Metal goods factory Stadtilm

The VEB Metallwarenfabrik Stadtilm was a GDR company that was the only manufacturer of model railways in the gauge S in the GDR.
Carl Liebmann founded the company Carl Liebmann Metallwerke in Stadtilm in 1942, which produced parts as a defense contractor for the Thuringian aviation industry. After 1945, typical peace products were manufactured. The development and production of aircraft parts resumed under Soviet occupation. In 1948, the Soviet Union unexpectedly dismantled the entire fully rebuilt highly developed Thuringian aviation industry and relocated it to the Soviet Union. Carl Liebmann sought a replacement production and found it - on a suggestion from the workforce - in the toy railway in gauge 0. The first products were already presented at the Spring Fair in Leipzig in 1949. Production developed rapidly, innovations were immediately incorporated into production, resulting in an unmanageable variety of detailed solutions.

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