Founder Josef Friedrich Schmidt developed Mensch ärgere dich nicht in 1907/1908, based on antique forerunners.

Five years later his new publishing firm began the game's serial production.

In the 1980s, Schmidt Spiele published the highly successful German role-playing game Das Schwarze Auge (The Dark Eye).

Josef Friedrich Schmidt's son Franz founded his own independent enterprise named Schmidt Spiele in Nuremberg prior to the Second World War (seated in Munich after the war).

Schmidt Spiele went bankrupt in 1997 and were bought up by the Blatz-Gruppe who subsequently maintained the vastly better known brand name Schmidt Spiele, publishing their own games under this name as well.