About HolzWerken

HolzWerken

HolzWerken is Germany's magazine for ambitious hobby woodworkers, published seven times a year by the Hannover specialist publisher Vincentz Network. Since its first issue in 2006, the magazine has served the community of furniture makers, woodturners, and carpentry enthusiasts with project instructions, tool tests, and workshop knowledge, growing with the woodworking renaissance into the leading German-language title for the ambitious hobbyist. The 66-page issues appear every two months, complemented since 2016 by an annual special issue with a fixed theme. With editors like editor-in-chief Andreas Duhme and the well-known authors Guido Henn and others, HolzWerken combines the craft magazine's tradition with a strong digital presence on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and in its newsletter.

Overview

HolzWerken targets the ambitious hobby user in the fields of joinery, furniture making, and woodturning. The readership consists of woodworkers who take their hobby seriously: they equip workshops, build furniture for their homes, and invest in quality tools. The magazine addresses them with a practical editorial concept: every issue delivers projects with step-by-step instructions, tested jigs and fixtures, tool reviews, and reports from the woodworking world. The 66 pages are densely packed with content that leads the reader back to the workshop.

The rhythm is bi-monthly: six regular issues appear at mid-month of the even months, plus one special issue per year since 2016. The special issues focus on a single theme, giving the editorial team room for deep dives that the regular issues' breadth does not allow. The magazine's format, 225 by 290 millimeters trimmed, presents the workshop photography and construction drawings in a generous layout. The subscription options reflect the readers' media habits: the print subscription at €78 per year for the tactile workshop companion, the digital at €67 for the tablet in the workshop, and the combination at €86 for those who want both.

The Hobby Woodworking Culture

HolzWerken serves a hobby culture that has grown far beyond the weekend handyman: the ambitious hobby woodworker is a distinct figure, investing thousands in workshop equipment, building furniture to professional standards, and participating in a global online community of makers. The magazine's success reflects this culture's maturation: woodworking has become a lifestyle hobby, with its own aesthetics, its own heroes, and its own media. The YouTube workshop channels, the Instagram woodworking accounts, and the magazine's own community form an ecosystem in which HolzWerken is the German-language print anchor.

The culture values both tradition and innovation: the hand-cut dovetail and the CNC router coexist in the same workshop, and the magazine covers both with equal seriousness. The sustainability dimension adds appeal: building furniture from wood, repairing rather than replacing, and working with local timber resonate with environmentally conscious makers. The pandemic years accelerated the trend, as home offices and home workshops became the norm and the demand for quality tools surged.

History

HolzWerken launched in 2006 as an imprint of Vincentz Network, the Hannover publishing house known for its trade media in the nursing, automotive, and architecture sectors. The imprint recognized that the hobby woodworking market, underserved by the professional trade press, deserved its own magazine. The founding concept: a magazine for ambitious hobbyists, distinct from both the professional joinery journals and the general DIY press.

The magazine's growth tracked the woodworking renaissance of the 2010s and 2020s: the maker movement, the YouTube workshop culture, and the pandemic's home-improvement boom all expanded the audience for serious hobby woodworking. HolzWerken built its brand around practical authority: the editors and authors are woodworkers themselves, and the magazine's project instructions are tested in real workshops. The 20th volume in 2026 marks two decades of continuous publication, a remarkable longevity in the hobby-magazine market. Where many special-interest magazines have folded or gone digital-only, HolzWerken's print issues remain the product's heart, a testament to the enduring appeal of the workshop magazine as a physical object: the plans on paper, the photographs in print, the issue on the workbench.

Coverage and Content

The project instructions are the magazine's core: furniture pieces with complete building plans, from Arts-and-Crafts-style coffee tables to turned music boxes, from children's building systems to workshop furniture. The instructions include material lists, cutting plans, and step-by-step photographs, designed so that the reader can actually build the project. The series on furniture connectors, the router techniques, and the dovetail tutorials address the fundamental skills of the craft.

Tool tests and workshop technology form the second pillar: the magazine tests machines and hand tools, from router jigs to chainsaw sharpening, and reports on innovations like the handheld CNC router Shaper Origin. The tests are practical, not laboratory exercises: the editors use the tools in real projects and report what works, what doesn't, and what the purchase decision should consider. This consumer-guidance function is central to the magazine's value: the hobby woodworker's tool purchases are significant investments, and the magazine's independent testing earns the readers' trust. The workshop-building series, written by readers like Gerhard Nagy, documents real workshop projects from planning to shell construction. Reports from the woodworking world, such as the visit to the tool manufacturer Robin Wood in Sheffield, and the wood-knowledge features, such as determining log diameters or identifying wood species, round out the content. The reader contributions, from workshop projects to clever jigs, make the magazine a two-way medium: the community's knowledge flows back into the publication.

Organization and Ownership

HolzWerken is an imprint of Vincentz Network GmbH & Co. KG, based at Plathnerstraße 4c in Hannover. The editorial team includes editor-in-chief Andreas Duhme, editor Christian Filies, and editor Sonja Senge. The imprint's product range extends beyond the magazine to books, such as Guido Henn's "Handbuch Oberfräse," and the online shop's subscriptions and single issues.

The business model is the classic special-interest magazine mix: subscriptions (print €78 per year, digital €67, print plus digital €86), single-issue sales, and advertising from the tool and wood industries. The media information's detailed advertising specifications reflect the magazine's professional operation within the Vincentz Network publishing house. The imprint's integration into Vincentz Network gives HolzWerken the infrastructure of a major specialist publisher: professional distribution, the online shop, and the advertising sales organization, while the editorial team maintains the imprint's distinct voice and the close connection to the woodworking community.

Digital Presence

HolzWerken's digital presence is unusually strong for a hobby magazine: the YouTube channel HolzWerken TV publishes workshop videos, tool tests, and issue previews, extending the magazine's practical content into video. The videos demonstrate the techniques that the print instructions describe: the router jigs in action, the dovetails being cut, the machines being tested. Facebook and Instagram carry the brand's visual storytelling, and the newsletter keeps subscribers informed about new issues and products. The website holzwerken.net hosts the shop with subscriptions and single issues, the book catalog, and free downloads. The free downloads, from article PDFs to wood-knowledge features, serve as the magazine's marketing: they demonstrate the content's quality and convert downloaders into subscribers.

The digital strategy serves the magazine's practical mission: the videos demonstrate the techniques that the print instructions describe, the social channels build the woodworking community, and the shop makes the back catalog accessible. For a hobby magazine, this integration of print and digital is essential: the readers discover the content on YouTube and buy the magazine for the detailed instructions.