The 1,000-page volume is being pitched at an audience that prefers turning pages to clicking links.

The title's editors have been tasked with condensing 50,000 of the site's most popular entries for the book, which is due to go on sale this September.

The move, a case of reverse publishing, will be based on the most common terms searched for by German Wikipedia's 15m monthly users.

These search terms include Playstation 3, football stadiums, body parts and the US television series House.

The most popular searches on the site over the winter months included Adolf Hitler, Hypertext Internet Protocol and the most-searched for item, Wikipedia itself.

A spokesman for Wikipedia Germany, Arne Klempert, said: "The title will demonstrate that open-source writing also offers publishing houses opportunities for commercial development."