Terra is the name of a science fiction series published by Arthur Moewig Verlag, Munich. Together with the Utopia series of the rival publisher Erich Pabel Verlag, Rastatt the Terra series were the most important science fiction work in the early years of West Germany.
Dime novels
In 1957 Moewig started the weekly series Terra - Utopische Romane / Science Fiction, later renamed Terra SF, then only Terra'. For this venture some writers were poached from competitor Pabel, e.g. the editor and author Walter Ernsting, editor Günther M. Schelwokat and cover painter Johny Bruck. In September 1962Terra SF was supplemented by the reprint series Terra Extra. From that date onward Terra SF and Terra Extra were published in weekly rotation. In 1968 both series were combined into the new weekly series Terra Nova, which later was replaced by Terra Astra.
In 1958 Moewig started the series Terra Sonderband. Each issue of Sonderband had 100 pages, allowing more room to publish more challenging novels than within the dime novel format. With issue #99 Terra Sonderband was renamed to Terra Taschenbuch, and published in paperback format.
Subseries, spin-offs and more
The Terra series included some subseries of different German and international authors. For example, Isaac Asimov's Foundation series was published as Der 1000 Jahres Plan. In 1968/69 adaptations of the seven episodes of the television seriesRaumpatrouille, plus five original stories, were published in Terra Taschenbuch. Additional new episodes were printed as separate paperback series. Since 1972 the episodes were reprinted and continued within Terra Astra, outsourced to a separate dimenovel series and finally again reintegrated into Terra Astra. From March 1958 until May 1959 Moewig published 15 issues of the magazineGalaxis-Magazin, the German version of the American magazineGalaxy Science Fiction. In 1961 Moewig started the spaceopera series Perry Rhodan which originally was written by K. H. Scheer, Walter Ernsting and other Terra related authors.
