The firm of Ottmar Beckh was founded in November 1938 with the aim of taking over the firm of Adolf Schumann, Schumann, who was Jewish, was forced, like other Jewish entrepreneurs, to sell his company. Schumann had produced a range of simple clockwork 0 gauge trains and accessories and the Beckh  range was at first largely identical to the last Schumann range, although not all Schumann trains were continued. When the war started, Beckh switched to producing items for the war effort and the factory buildings were destroyed by allied bombing in 1943. After the war, in 1948, a new factory was built and in early 1949 Beckh again offered 0 gauge clockwork trains, at first consisting of 5 pre-war trains sets, 12 large and 12 small wagons and  3 accessories. In the years 1951-1956 the range of 0 gauge clockwork trains was expanded and also a set for 28 mm track was offered. The remaining items of Schumann origin were replaced by new in-house designs. By 1956 the range had reached its definitive size and comprised 8 passenger and 7 goods train sets, 12 large and 12 small wagons and 12 different accesories. In 1956 the clockwork trains got company from two small sets with battery-driven locos. After 1956 the firm started to develop electric H0 trains, which reached the market in 1960 and were accompanied in the following years by clockwork H0 trains. The range comprised of 4 locomotives, bogie and four-wheeled passenger and goods cars, a station and a signal. The 0 gauge range was continued in the 1960, but was downsized and simplified: only small locos and wagons without buffers or sliding doors. In the 1960s tinplate for toys was more and more replaced by plastics and the big H0 manufacturers Märklin, Trix and Fleischmann began to offer starter sets at very competitive prices. The market share of Beckh started to dwindle and while the company was still financially in good shape, Ottmar Beckh, by now 63 years old, decided to end production after completing orders for the 1969 Christmas season.