Hammerer & Kühlwein
Fürth
1925 – 1962
Founded in 1925 by Johann Hammerer and August Kühlwein.
In 1933, anticipating the ‘Aryanisation’ process, Moritz Saalheimer asked Eduard Mödel, a long-standing colleague, to take over the company, which he did together with toolmaker Max Zeilein for the sum of 40,000 Reichsmarks set by the Aryanisation Commission; this amount was paid into a blocked account held by the NSDAP. In 1938, Saalheimer managed to flee to England, thereby escaping deportation.
Mödel and Zeilein ran the company during the war under the MZ brand; in March 1945, the factory was almost entirely destroyed during a bombing raid.
Using salvaged or refurbished machinery, the company resumed production around 1948.
A year earlier, Moritz Saalheimer, having returned from exile, had re-established contact with Mödel, and under the Restitution Act, the parties had agreed on compensation of 40,000 DM. Their relationship remained good, and Saalheimer went on to act as the exporter of Hammerer and Kühlwein’s toys to England.
The company produced small toys made of lithographed sheet metal – in particular aeroplanes – until it closed in 1962.