The "German Health Interview and Examination Survey for Children and Adolescents" (KiGGS) is part of the health monitoring system of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI). Following the KiGGS baseline study (2003 - 06), which comprised interviews and physical examinations of 0- to 17-year-old participants, KiGGS Wave 1 (2009 - 2012) was carried out as a telephone-based survey. In addition to providing longitudinal data, a second essential aim of KiGGS is to regularly provide population-based cross-sectional data on the health situation of children and adolescents aged 0-17 years living in Germany. Therefore, the study population of KiGGS Wave 1 consists of re-invited participants from the baseline study (KiGGS cohort), supplemented by newly invited children aged 0-6 years. The newly invited participants were randomly chosen from local population registries in the 167 baseline sample points. This method was chosen to supplement the sample with younger age groups. This article focuses on the age groups from 0 to 17 years, which are relevant for prevalence estimations among children and adolescents. In total 12,368 children and adolescents took part; among them 4,455 newly invited and 7,913 re-invited participants (response 38.8 and 72.9%, respectively). A comparison of the net sample with the resident German population (0-17 years) regarding particular population characteristics and an analysis of the relationship between the re-participation rate and certain characteristics collected in the baseline study (7-17 years) suggest a mostly unbiased sample. To account for certain aspects of the population and nonresponse, cross-sectional and trend analyses were partially corrected by weighting factors.