Europe's top-selling newspaper, the German daily Bild, has made it into the record books for its 60th anniversary edition, of which 41 million copies were distributed, the paper said on Saturday.

A special, free-of-charge edition of the paper was produced and sent to 41 million German households on Saturday, setting the record for "the biggest distribution of a free special edition of a newspaper".

Piled on top of each other, the papers would form a stack 150 kilometres high (95 miles), Bild said.

With over 12 million readers and sales of three million copies a day, Bild -- which sells for 70 euro cents ($0.90) -- is one of the world's most powerful newspapers.

Only the Japanese press tops it in terms of readership.

Published by Axel Springer, the paper put out its first edition on June 24, 1952.