Scheuer & Strüver
The Scheuer & Strüver GmbH was a Hamburg mail order company. The company also included the manufacturer of cardboard model building sheets, Hamburger Modellbaubogen Verlag.
The company with 25 permanent employees was the largest European and world's second largest model construction mail order company with around 50,000 different products in its range and seven-figure annual sales. The annual catalog, which was sold in general bookshops and therefore widespread in Germany, was seen as a mirror of the entire range of models on the market. The distribution took place under the name "Moduni".
history
The company was founded in 1993 by the publishing clerks Liane Strüver (* 1972) and Benjamin Scheuer (* 1970). Inspired by a French model kit from the L'Instant Durable publishing house , the two began building a mail order company for cardboard model kits with a loan of 25,000 German marks. The first catalog with over 1000 different model building sheets appeared in the same year. The catalog that appeared the following year included images of all the items on offer. In 1998 the company is converted into a GmbH. Since 1999 the catalog has been printed completely in color. The range of products on offer was continuously expanded in both breadth and depth. Plastic and wooden models and books were added in 2001 , model figures in 2003, and model railway accessories and finished models in 2006. The online shop set up in 2000 has operated under the moduni name since 2002. Since 2008 the company has had a branch in Paris. In October 2009 the company had to file for bankruptcy. As part of the insolvency proceedings, the former Scheuer & Strüver employee Ulrike Fentens acquired the Modellbaubogenverlag. The inventory from the moduni mail order business was taken over by Klaus Kiunke from Flörsheim am Main, owner of Model Car World , the largest model car mail order company in Europe.
Hamburger Modellbaubogen Verlag
The Hamburger Modellbaubogen Verlag (HMV) was founded in 1995. From the beginning, ship models have formed the main part of the publisher's offer. The focus was on highly detailed models with a high degree of difficulty. When choosing a model, models were often chosen that had not yet been produced or not yet produced by a German publisher. In addition to the commercially available models, the publisher also makes model building sheets on behalf of companies and associations.
In 1999 the publishing house received the "Model of the Year" award from the magazine ModellFan for the line of cardboard model ships . The model of the battleship Bismarck in the scale 1: 250 with 7077 parts set new standards in 2000 and was also named model of the year.
activities
The company had achieved importance and general recognition by promoting the model building hobby, in particular with regard to the revival of cardboard model making. The two also support the Working Group on the History of Modeling (AGK) e. V., who is committed to the documentation and scientific processing of cardboard model making.
literature
- Working Group History of Model Making (AGK): On the history of cardboard model making, issue 1 and 3
- Company catalogs
Web links
- Model shop Moduni
- LifePR: the fascination of model making
- Welt Online February 26, 2001: Scheuer & Strüver are working on the million-dollar success
- Welt Online December 25, 2007: Miniatures for model builders all over the world