About TH Technischer Handel

TH Technischer Handel

TH Technischer Handel is a German trade magazine for the technical wholesale and retail trade, published as "Das Branchenmagazin" at technischerhandel.com and the specialist information source for the industry, with a publishing history stretching back more than a century to around 1914. With its 106th volume in 2019, it is one of the oldest continuously published trade magazines in the German technical trade, tracing its roots to around 1914, a continuity that spans the Weimar Republic, the postwar boom, and the digital age. The magazine covers products and technologies across the technical trade's product areas, from hose technology to workwear, and it is closely tied to the VTH Verband Technischer Handel e.V., the strong community of the technical trade, the industry association based in Düsseldorf, whose members, quality partners, specialist groups, and campaigns form a large part of its coverage.

Overview

TH Technischer Handel serves the technical traders: the specialist wholesalers and retailers who supply industry, crafts, and safety management with technical products, the merchants who stand between the brand manufacturers and the industrial users and keep the country's production running with their solutions. Its coverage spans the product areas of the technical trade: hose and fitting technology, sealing technology, adhesive technology, technical textiles, workwear and protective clothing, and the products and technologies that keep industry running, the assortment that the technical traders sell to their industrial customers every day.

The magazine's product and technology reporting presents the manufacturers' solutions, from the central product database to the market and competition requirements, as in the coverage of the Masterflex Group's development from standard hose manufacturer to provider of engineered connection solutions, with interviews on product and industry management, digitalization, and market developments, showing how the suppliers develop with their markets. The "Bekleidung" section addresses workwear, such as staying dry in work clothing, the March 2019 issue's focus topic.

The subscription model offers a complete package: five digital subscriptions plus the printed TH Technischer Handel magazine, the TH Abo Digital + Print offer that serves the whole trading company and that no technical trader should miss. The website's categories organize the content by product areas, with further product areas beyond the main sections, and the magazine's topics and dates PDF documents its editorial calendar.

History

TH Technischer Handel's 106th volume in the March 2019 issue places the magazine's founding around 1914, making it a witness to more than a century of the German technical trade's history, from the industrial age to the digital present. The magazine developed as the branch magazine of the technical traders, the specialist merchants who stand between the brand manufacturers and the industrial users, working hand in hand with industry to optimize production and safety, the partnership model that the VTH's practice clips document.

The VTH Verband Technischer Handel e.V., the industry association based at Prinz-Georg-Strasse 106 in Düsseldorf and the strong community of the technical trade, became the magazine's institutional partner: the association's member companies, its VTH-QUALITÄTSPARTNER quality partners, its specialist groups for sealing technology, adhesive technology, and drive technology, its business reports and newsletters, and its campaigns such as "Damit Industrie läuft" (keeping industry running) all flow through the magazine's coverage.

The magazine's digital transformation brought the technischerhandel.com portal with its product-area categories, the complete subscription package with five digital subscriptions plus print, and the integration of the association's communications, such as the VTH newsletter "IQ - Impulse für Qualität," whose 30th issue appeared in August 2026 with the business report and the campaign launch.

Coverage and Content

TH Technischer Handel's editorial program covers the technical trade's product world. Hose technology coverage follows the manufacturers' system solutions, from standard hoses to engineered connection systems, with interviews on product management, digitalization, and efficiency, asking how machine efficiency can be further increased and failures avoided. Sealing technology coverage reports on the VTH specialist group's supplier visits, such as the visit to the Frenzelit manufacturing plant in Upper Franconia, where fiber- and metal-reinforced sealing materials are produced for the industry's most demanding applications.

Adhesive technology coverage presents the modern industrial adhesive tapes that withstand fire, UV radiation, and chemicals, insulate or conduct electricity, and replace screws, rivets, or welds, with the VTH adhesive technology specialist group's expertise explaining the interplay of materials and manufacturing techniques. Technical textiles coverage addresses the glass fabrics for acoustic, thermal, and electrical insulation in industry, crafts, and safety management, from energy saving to fire protection.

Workwear coverage in the "Bekleidung" section addresses protective and work clothing, such as staying dry in work clothing, and the products and technologies section presents the innovations across the trade's assortment. The VTH association's topics, from the quality partner program to the "Damit Industrie läuft" campaign, give the magazine its institutional dimension, connecting the product coverage with the industry's collective interests.

The VTH Association

The association behind much of the magazine's coverage has deep roots. The VTH was founded in 1904 as a voluntary protective association of asbestos and rubber-goods dealers, and it is today the only specialist and professional association for the technical trade in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Its lobby-register entry records 229 member companies as of mid-2025, with Thomas Vierhaus as managing board member and Mario Ernst as chairman. The VTH-QUALITÄTSPARTNER program binds brand manufacturers — from Henkel and Sika to ContiTech and Trelleborg — to the technical traders in a quality partnership, and the association's specialist groups for sealing, adhesive, and drive technology feed directly into the magazine's product-area reporting.

Organization and Ownership

The publisher of TH Technischer Handel is not publicly confirmed in the sources reviewed; the magazine's imprint details are not documented in the pages consulted, and the site's copyright notice gives no clear publisher name. The VTH Verband Technischer Handel e.V., based in Düsseldorf, is the industry association whose members and activities the magazine covers, but the magazine's exact publishing relationship with the association is not publicly confirmed; the association's communications and the magazine's coverage are closely intertwined.

The VTH's contact is given as Prinz-Georg-Strasse 106, 40479 Düsseldorf, with press contact Lars Langhans, the industry's institutional home. Financial details of the magazine's operations are not publicly confirmed; the documented business model is the subscription package of five digital subscriptions plus the printed magazine, marketed as an offer no technical trader should miss.

Digital Presence

Technischerhandel.com is the magazine's digital home, presenting the branch's specialist information with categories for products and technologies and further product areas, and the site's topic and dates PDF documents the editorial calendar for the industry's planners and buyers. The site's subscription offering includes the TH Abo Digital + Print package, the VTH association's portrait and member search are integrated, and the publication's release information documents its topics and dates.

The VTH's YouTube channel carries the association's practice clips that show the exemplary cooperations between the technical traders, their customers, and the quality partners, such as the optimized hose lines developed with the technical trader Knip, its customer KORSCH, and the VTH quality partner NORRES Schlauchtechnik, extending the magazine's coverage to video with measurable benefits for the users. The VTH newsletter "IQ - Impulse für Qualität" complements the magazine's communications, with its August 2026 issue covering the business report, the new quality partner, and the campaign launch. Dedicated apps, podcasts, or social media channels for the TH Technischer Handel brand beyond the documented platforms are not detailed in the sources reviewed; the brand's digital presence rests on its portal, its subscription packages, and its integration with the VTH association's communications, from the newsletter to the YouTube practice clips that document the industry's reference projects.