About the CATAN GmbH
We are part of the entertainment and gaming industry. Today, our primary product is the successful board game CATAN (formerly The Settlers of CATAN), which comes with an array of expansions, editions, and spin-offs. Before founding CATAN GmbH in 2002, CATAN creator Klaus Teuber gained valuable experience as an independent game designer and creating game worlds was his passion.
Over more than two decades, Klaus built an impressive portfolio of board games and electronic games, which is now being carried on by his son Benjamin as a game designer. CATAN is available in over 40 languages; since 1995 until now (Q1 2022) over 40 million games were sold worldwide. According to estimates by our licensing partners, approximately 20 million people regularly spend time in the CATAN gaming universe. Overall, ours is an ever-growing family of high-quality entertainment products and programs, all in keeping with a vision devoted to the cultivation of a vast and largely untapped community.
The CATAN GmbH Team
Klaus Teuber
Game Designer
Klaus Teuber was born in 1952 at the foot of Breuberg Castle in the village of Rai-Breitenbach, surrounded by forests and gentle mountains. Did this rural, idyllic Odenwald backdrop later motivate him to develop CATAN? Maybe.
Board games did not play a big role in his childhood until he was given the game Romans vs. Carthaginians at the age of 11. Soon the ancient armies had left the game board and fought fierce battles on the floor of the children's room. Klaus added new rules to the game and is now convinced that the foundation stone for his later game developments was laid during this time. After graduating from high school and doing military service, he studied chemistry. After completing his intermediate diploma, he joined his father's dental laboratory for family reasons. To compensate for the often very stressful everyday working life, Klaus began developing games in the early 1980s.
In 1988, his debut Barbarossa und die Rätselmeister was named game of the year. Further games and game prizes followed until he hit the jackpot in 1995 with The Settlers of CATAN. In the following years, Klaus Teuber mainly took care of CATAN and expanded it into a large games portfolio, in cooperation with the editors of the Kosmos publishing house and later with the help of his son Guido, who now lives in the United States, and the American publisher Mayfair.
In 2002, together with his wife Claudia and his two sons Guido and Benjamin, he founded the family business CATAN GmbH, whose task is the development, marketing, and licensing of the games he has developed.
Klaus passed away in April 2023. His two sons continue to run the company and the development of the CATAN world together with the CATAN team in his spirit.
You can find all of Klaus' games in the ludography.
Benjamin Teuber
Managing Director / Game Designer
Growing up with a game inventor as his father, Benjamin has played board games since he could hold cards and roll dice. After studying psychology and business administration, he initially worked for a number of other companies before moving into the creative and inspiring games industry in 2010. Today, he is one of the managing directors of CATAN GmbH and, together with his brother Guido, manages the company's licenses, especially those of the CATAN series.
Benjamin has always enjoyed developing games. At the age of 5, he brought a prototype to the game table at home for the first time. Presumably this design wasn't fully developed yet, and after persistently demanding feedback, Klaus mumbled something about an extra large portion of chocolate ice cream in the refrigerator. The career was put on hold for now. Many years later, Benjamin found great pleasure in actively participating in the development. During a train ride, Klaus and he came up with the idea for their first game together, which they then developed jointly from scratch. In addition to such non-CATAN games, Benjamin has since taken care of the continuation of the CATAN series of games.
You can find all of Benjamin's games in the ludography.
Guido Teuber
Managing Director
Guido grew up playing board games. In his childhood he preferred to play Risk, chess and Niki Lauda's Formula 1 by Wolfgang Kramer. In 1997, Guido moved to the USA, where he now lives with his family in California. In addition to his studies, Guido accompanied the development of the CATAN series in the USA since the end of the nineties. The hobby became a profession.
Today, alongside his brother Benjamin, Guido is one of the managing directors of CATAN GmbH. His focus is on administration and marketing of the CATAN brand in English-speaking countries. It means a lot to Guido that the Americans were so enthusiastic about the CATAN game series. A completely unknown “German game” from 20 years ago became a modern classic game in North America, inspiring frequent gamers, families, students, Hollywood celebrities, techies, entrepreneurs, etc. alike. In addition to managing and further expanding the CATAN brand, Guido supports his brother in the development of new games.
Arnd Beenen
Chief Operating Officer
Even in his youth, Arnd was crazy about games, which is why it was not surprising that he started working in the games industry after completing his studies.
After he had developed online and strategy games for a small software company and published the card game Zaubercocktail at Kosmos Verlag, he met Klaus while doing the computer implementation of CATAN - Card Game, and a little later he took up the position of producer at the recently founded CATAN GmbH. He has been working there for over 20 years, now as COO.
Sonja Krützfeldt
Project Manager
Games, especially card games, were an integral part of Sonja's childhood and even today, playing games with friends and family are part of her everyday life. Up until joining CATAN GmbH, gaming remained a beloved hobby - her career path initially led through a Swedish startup and a traditional company from Hamburg.
Working in an international environment, creating something sustainable that brings people together and lasts for a long time, inspires Sonja very much. So it is only natural that she looks after the international license partners and supports the team in the creation of new license products in the world of CATAN.
BIANCA FREUND
Project Assistant
Bianca grew up playing typical 80s games: Monopoly, Sagaland and Labyrinth were played a lot.
This was followed by a longer break as water sports came to the fore. A few years ago she and her partner discovered CATAN - The Duel (aka Rivals for Catan) for themselves and after a short time the game collection grew. There are now fixed dates for game days with their friends. Playing has become an integral part of leisure time.
After many years in international sales, the desire for more variety arose, which ultimately led to CATAN GmbH. Here she supports the team in the day-to-day business.
Claudia Teuber
Managing Director
After completing her apprenticeship as an industrial business management assistant and after she and Klaus got married, the two moved to a small town in the Westerwald, where Klaus did his military service.
In the evenings, the young couple liked to play games at the table. That was new territory for Claudia because this hardly ever happened in her family. She fondly remembers Clever Head, Malefiz, or Backgammon.
Later, back in Darmstadt, Claudia and Klaus organized gaming nights with friends and even on vacation they always had a few games like Risk, Acquire, Niki Lauda's Formula 1 or McMulti in their luggage. From the very beginning to the present day, Claudia was and is Klaus Teuber's most important playing partner.
Whenever Klaus developed a new game, she was at his side and supported him with her honest and mostly justified criticism. Claudia does not like games with too complicated rules and long playing times. She considers herself a quite ordinary player who wants to enjoy a game and not perceive it as work. Once she endured an 8-hour game of Civilization, and although she basically liked the game, she didn't want to play it again.
Claudia also played a key role in CATAN's success - it wasn't until Claudia found the game really good and well-rounded that Klaus Teuber was also satisfied with his work.