Doll & Co. was a privately-held toy manufacturer founded in Nuremberg, Germany, in 1898. The company's product range mainly comprised steam engines and model railway toys. In 1938, the company was Aryanized and taken over by its competitor, Fleischmann.[1] Doll produced almost exclusively high-quality O gauge model railroads.
History
In 1898, John Sondheim and the tinsmith Peter Doll founded a toy manufacturing company in Nuremberg. In the early phase, the company concentrated on the production of immobile steam engines. Foreign sales markets were found in the United Kingdom and Ireland as well as outside Europe in the United States. Production was initially located in rented premises on Bergstraße in the Burgviertel district, but the company later built its own factory building with a residential building at Kirchenweg 13,[2] which still exists today.
Shortly before the outbreak of the First World War, one of Sondheim's nephews, Max Bein, joined the company.