HERMANN-Spielwaren GmbH
D-96450 Coburg-Cortendorf / Germany

Creator of beautiful children's dreams
Rolf-G. Hermann

On June 19th, 1995 the president of the renowned HERMANN Toy Company located in Coburg/Germany - Rolf-G. Hermann - died at an age of 73 years due to an after-effect of a heart operation. With him, the German Toy-Industry lost one of its last great personages of the old generation. Rolf-G. Hermann was born on January 20th, 1922 amid of the then World Toy Center as son of the Teddy Bear maker Max Hermann and his wife Hilde in a little mountain village called Neufang near the town Sonneberg. Since his childhood his life was coined by the toy production of his Thuringia home. The house, in which he was born, was also the birthplace of the first HERMANN Teddy Bears, which were created in 1913 under the name of his grandfather Johann Hermann, by his father Max, his uncle Arthur and his aunt Adelheid. And it was also the same house, where his father had founded in 1920 his own little Teddy Bear company. In 1993 Rolf-G. Hermann unveiled a commemorative tablet at this house, to preserve the knowledge about the first beginning. In 1923 the young family moved from Neufang to Sonneberg, where his parents set in all their force and work to build up their little Teddy Bear company. Here amid of the working rooms son Rolf grew up, surrounded by excelsior, Teddy Bears and soft animals. During his holidays he helped his parents, and when he was still a child, he already learned, how to make good Teddy Bears. In the afternoons and on the Sundays he often earned some extra pennies, when he brought with his bicycle work to the homeworkers of his father in the villages around Sonneberg. After his final examination at school and his war service, he entered the company of his father and completed a commercial apprenticeship. His knowledge to make good toy designs, he learned as a guest-student at the still today renowned "Sonneberg School for Industry". In 1947 he became a partner of his father and the firm was not longer named "Max Hermann, Sonneberg" but "Max Hermann and Son, Sonneberg". After the war, Thuringia had fallen under Soviet occupation. To have a foot in the door to the West during the insecure post-war time, the family founded already a second company in 1949, in Coburg, located in Bavaria, the American occupied zone of Germany. Whenever possible, Rolf-G. Hermann commuted between Sonneberg and Coburg to organize the business of both companies. He brought the patterns of the Old Sonneberg Max Hermann Teddy Bears to Coburg and also some old sewing machines, so that the company in Coburg could start with a small fabrication. It was dangerous, because it was not allowed to cross the border between East and West-Germany. In 1951 he married Dorle Engel, the daughter of the famous Leven Toy Company in Sonneberg. Still in Sonneberg their daughter Ursula was born. Gradually the situation in East-Germany became more and more difficult. Independent manufacturers like Rolf-G. Hermann and his company didn't get any more material to produce their bears. Although Sonneberg and Coburg were only a few miles away from one another, Rolf-G. Hermann had to travel twice a week hundreds of miles to Berlin, where his sister, who already lived in Coburg, brought the valuable plush fabric of the Coburg company. On those days Rolf-G. Hermann walked more then twenty times from East to West-Berlin to carry in his rucksack the material for his Teddy Bear fabrication in Sonneberg. He then brought the produced Sonneberg Teddy Bears to Berlin to sell them in West-Berlin to get some West-Germany money, which they needed urgently for their start in West-Germany. After the border between East and West-Germany closed completely by the Communists crossing the border became more and more dangerous. The family decided in 1953 to flee undercover in the night to Coburg in West-Germany. All tangible assets they had to leave behind to venture in Coburg a new start. During the first years of the reconstruction of their company in the West, his father Max Hermann died in 1955, and the hard time had come for the 33 year old Rolf-G. Hermann to be responsible alone. Anew starting again with nothing than their hands to work, their renowned name and their knowledge about making good Teddy Bears, nevertheless the company of Rolf-G. Hermann was established soon again in the West. In 1963 his son Martin was born. Because of his aura and his engaged work, Rolf-G. Hermann became more and more a known person of the German Toy-Industry. Already in 1951, still parallel to his exhibitions at the Toy Fairs in Leipzig, he also had exhibited his Teddy Bears at today's world most famous Nuremberg Toy Fair, which was just founded by the German Toy-Industry. Until his death Rolf-G. Hermann was reputed to be one of the last living witnesses, who had personally accompanied the Nuremberg Toy Fair from the fair's first beginning until today. Not only his company, but also he himself were share-owners of this fair. His word carried weight. In 1995 he received the congratulations of the Nuremberg Toy Fair for his 45th anniversary of exhibition. In 1979 he became the president of the Upper Franconia Toy Federation and member of the Managing Board of the German Toy Federation, honorary parts, which he held until his death. Rolf-G. Herman was a man, whose name is indivisible united with the rebuilding of the German Toy-Industry after the Second World War. With all his energy and hard work he fought for the toy-affair. His life was coined by sense of responsibility, performance and success. As well he never had lost the love to his toys and to his Thuringia home. By his leadership thousands of different Teddy Bears, plush-animals, and soft toy characters like Disney's Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck were created by himself and by his company, which are loved by children and collectors in the whole world. To look in the future and the past he went new ways and was always deeply rooted in the old tradition. Founded in 1920 by his father, his company is one of the oldest existing German toy companies. All his personal experience in working and living with toys are reflected by his company. Like only a few personages before him, he had seen by himself from his childhood on, and through his own work, the development of the German toy history for more than seven decades until today. By his death, we all have become a little poorer. Copyright © 1996, 1997, 1998 HERMANN-Spielwaren GmbH, Im Grund 9-11, D-96450 Coburg / Germany Phone +49-9561-8590-0 FAX +49-9561-8590-30 Email info@hermann.de URL: http://www.hermann.de