Company history
from 1867 to date


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A video journey through history
Foundation of the company
Compass-Verlag was founded by Gustav Leonhardt in Vienna.
Gustav Leonhardt later became the secretary general of the Austro-Hungarian National Bank.

First printed works
The first edition of the "Compass-Kalender und Jahrbuch für Handel, Gewerbe und Industrie" [Compass Calendar and Yearbook for Trade, Commerce and Industry] was published in 1868 and is considered to be the only complete financial handbook of the monarchy.

Der Tresor
The weekly magazine "Der Tresor" [The Vault] supplemented the book editions.

Das Zentralblatt
The "Zentralblatt für die Eintragungen in das Handelsregister" [Central Journal for Entries in the Commercial Register], a periodical analogous to today's Official Journal of Wiener Zeitung, and the "Lieferungsanzeiger" [Procurement Journal] were published by Compass for more than one hundred years from 1902.
Owned by the Hanel family
Compass-Verlag was transferred to the Hanel family and remained in their ownership through both World Wars until 1977.

First Republic
From 1913 to 1936 Compass-Verlag was part of Vernay AG, one of the biggest media groups in Austria during the interwar period.
The Industry Compass of 1920/21 already comprised 75,000 business entities and 6,000 new establishments.

Second World War
Secret! During World War II the books were considered a state secret and had to be kept securely under lock and key. From 1945 the Compass editions served as authentic documents before the courts in restitution proceedings.
Takeover by the Futter family
In the course of a management buyout Werner and Heide-Lene Futter took over Compass-Verlag.
The company engaged in establishing the Commercial Register database.
Foundation of CMD, the first subsidiary of Compass-Verlag.

Expansion into Eastern Europe
Foundation of more than ten subsidiaries within three years, including HF Data and Better Business Information. Start of the expansion into Eastern Europe with the "CompAlmanach Group".

The new publishing house
After 66 years in the 1st district of Vienna the publishing group moved to a new publishing house in the 14th district.
The start of digitisation
CompNet – Austria's first commercial internet database went online.
Phased sale of investments in Eastern Europe in order to shift the focus back to the Austrian market.

HF Data became a clearing office of the Republic of Austria.

The end of an era
After a three-year interruption the very last Compass volume appeared in book form.

Databases provided exclusively online.

Tradition meets innovation
The Group started financing selected start-ups.
Launch of firmenbuchgrundbuch.at
HF Data became the market leader among the clearing offices in Austria.

A new pillar
The Compass Group became the owner of the .wien top-level domain

firmeninfo.at replaced compnet.at as Austria's strongest B2B platform.
The ZEDHIA online archive went online with more than 1.1 million pages on the history of Austrian economics.


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Compass-Verlag celebrated its 150th anniversary with more than 400 guests. To mark the occasion the anniversary publication "Der Compass - 150 Jahre österreichische Wirtschaftsgeschichte. Vom Kalender zu digitalen Informationssystemen." [Compass - 150 years of Austrian business history. From the Calendar to Digital Information Systems] was published.
Wirtschafts-Compass
Wirtschafts-Compass became the most comprehensive information product for business information.