Schmidt Spiele
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 Schmidt Spiele facts

• Founder Josef Friedrich Schmidt developed Mensch ärgere dich nicht in 1907/1908, based on antique forerunners
• Five years later his new publishing firm began the game's serial production
• The firm expanded their range of products to include a very wide range of games of all kinds
• In the 1980s, Schmidt Spiele published the highly successful German role-playing game Das Schwarze Auge (The Dark Eye)
• Josef Friedrich Schmidt's son Franz founded his own independent enterprise named Schmidt Spiele in Nuremberg prior to the Second World War (seated in Munich after the war)
• The two enterprises maintained a shared channel of distribution, and merged in 1970
• The firm's complete archives were lost in a fire in the 1970s
• Schmidt Spiele went bankrupt in 1997 and were bought up by the Blatz-Gruppe who subsequently maintained the vastly better known brand name Schmidt Spiele, publishing their own games under this name as well
• Schmidt Spiele is run as a GmbH (Schmidt Spiele GmbH)
• In 2006 their turnover was reportedly 33