Werner Fuchs

Werner Fuchs (born 1949 in Aalen, Germany) is a German game desinger, author, translator, literary agent and publisher and one of the co-founders of Fantasy Productions GmbH (FanPro).

He should not be confused with the German soccer coach of the same name.

Personal history

Werner Fuchs studied economics (Bochum) and English and German Language and Literature (Düsseldorf) and works in the Fantasy genre since 1971.

In 1977 he started "Fantastic Shop" in Düsseldorf, an import business for British and American books and boardgames where his brother-in-law Ulrich Kiesow later worked with him. Fuchs and Kiesow had a keen knowledge of the RPG boom in the United States and were among the first to prepare for a similar boom in Germany; their business flourished.

Fuchs had been producing a science fiction anthology series together with a friend, Hans-Joachim Alpers, that was cancelled after 6 volumes (out of 15 projected volumes). Fuchs, Alpers and Kiesow subsequently decided to create their own publishing house, Fantasy Productions, first as a Gesellschaft bürgerlichen Rechts (GbR), a Partnership Agreement under the German Civil Code, in 1983 and changed into a GmbH (Limited Liability Company) in 1988.

With Fuchs as CEO, FanPro went on to become one of the premier German game publishers for RPGs and tactical boardgames. From 1988 onwards they produced the German edition of BattleTech under license from FASA. Werner Fuchs personally supported the formation of the (second) MechForce Germany in 1996 so that the organisation would obtain a license from FASA.

FanPro reduced itself to its book publishing division in 2007 after their BattleTech and Shadowrun licenses ran out and their DSA IP was sold. Werner Fuchs remains CEO of Fantasy Productions Medienvertriebsgesellschaft GmbH to this day.

References

• www.phantastik-news.de interview (undated, apparently from around 2004; German)