twelve times a year, and its content is consistently geared to practical application rather than theory.

A typical issue combines specialist articles on welding, soldering, bonding and coating processes with news from the industry and the skilled crafts, updates on standards and quality management, guidance on occupational safety and environmental protection, and a legal section explaining court decisions that affect workshops and fabricators. This mix reflects the reality of running a small metalworking business in Germany, where the master of the shop must simultaneously be a technologist, a quality manager, a safety officer and an employer navigating labour and liability law.

The readership analysis published by the publisher shows the journal's reach across the sectors where joining technology is used in manufacturing and repair: steel and light-metal construction, boiler and vessel manufacturing, mechanical engineering, shipbuilding, rail vehicle construction, the energy industry, the chemical industry and the construction sector, as well as research and teaching. The distributed circulation of around 7,200 copies represents a focused, professionally qualified audience rather than a mass readership, which is precisely what makes the title attractive to advertisers from the welding equipment, consumables and safety industries.

The journal is available in print and digital form, with an online archive at derpraktiker.de, and it is embedded in the publisher's wider digital ecosystem, including the B2B platform Home of Welding, which presents digitally processed information on welding processes for the industry.

History

Der Praktiker is published by DVS Media GmbH, based at Aachener Straße 172 in Düsseldorf, the publishing subsidiary of the DVS, the German Welding Society. The DVS itself is the central technical and scientific association for joining, cutting and coating in Germany, an organisation that trains around 100,000 people a year according to its own figures and organises the world's leading trade fair for the sector, Schweissen und Schneiden, traditionally held in Essen.

DVS Media was established as the association's publishing arm to produce specialist literature, technical rules, teaching media and journals in German and English. Its regularly published journals include Schweissen und Schneiden, Der Praktiker, Der Schweisser, the English-language Welding and Cutting, Joining Plastics and the Thermal Spray Bulletin. Within this portfolio, Der Praktiker has the distinct role of the practitioner's journal: where Schweissen und Schneiden reports on research and development, Der Praktiker translates technical knowledge into workshop-ready guidance.

The journal's concept of "from practice for practice" has remained stable through changes in the media landscape. As print circulations in the trade press came under pressure, the publisher built out digital offerings around the journal, including the online archive and the Home of Welding platform, while maintaining the monthly print edition as the core product. The media data published by DVS Media document a stable, well-defined readership in the German-speaking metalworking and fabrication industries.

Coverage and Content

The specialist articles at the heart of Der Praktiker deal with the full range of joining and related processes: arc welding in its various forms, resistance welding, laser and electron beam welding, soldering and brazing, adhesive bonding, thermal spraying and other coating processes, as well as cutting technologies. Articles explain process principles, parameter selection, material behaviour, defect prevention and repair techniques, always with an eye to what the reader can apply in the workshop. Reports from companies show how other fabricators have solved production problems, modernised their welding shops or introduced new processes.

The section on industry and skilled crafts (Industrie und Handwerk) carries news from companies, associations and the trade fair world, keeping readers informed about market developments, new products and personnel changes. Quality management and standardisation is a standing topic of particular importance in welding, where standards such as DIN EN ISO 3834 for quality requirements in fusion welding and DIN EN 1090 for steel construction directly determine whether a workshop may take on certain contracts. The journal explains new and revised standards in practical terms.

Occupational safety and environmental protection addresses the health risks of welding fumes, radiation, noise and ergonomic strain, as well as the environmental obligations of workshops, from waste disposal to emissions. The legal section, covering legal questions and court rulings (Rechtsfragen und Urteile), translates case law into guidance for business owners on liability, warranty, employment and contract issues. Together these sections make the journal a comprehensive working companion for the master of a welding or metalworking shop.

Organization and Ownership

Der Praktiker is published by DVS Media GmbH in Düsseldorf, a wholly owned subsidiary of the DVS, the German Welding Society (Deutscher Verband für Schweißen und verwandte Verfahren e.V.). The DVS Group also includes the GSI Gesellschaft für Schweisstechnik International, welding training and testing institutes (SLV Halle, SLV Mannheim, IFW Jena), the certification body DVS ZERT and several welding training centres. This institutional embedding gives the journal direct access to the association's expert network, standards committees and training organisations.

The publisher describes itself as a specialist publisher for technical literature and knowledge transfer, producing journals, books, teaching media, technical rules and electronic media in German and English. The editorial office works with authors from industry, research institutes, testing bodies and the skilled crafts, ensuring that articles reflect both the state of the art and the realities of the workshop.

The business model is the classic one for association-linked trade journals: subscriptions from companies and individuals in print and digital form, single-issue sales, and advertising from manufacturers of welding equipment, consumables, safety technology and software. The reader structure analysis, which breaks down the circulation by economic sector, serves as the documented basis for the advertising business and confirms the journal's penetration of its target industries.

Digital Presence

The journal's online home is derpraktiker.de, which hosts the online archive of past issues, allowing subscribers to research articles from previous years. The publisher's main site, dvs-media.eu, presents the journal with subscription options: an annual digital subscription, single issues and free sample copies, with transparent pricing for the trade audience.

Beyond the journal itself, DVS Media operates the B2B platform Home of Welding, which offers digitally processed information on welding processes and gives companies in the sector the opportunity to highlight topics through individualised newsletters, advertising and entries in product and company directories. This platform extends the journal's reach into the daily information routines of the industry and creates additional touchpoints between the editorial brand and its professional community.

The publisher also maintains the digital infrastructure for subscriptions, e-commerce and reader service, with a dedicated subscription service contact for all its journals. While the journal does not pursue a social-media-first strategy, its digital presence is thoroughly professional and service-oriented, built around the archive, the subscription shop and the industry platform that together serve the information needs of welding practitioners between the monthly print issues.