Maker record
Ditmar
Ditmar was an Austrian toy brand used by Austria Email for mechanical and electric toys made in Vienna from 1947 or 1948. Its range included clockwork and electric railway sets, metal construction kits, tin doll’s tableware and toy stoves, as well as other mechanical toys. The railway models were made in 0 gauge. Ditmar toys were presented as a lower-priced alternative to competing products, and the company retained the brand after its 1940 merger with the earlier Ditmar-Brünner business.
- Locations
- Vienna, Austria
The story of Ditmar
Ditmar was an established industrial brand before it was used on postwar toys. In 1940, the Staats-Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft combined the Austria and Ditmar-Brünner companies under the name Austria Vereinigte Emaillierwerke, Lampen- und Metallwarenfabriken Aktiengesellschaft. The new concern retained Ditmar as a brand. After the war, its Simmering factory resumed prewar production and also made mechanical and electric toys under that name. Toy production began in 1947 or 1948.
The range included clockwork and electric railway sets, metal construction kits, doll’s tableware, toy stoves and other mechanical toys. Austria Email’s railway models were 0-gauge tinplate; a surviving two-axle freight wagon is recorded by the Landessammlungen Niederösterreich. The toys were intended as a lower-priced alternative to those of other manufacturers. Their railway technology and choice of gauge did not match competitors’ move to H0, and sales fell short of expectations. The company decided to end toy production in 1954 or 1955. Ditmar continued as a brand for other products, including lamps, stoves and cookers.