Great Britain Map Scotland 1872 Gotha, Justus Perthes, Atlas. Perthes, Johan Georg Justus 1749 ? 1816, German publisher, was born in Rudolstadt in 1749. In 1785 he founded at Gotha the business which bears his name, Justus Perthes. In this he was joined in 1814 by his son Wilhelm, 1793 ? 1853. He laid the foundation of the Geographical Branch of the business, for which it is chiefly famous, by publishing the and-Atlas (1817-1823) of Adolf Stieler (1775-1836). Wilhelm Perthes engaged the collaboration of the most eminent German geographers of the time, including Heinrich Berghaus, Christian Gottlieb Reichard, Karl Spruler and Emil von Sydow. The business passed to his son Bernard Wilhelm Perthes (1821-1857). In 1863 the firm first issued the Almanach de Gotha, a statistical, Historical and genealogical Annual (in French) of the various countries of the world.