Terra (German science fiction)

Terra was the name of some science fiction series published by "Arthur Moewig Verlag", Munich.Together with the "Utopia" series of the rival publisher "Erich Pabel Verlag", Rastattthe Terra series were the most important science fiction work in the early years of West Germany.

dime novels

In 1957 Moewig started the weekly series Terra - Utopische Romane / Science Fiction,shortly named Terra SF or only Terra.For this purpose some people were poached from competitor Pabel, e.g. the editor and author Walter Ernsting,the corrector Günther M. Schelwokat and the cover painter Johny Bruck.

In September 1962 Terra SF was supplemented by the reprint series Terra Extra,from that time Terra SF and Terra Extra were published in weekly rotation.

In 1968 both series were united to the new weekly series Terra Novawhich later was replaced by Terra Astra.

Summary: Terra SF 1957-68 555 issues Terra Extra 1962-68 182 issues Terra Nova 1968-71 190 issues Terra Astra 1971-86 643 issues

Sonderband / Taschenbuch

In 1958 Moewig started the series Terra Sonderband ("special issue").Every volume of Sonderband had 100 pages so there was the possibility to publish more challenging novelsthan within the dime novel format.

With issue #99 Sonderband was renamed to Terra Taschenbuch ("paperback"),the format was changed to paperback format (1965).

Subseries, spin-offs and more

The Terra series included some subseries of different German and international authors,e.g. "Der 1000 Jahres Plan" (The 1000 Year Plan = Foundation, Sonderband #22/24/26/28 )by Isaac Asimov and Lensmen (6 volumes within Terra SF #199-222) by E. E. Smith.

In 1968/69 the seven episodes of the television series Raumpatrouille and five additionally storieswere published within Terra Taschenbuch, afterwards some more episodes (#13-35) were printedas separate paperback series.
Since 1972 the episodes were reprinted and continued within Terra Astra, outsourced to a separatedime novel series and finally again reintegrated into Terra Astra (145 volumes in total).

From March 1958 until May 1959 Moewig published 15 issues of the magazineGalaxis-Magazin, the German version of Galaxy.

In 1961 Moewig started the space opera series Perry Rhodan which originally was writtenby K. H. Scheer, Walter Ernsting and other Terra related authors.

External links and book

* http://www.sf-hefte.homepage.t-online.de/ // title lists of "Terra", "Orion" etc.
* http://www.dsfdb.org/reihen.php?a_z=T // title lists of "Terra" etc.
* http://www.dieter-von-reeken.de/galaxis/frame.htm // covers and contents of "Galaxis"
* "Volksbücher und Heftromane, volume 1", paperback, ISBN 3-8334-3232-2