Rolf Funke
Rolf Funke (born March 26, 1910 in Chemnitz , † February 17, 1988 in Magdeburg ) was a German toy manufacturer .
Life
Funke had learned the trade of locksmith. During the Second World War he was taken prisoner by the Soviets , from which he was released in 1946. On August 1, 1946, he opened a carpentry shop in Magdeburg's Sieverstorstrasse, where he manufactured furniture and wooden toys . After about six months, he moved the business to the address Alt Westerhüsen 49 in the Magdeburg district of Westerhüsen . His apartment was across the street at Hubertusstrasse 1 . It traded under the name Rolf Funke Spielwaren-Werkstätten . The designation quality toys Rolf Funke is also mentioned.
In 1949, on the recommendation of the economic department of the Saxony-Anhalt state government, he exhibited toys at the Leipzig spring fair. The exhibit was a wooden fairground with carousels , a Ferris wheel , an aerial swing , a train and tractors with caravans. His offer met with keen visitor interest and resulted in many orders. However, the state government did not keep its pledges of support, so that he could not procure the necessary material. In August 1949 he had to fire all employees, but he managed to avert bankruptcy. In the following time, Funke gradually concentrated even more on the manufacture of toys. After 1952, furniture production also disappeared from his company logo.
With four exhibits he applied for the sample show “Well-designed, sensible toys” in Leipzig in 1952 . While his tram repair car, conveyor belt and Ford truck were also selected for the example show, the jury rejected the excavator he had manufactured based on a model of a walking excavator from VEB Schwermaschinenbau Karl Liebknecht as impractical.
His models reproduced the prototypes as true to the original as possible on a 1:15 scale. They were rubber tires and colored. Caravans and vehicles from the vehicle construction company Bleichert Leipzig were also typical models. By 1954 the company had expanded. The operation was mentioned several times in the national GDR press, such as the Berliner Zeitung and Neues Deutschland .
Various participations in international exhibitions followed. In the summer of 1954 he exhibited in Beijing and in the fall of 1955 at the exhibition for applied German art in Moscow . In August 1956 an exhibition followed in Budapest and then in Oslo . Participation in the Leipzig trade fairs continued. As a result, many international inquiries arose from Europe, Asia and Australia.
Funke was the first German toy manufacturer to incorporate electric motors into its toys. In 1956, Piko engines were used in luffing cranes, crawler cranes and slewing car cranes as well as in fire service turntable ladders. The crawler crane had five motors and a remote control cable . The number of engines required, however, led to delivery bottlenecks in the planned economy of the GDR. Piko could not deliver in sufficient quantities. The Deputy Prime Minister Fred Oelßner and his State Secretary Kasten agreed to help and wanted to organize another delivery company. In the end, it does not seem to have come to that. In the 1960s, electrically operated toys had disappeared from Funke's range.
In 1959, Funke passed his exam to become a master toy maker. For this, he created two patterns, one Magirus -Feuerwehrdrehleiter with lighting, electrically movable ladder and siren and a pumper truck after the IFA G5 of the automobile plant "Ernst Grube" Werdau . The vehicle's water tank could be pressurized, allowing the fire engine to spray the water up to five meters. Funke were later offered prices of up to 2000 marks for the two models. The samples later went into series production at Funke, with no additional functions.
With the advent of plastic toys in the 1960s, wooden toys lost their importance. Rolf Funke only produced for the domestic market. Part of his production was taken from him by the state office for teaching materials . GDR kindergartens were particularly keen to buy table and extension cranes.
In 1967 Funke built the model of the Soviet dump truck BelAZ-540 .
When he reached retirement age, Rolf Funke gave up his business on April 15, 1975.
From 1976 to 1977 he built the model of an electric roller coaster with seven cars in his workshop , which he sold to the Olbernhau local history museum in 1982 . From 1979 to 1981 he created an electric bumper car .
Even after his death, his work was honored in exhibitions. In 2009, for example, the Magdeburg Museum of Technology organized a spark exhibition.
literature
- Friedrich Großhennig, Ortschronik von Westerhüsen in the Magdeburg-SO district , manuscript in the Magdeburg city archive, signature 80 / 1035n, Part II, page 95
- Bernd Havenstein, GDR Toys , Komet 2007, ISBN 978-3-89836-651-9 , page 125 ff.
Individual evidence
- ^ 1988 death register of the Magdeburg registry office
- ↑ Address book of the city of Magdeburg 1950–51, Part I, page 150
- ↑ Bernd Havenstein, GDR toys , Komet 2007, page 125
- ↑ Friedrich Großhennig, Ortschronik von Westerhüsen in the city district of Magdeburg-SO , manuscript in the Magdeburg city archive, signature 80 / 1035n, Part II, page 95
- ^ Discussion with “experts” in the Berliner Zeitung of August 23, 1953, page 1
- Jump up ↑ "Santa Claus" in Neues Deutschland on November 1, 1953, page 2
- ^ New Germany of August 29, 1958
- ↑ Bernd Havenstein, GDR Toys , Komet 2007, page 126
- ^ Ariane Budberg, For lovers of toys , in the Magdeburger Volksstimme from June 23, 2009
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Spark, Rolf |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German toy manufacturer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 26, 1910 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Chemnitz |
| DATE OF DEATH | 17th February 1988 |
| Place of death | Magdeburg |