[1] Initially focused on the English language, the publishing house, founded in Berlin in 1946, specialized in the development of textbooks for use in primary and secondary schools.

Since the 1970s, it has secured its market position primarily by taking over competitors (Hirschgraben, W. Girardet, Schwann-Bagel, Kamp and most recently Oldenbourg [de]).

[5] On the website, teachers were able to plan lessons and to access all teaching materials using the online edition of a textbook.

In 2015 Cornelsen Verlag founded the corporate startup Duden Learnattack, an online learning portal for students from 5th grade to the Abitur, the exam at the end of German secondary school education.

It offers learning videos, interactive exercises and sample class work as well as WhatsApp tutoring in nine subjects.