About Spielen und Lernen

Spielen und Lernen

Spielen und Lernen is a German-language specialist magazine for early-childhood and primary education, published from Freiburg. Today's digital brand at spielen-und-lernen.de addresses pedagogical professionals — educators, daycare centre directors, childminders and primary school teachers — working in Kitas, crèches, kindergartens and after-school care across the German-speaking region. With a specialist portal, a biweekly newsletter reaching more than 48,000 subscribers, continuing-education formats and downloadable practice materials, it has become a fixture of professional discourse on early learning. The name carries a long history: a print magazine of the same title appeared from 1968 to 2013 as a family magazine for parents and children before being discontinued, and the current digital brand revives the title for a professional audience.

Overview

Spielen und Lernen describes itself as a specialist portal for education and upbringing, guided by the principle of "follow the science" — orienting its work to current research in developmental psychology and the natural sciences rather than to trends or opinion. Its declared centre is the free play of children: the editorial line holds that children develop their abilities and skills through play, and that the task of adults is to create the conditions in which this can happen. Around this conviction the magazine builds a programme aimed at the people who shape children's daily lives professionally: pedagogical specialists and parents alike, with the professional audience clearly in the foreground today.

According to the brand's own media data, more than 90 percent of its users come from pedagogical practice. Over 60 percent of the newsletter audience work in leadership functions, and the readership spans all age groups, with the largest cohorts between 30 and 59 years. The portal reports around 19,000 unique visitors and 48,000 visits, while the personalised newsletter goes out every two weeks to more than 48,000 recipients. These figures make Spielen und Lernen one of the more widely distributed independent professional media in the German early-childhood sector, a field otherwise dominated by association journals and publisher-owned specialist titles.

Thematically, the magazine covers the whole working world of early education: pedagogical practice and theory, ideas and suggestions for daily work with children, health, nutrition and movement, toys and media, observation and documentation of development, team leadership, parent cooperation, inclusion, sustainability and the digital transformation of daycare centres. Practical utility is central: alongside articles and interviews, the portal offers downloads, practice aids, toy and book reviews and continuing-education events, positioning itself as a working tool rather than a purely reflective journal.

History

The title Spielen und Lernen goes back to 1968, when it was founded as a monthly magazine for parents and children. For decades it was published in Freiburg, most recently by Family Media GmbH & Co. KG, a joint venture founded in 2004 by Axel Springer AG and the OZ Verlag of Rheinfelden, in which each partner held 50 percent. The print magazine combined a parents' section with tips on family life and upbringing and a removable children's insert, first called "spiel mit" and later "mach mit", with craft ideas, puzzles, games, first-reader texts and factual topics for young children. At its peak the title reported a sold circulation of more than 100,000 copies, with 113,523 sold copies recorded for the first quarter of 2009.

The print era ended in June 2013, when the publisher discontinued Spielen und Lernen citing declining sales. The decision was part of a broader retrenchment at the Freiburg-based Family Media group, which concentrated its resources on its main title Familie & Co. Editors of the print magazine included Anja Krumpholz-Reichel and, in its final years, Stephan Wessolek; Gernot Körner had earlier served as publishing director and editor-in-chief of the title and as managing director of the Family Media joint venture.

The name did not disappear. In the years that followed, a digital brand under the same title was built up at spielen-und-lernen.de and spielen-und-lernen.online, repositioning the magazine as a professional medium for early-childhood educators rather than a family magazine for parents. Gernot Körner, the former head of the print title, is named as the responsible publisher of the digital brand, operating from Wannerstrasse in Freiburg — a direct personal continuity between the historic magazine and its digital successor. The relaunch reflects a broader shift in the sector's media landscape: where the old magazine spoke to parents, the new one speaks to the professionals who care for their children every day, a readership that has grown in importance as early-childhood education has become a central field of public policy.

Content and Sections

The editorial offering of Spielen und Lernen is organised around the daily practice of early-childhood professionals. Specialist articles, interviews and studies from practice and science form the journalistic core, covering developmental psychology, pedagogy and education policy. Recurring coverage areas include health, nutrition and movement; toys, games and children's media; observation and developmental documentation; room design and equipment; group work; language education; nature pedagogy; music and movement; parent cooperation; inclusion; sustainability; team communication and self-care; and the digital transformation of daycare centres and their administration.

The newsletter, sent every two weeks, follows an annual theme calendar that structures the year around sector priorities. Themes have included continuing education, the Didacta education fair, observation and documentation, nature pedagogy, painting and crafts through the seasons, the digital Kita, designing and equipping rooms, group work, discovery and research, music and movement, parent and public relations work, sustainability and education for sustainable development, STEM subjects, health for children and teams, language education, teamwork and self-care, under-threes, reading and books, prevention and child protection, and accompanying children's development. Each issue combines specialist articles with reports on workshops, lectures and hands-on activities, competitions and practical materials.

Beyond journalism, the brand runs several service sections. "Spiel des Monats" presents a selected game in the newsletter and on the website, with the editorial team reviewing it together with a pedagogical institution such as a crèche, kindergarten or primary school. Toy reviews under the "spiel gut" seal of approval and book reviews — including works by authors such as Armin Krenz — guide purchasing decisions. A job section, "Kolleginnen gesucht", carries recruitment advertising aimed at the sector's chronic staffing needs. Downloads and practice materials give educators ready-to-use resources, while the continuing-education programme offers live webinars and online workshops, including series organised with the German League for the Child on children's rights-based practice.

Publisher and Organization

The digital Spielen und Lernen is published under the responsibility of Gernot Körner, based at Wannerstrasse 1 in Freiburg. Körner brings a long history with the title: he was publishing director and editor-in-chief of the print Spielen und Lernen and managing director of the Family Media joint venture that published it from 2004, giving the digital successor a direct editorial lineage to the historic magazine. Marketing and advertising sales are handled by Marie-Christine Berlin of the agency mediameer in Cologne, who acts as the contact for advertisers in the brand's media data.

The organisation is deliberately lean, typical of a specialist digital publisher: a small professional editorial team produces the portal content and the biweekly newsletter, supported by external authors and experts from pedagogy, medicine, psychology and sociology. The continuing-education formats draw on cooperation with sector institutions, including the interdisciplinary board of the German League for the Child, whose members appear as speakers in the webinar series on involving, supporting and protecting children. This networked model allows a small newsroom to cover a wide professional field with credible expertise, while the advertising business — display banners, advertorials, sponsored newsletters, competitions and job ads — funds the free-to-read offering for the professional audience.

Digital Presence

Spielen und Lernen is a digital-first brand: its home is the portal spielen-und-lernen.de, mirrored at spielen-und-lernen.online, where articles, reviews, downloads and event information are published continuously. The site's most important distribution channel is the personalised newsletter, sent every two weeks to more than 48,000 subscribers and structured around the annual theme calendar. The newsletter archive, publicly accessible on the site, documents the brand's output week by week and underlines the regularity of its publishing rhythm.

The portal's digital strategy is built for a professional audience that researches online between shifts: responsive design, clearly structured sections for articles, media, continuing education and downloads, and print-friendly article formats. Social sharing and the newsletter drive returning traffic, while the advertising formats — sidebar banners, newsletter banners, advertorials, standalone newsletters and sponsored competitions — are sold on the basis of the documented professional reach. With 19,000 unique visitors and 48,000 visits reported for the portal, plus the large newsletter base, the brand maintains a measurable digital footprint in a niche where trust and professional relevance matter more than raw traffic. The combination of daily editorial output, a structured newsletter programme and continuing-education events gives Spielen und Lernen a multi-channel presence that few independent early-childhood media can match.