About us

In 1896 the Austrian Josef Müller founded the "Josef Müller Kunstanstalten" in Munich. He began trading with inherited devotional articles such as rosaries and cribs, but also with popular religious reading material and with religious graphics. After 1912 the program was extended to include books on theology.
 
In the 1920s, Josef Müller's wife Maximilianes contacts with promising authors and illustrators such as Ida Bohatta and M. Innocentia Hummel ensured that the company published illustrated children's books. In the '20s and '30s, under the new company name "Verlag Ars Sacra Josef Müller," the family enterprise developed into one of the most popular Catholic publishers.
 
Together with her son-in-law Dr. Herbert Dubler, Maximiliane Müller steered the company through the difficult years of the Second World War and the years following the Third Reich after the death of her husband Josef Müller in 1935.
 
Under the management of Elisabeth Dubler, who took over the publishing company in the third generation in 1962, the gift book segment expanded.
When Marcel Nauer, the grandson of Dr. Herbert Dubler, became managing director, he initiated radical processes of consolidation and restructuring. He divided the business into three main segments: children's books, gift books and non-book articles such as games or stuffed animals. He appointed salaried sales representatives for the whole of Germany. Furthermore he opened a subsidiary in Long Island, New York. This ensured that the American market was well supplied with Hummel and further gift articles.
 
From 1980 onward the company operated under the name arsEdition. The redirection and product innovations such as pop-up books, activity boxes and the 3-D cult book "The magic eye" ensured continuous success for the publishing company.
In 2000 arsEdition was integrated into the Swedish Bonnier Group. The Bonnier Group with its headquarters in Stockholm owns more than 200 companies in 20 countries. This media company was founded in 1804 and focuses on the publication of books, daily newspapers, and magazines as well as film and television productions. Apart from arsEdition, Bonnier Media Deutschland owns the following publishing houses in Germany: Carlsen, Piper, Ullstein Buchverlage and Thienemann.