Siegfried Günthermann

Siegfried Günthermann (* 1856 ; † 1886 ) was a German craftsman and founder of the company of the same name for the manufacture of tin toys .

history

Siegfried Günthermann was the son of the Fürth flasher master GP Günthermann, with whom he also started an apprenticeship after finishing secondary school. In the period between 1869 and 1871 Günthermann went on a hike, but then had to return home because of an illness in his father. He then went to Nuremberg, where he also worked for the Georg Leonh tin toy factory. Staudt worked.

From 1877 the master bottle maker Siegfried Günthermann manufactured tin toys by hand in a small workshop under the company name S. Günthermann - Mechanische Blechspielwarenfabrik . This included riders on wheels, bathtubs and bathrooms with full equipment. In 1878 the company expanded and moved to larger premises. Initially hand-painted and later lithographed tin figures , cars, racing cars, carriages, floor runners and fire brigades were produced. Most of the production was shipped to the USA. Initially, the toys were fitted with a spiral spring winding mechanism, which was later replaced by a clockwork, which was initially obtained from abroad and has been manufactured in-house since 1883. The mechanical animals, parrots and other birds with voices enjoyed great popularity. In 1884 another move to new premises took place.

Günthermann died in 1886 and left the business to his widow Marie nee. Mack. This led him first alone and then with her second husband, the businessman Adolf Weigel. The company seal, originally a circle in which the letters “SG” were depicted on a coat of arms-shaped background, was supplemented by the additional initials “AG” under Weigel.

In 1895 the business premises had to be expanded again. Business flourished and in 1900 construction began on new premises, which were ready to move into in mid-1901. At that time the company had around 250 employees.

Weigel died in 1920 and left the company to the widow, which was run by a son of Weigel. This also reinstated the old SG company logo.

After the war, the company made a name for itself abroad with detailed models of limousines, buses, rollers and commercial vehicles. Since there were no successors in the Günthermann / Weigel family, the company was taken over by Siemens in 1965 and finally dissolved.

Toys from the production of Günthermann and his successors are now coveted collector's items and are represented in numerous toy museums because of their mostly small editions in the early days.

literature

• Dieter Warnecke: Tin toys - commercial vehicles and tractors: collector's dreams. Overview catalog with current market prices. Battenberg, Regenstauf 2001 ( ISBN 3-86646-030-9 ), p. 46 Outline of the company's history
• (Jürgen & Marianne Cieslik): Lexicon of the German tin toy industry , Verlag Marianne Cieslik, Jülich 2014.

Web links

• www.historytoy.com : Website with database and brief information on company history and company logo