The German Carlsen Verlag was founded in 1953 by Per Hjald Carlsen as a subsidiary of the Danish Illustrationsforlaget/PIB. The reason for this was the success of the Petzi illustrated stories published in Copenhagen, which had also been regularly published as strips in German daily newspapers. To date, more than 12 million copies of the Petzi books have been published. Carlsen Verlag, which today belongs to the Swedish Bonnier Group, offers a diverse program in the areas of children's books, youth books, comics, manga, graphic novels and humor.