Werner Walter Weinstötter

Werner Walter Weinstötter , known as WeWaW , (* 4. April 1914 in Müllheim , † 20th December 2000 in Nuremberg ) was a German publisher and model railway - a journalist .

Life

Weinstötter developed an interest in model railways while doing his military service in the Air Force during World War II . Since after the end of the war there were no earning opportunities in his learned profession as a restaurateur and hotel specialist , he began manufacturing wooden toys in Nuremberg . When he gained access to American and British model railway magazines, he came to the conclusion that a comparable German-language publication was missing. Since Weinstötter already had experience writing press articles, he saw the possibility of starting such a magazine himself. Together with two other interested parties, he founded the magazine Miniaturbahnen (referred to as Miba for short ) as editor-in-chief , the first issue of which appeared in September 1948. Since Weinstötter did not receive the license from the US military government required to found his own publishing house , Miba was published by the Nuremberg publishing house Frauenwelt in its early days . After the license requirement was lifted in the Federal Republic of Germany on September 21, 1949, Weinstötter founded Miba-Verlag , in which the magazine was published from then on.

While Miba became successful in the 1950s and was widely used by model railroaders, Weinstötter was also active in his original profession: in October 1954, he opened the Bijou , an upscale concert café in Nuremberg , built and designed in the style of the time New building at Spittlertorgraben 39. In 1959 he leased the bijou , took over the business temporarily again in 1969, leased the café again and finally sold it in 1979.

In 1983 Weinstötter gave up both the management of the publishing house and the position of editor-in-chief and retired into private life. He died in December 2000, but at his own request, his relatives only announced his death after the 2001 Nuremberg Toy Fair .

literature

• The human factor - On the death of Werner Walter Weinstötter . In: MIBA miniature railways 3/2001, p. 80.
• MIBA 1948–1998 - a short chronicle . In: MIBA-Miniaturbahnen 9/1998, pp. 78-85.

Web links

• Photo by Werner Walter Weinstötter on the cover picture of MIBA 12/1958 on MIBA.de - five decades of model railway history
• Werner Walter Weinstötter
• Five decades of model railway history
• The concert café Bijou