Maker record
Walter Preh
Preh was a German manufacturer whose postwar products included electric toys, remote-controlled model cars and polystyrene dolls. The company began in Bad Neustadt in 1919 as a maker of electrical installation parts and radio components. After the Second World War it used its manufacturing skills and injection-moulding equipment to enter toy production, before returning to electromechanical components and consumer electronics. The available company history describes a broader toy range rather than a railway-model specialism.
- Founded
- 1939
- Countries
- Germany
- Locations
- Nuremberg, Germany
- Founders
- Walter Preh
The story of Walter Preh
Preh began in Bad Neustadt in 1919, when Jakob Preh established a small company making electrical installation parts and accessories for the developing radio industry. In 1924 it introduced its own radio, the Preh-Funk, and in the 1930s briefly made automobile accessories. After Jakob Preh was killed in 1945, his wife Agnes and son Walter continued to manage the company.
After the Second World War, Preh turned to toy production. It made electric toys, including remote-controlled cars, and used unused plastic injection-moulding machines to produce polystyrene dolls. The company later returned to electromechanical components and expanded into television-related products. Toy manufacture was one stage in Preh’s changing product mix; the company history does not describe it as a railway-model specialist. Walter Preh died in 1971, after which his wife Rosemarie continued the company.
