Stielers Handatlas (after Adolf Stieler, 1775-1836) was the leading German world atlas of the last three decades of the 19th and the first half of the 20th century. Published by Justus Perthes of Gotha (established 1785 and still existing there) it went through ten editions from 1816 to 1944. All editions were issued in parts. The first edition, by Stieler and Christian Gottlieb Reichard (1758-1837) was completed in 1823 (50 maps). After Stieler's death Friedrich von Stülpnagel (1786-1865) edited the second (1845-47) and third (1852-54) editions (both 83 maps); a fourth edition appeared 1862-64, a fifth 1866-68 (each 84 maps). But it was not until the sixth edition (1871-75, 90 maps), edited by August Petermann (1822-78), Hermann Berghaus (1828-1890) and Carl Vogel (1828-1897), that the work reached the high scientific level and the unsurpassed relief Stieler's Atlas is famous for. A seventh edition was issued 1879-82; an eighth 1888-91 (both 95 maps) under the direction of Hermann Berghaus, Vogel and Hermann Habenicht (1844-1917). Although the printing industry had already changed to lithography for some time, maps in Stieler's Atlas were still reproduced by copper-plate printing on hand presses with hand colouring. The ninth edition (1901-05), edited by Habenicht, with one hundred maps, just double the number of the first edition, was the first one printed on cylinder machines by means of lithography, which halved the price and made the Stieler accessible to a broad public. Hermann Haack (1872-1966) edited the tenth (centenary) edition (1920-25, 108 maps), with an index to 320,000 entries being the most comprehensive world atlas of modern times. English versions of the ninth and tenth editions appeared as "Stieler's Atlas of Modern Geography". An international edition (1934-1940) remained with 84 of the 114 maps planned incomplete due to wartime circumstances. The work was engraved on 432 copper plates which have been preserved.

Lit.: G. Suchy: Gothaer Geographen und Kartographen (Gotha, 1985); F. Köhler: Gothaer Wege in Geographie und Kartographie (Gotha, 1987); J. Espenhorst: Petermann's Planet (Schwerte, 2003).