In an obituary for Ulrich Kiesow (mentioned above, he died in 1997) it is made clear that he and his brother-in-law Werner Fuchs (who wrote it) played a big role in getting rpgs and tabletops to Germany. Apparently, those two started one of the very first mail order shops for tabletop miniatures, wargames and rpgs, in addition to fantastic literature of all kinds. This was in 1977, the Fantastic Shop, today still active as f-shop. They had contacts into the developing scene, probably to the UK and then to the US, which indeed led to TSR asking them to help find a publisher in 1983. In that year, they together with Hans Joachim Alpers founded Fantastic Productions, FanPro for short, one of the most successful german rpg publishers. They ended doing rpgs in 2012. They are probably best known for holding the international licences for BattleTech and Shadowrun from 2001-2007, and Das Schwarze Auge from 1997 to 2007. At the height of their business, in 2004, they are said to have had 12 regular employees, along with freelancers. So much for the size of the german rpg market...

Today, I read that the "Drache" was printed in 10,000 copies per issue, or that this was at least planned.

The deal with Schmidt Spiele apparently fell through because TSR demanded a share in profits of 25% of the sales prices, which was too high for the Schmidt Spiele CEO, who told the folks from TSR to lower their demands or "be blown off the market". This ended the negotiations and led to the formation of FSV as a subsidiary of ASS AG, who happened to be a competitor of Schmidt Spiele anyways.

stebehil wrote in The history of german D&D/AD&D as I know it:Well, this is a strange bit of information. According to a note in Zauberzeit 19, cover date october 1989, TSR sued the former international manager Andre Moullin. He was accused of corruption, fraud and embezzlement. He was said to have made a deal with Shinwa corporation: for the exclusive rights to TSR products in Japan, they supposedly gave him one quarter of the profit made between 1984 and June 1989. TSR sued him for over 600,000$. A day after that information, another information reached the Zauberzeit team: Andre Moullin was the sole representant for FASAs licences from Sept. 5, 1989 onward, according to Morton Weisman from FASA. (they write "Lizenzen und Interessen", where I wonder if they maybe translated interest too literal.)

This is really interesting. Would it be possible to get  a scan of the note and a complete translation in English? I'll post it on our Dungeon Master Magazine blog with proper credit to you of course. Our blog is here: Dungeon Master Magazine

Alexander wrote in The history of german D&D/AD&D as I know it:

stebehil wrote in The history of german D&D/AD&D as I know it:Well, this is a strange bit of information. According to a note in Zauberzeit 19, cover date october 1989, TSR sued the former international manager Andre Moullin. He was accused of corruption, fraud and embezzlement. He was said to have made a deal with Shinwa corporation: for the exclusive rights to TSR products in Japan, they supposedly gave him one quarter of the profit made between 1984 and June 1989. TSR sued him for over 600,000$. A day after that information, another information reached the Zauberzeit team: Andre Moullin was the sole representant for FASAs licences from Sept. 5, 1989 onward, according to Morton Weisman from FASA. (they write "Lizenzen und Interessen", where I wonder if they maybe translated interest too literal.)

This is really interesting. Would it be possible to get  a scan of the note and a complete translation in English? I'll post it on our Dungeon Master Magazine blog with proper credit to you of course. Our blog is here: Dungeon Master Magazine

Yes, I can do that. I had seen your blog a few days ago, and regretted not speaking italian

stebehil wrote in The history of german D&D/AD&D as I know it:Yes, I can do that. I had seen your blog a few days ago, and regretted not speaking italian

Our blog has articles in Italian and English because most of our readers are outside Italy and many articles are so 'hardest of the hardcore gamer and collector' that writing them in Italian would be, well, pointless (Italians interested in such obscure matters should read English, so...).

I will send you a PM

EDIT: My post was, after rereading it a few days later, too close to libeling for my own taste, so I chose to delete the original text.   Sorry if I offended somebody in any way.

The article is online: Dungeon Master Magazine: TSR Inc Sued André Moullin For Bribery About Licensing Rights In 1989

Thanks again Stefan  

Regarding translations, I just found this post:
Time, Print Runs and Editions • Collecting General •  The Acaeum

ExTSR wrote in Time, Print Runs and Editions:I worked closely with Andre Moullin, TSR's VP International, in planning and executing the translations of my boxed sets and in selecting adventures to be done with 'em. My first wife Penny (Petticord then, and now Mrs. Ralph 'Skip' Williams), personally checked a lot of the German translations (due to her background in chemistry and multilingual fluency), and caught a lot of glitches.

I just noticed an item missing in the Acaeums Foreign Edition Master List: The german "New Dungeons & Dragons Game" from 1991.
rollenspiel-info.de It has the code TSR 1070G.
It seems to be identical to the 16th print, as the rulebook bears the gold angled logo. I don´t have the item yet, but seen this on a photo. I will post photos ASAP, probably next sunday if all goes well.