Kosmos is a popular science and natural history magazine published by Franckh-Kosmos Verlags-GmbH & Co. in Stuttgart, Germany. The company was founded in 1822 by Johann Friedrich Franckh. In 1903 it was associated with the formation of the ‘Friends of Nature Club’ (Gesellschaft der Naturfreunde), an organisation devoted to popularising science and technology. Kosmos was introduced as the club’s magazine.

In the 1920s the company also used the Kosmos name for a range of ‘science kits’ of the type that nasty wee boys find so useful for causing small, but not that small, explosions.