Justus Perthes was primarily a publisher of geographic atlases and wall maps. In the publisher was discontinued. From Johann Georg Justus Perthes worked as a bookseller in Gotha , where he founded the publishing firm 'Justus Perthes' in September , when he got a fifteen-year lease for the Almanach de Gotha. Only after the second year lease contract in he was allowed to publish the almanac with the imprint of his own publishing house.
The publication of the almanac as a Justus Perthes publication ceased in The updating of the almanacs required a lot of documentation. This was the beginning of an almost fastidious documentation and exactness that was fertile ground for the later geographic establishment.
After the Second World War the Soviet army most probably destroyed the almanac archives to prevent claims of the House of Romanov on the tsarist's throne.
From onwards Justus Perthes enlarged his publisher's list with obituary lists and histories, amongst others the circumnavigation of Antonio Pigafetta and the life history of Martin Behaim. In he was joined by his son Wilhelm Perthes — , who had been in the publishing house of Justus's nephew Friedrich Christoph Perthes at Hamburg. On Johann Georg Justus' death in in Gotha, Wilhelm took over the firm and laid the foundation of the geographical branch of the business for which it is chiefly famous.
In the company published its first geographical book with a map of Germany by Adolf Stieler. Justus Perthes, however, was not so easily daunted and soon agreed with to a proposal by Adolf Stieler to publish the soon to be famous Stieler's Hand-Atlas. Stieler proposed to create the atlas together with Christian Gottlieb Reichard — , who later drafted part of the maps. Before the first issue of the atlas could be distributed in Johann Georg Justus Perthes died and was succeeded by his then year-old son Wilhelm Perthes.
