Maker record
Ernst Paul Lehmann (EPL)
Ernst Paul Lehmann Patentwerk was a German toy maker based in Brandenburg an der Havel, known for mechanical tin toys. Its range included cars, trucks, airships and animated figures of animals and people. Products combined lithographed sheet metal with clockwork mechanisms, and some designs were protected by international patents. Founded in 1881, the company exported widely before the First World War. After the Brandenburg factory was nationalized in 1948, the company name continued in a successor operation in Nuremberg, best known for the Lehmann-Gross-Bahn (LGB) model railway.
- Founded
- 1881
- Countries
- Germany
- Locations
- Brandenburg an der Havel, Germany · Nuremberg, Germany · 1950
- Founders
- Ernst Paul Lehmann · Jean Eichner
The story of Ernst Paul Lehmann (EPL)
Ernst Paul Lehmann and Jean Eichner founded the Lehmann & Eichner tin-toy factory in Brandenburg an der Havel in 1881. After Eichner’s death in 1884, Lehmann continued the business alone; it later operated as Ernst Paul Lehmann Patentwerk. The factory made mechanical tin toys, using both in-house and purchased designs, and protected designs with international patents. Its products included cars, trucks, airships and animated figures. Before the First World War, the company exported a large share of its output to markets including America, China and Australia.
The factory reopened after a fire in 1896 and became one of Brandenburg’s major employers. Ernst Paul Lehmann died in 1934. In 1948 the family business was nationalized and continued as VEB Mechanische Spielwaren Brandenburg, making toys at the site until 1991. A successor company based in Nuremberg from 1950 became known especially for the Lehmann-Gross-Bahn, or LGB, model railway. The Brandenburg factory’s production history and the later Nuremberg railway business are distinct parts of the company’s history.
