Reinhard Kawohl, whose father was a preacher, made a conscious decision to believe in faith at the age of 22. His mission was to bring the Word of God closer to people through his printed materials. In a 2011 interview on the show “Hautnah – Hott mitten im Leben,” Kawohl expressed, “I am happy that we can call people to believe with our products or comfort and encourage others.” He published them under his own publishing house slogan: “Every calendar we produce must contain at least one word that can lead a person to faith.”

The idea to establish his publishing house came to Kawohl in 1970 when he wanted to print the sermons of theologian Klaus Vollmer. For the first seven years, Kawohl ran the publishing house part-time from his home in Wuppertal. He worked in a wallpaper factory until 1977 before fully committing himself to publishing. The first book sold by Kawohl was called “Leben…waszu?” (Life…what for?), and it was printed, cut, and assembled by hand in the kitchen of his home, as the publisher recounts. The breakthrough for the company came with poster calendars. In 1977, the company moved to a larger property in Wesel.

In 1997, the publisher expanded its program to include “Editions Hintermann.” A year later, the music publishers “Felsenfest” from Würzburg joined Kawohl’s publishing house as a limited partnership. The company later published Christian music from artists like Hella Heizmann, Johannes Nitsch, Hans-Werner Scharnowski, and, until 2004, the annual songs for the current yearly motto.

Since 1998, the publisher also sells Israeli products under the name “Kawohl Shalom.” Today, the Kawohl publishing house is best known for producing around 150 different calendars that combine biblical texts and spiritual verses with photographs or graphics. These calendars are used in private and religious settings as well as in public buildings such as hospitals. The publishing house also produces greeting cards, gift books, and illustrated books by various authors, including Peter Strauch, Elke Werner, Petra Würth, and Johannes Hansen.

On the occasion of the publishing house’s 40th anniversary three years ago, Kawohl stated in the show “Hautnah”: “You usually read books once, and then they sit on the shelf. But products like calendars, which you see face-on, for example, on the wall or on the table, you encounter much more often. If you have 100,000 calendars in different households, and there are three people in the household who pass by them in the morning and evening and receive the Word of God in this way, then that would be 216 million visual contacts in a year through which the Word of God can work. That’s why we love making calendars so much.”