Georg KELLERMANN founded his own Company in 1910 in Nürnberg, Germany. He learned the trade at the Company of Karl Bub and later at DISTLER. In the early years he focused on penny toys: cars, small train sets, fire cars and figurines. Only in 1920, the brand name and trade mark CKO was established. Up until the war, KELLERMANN exported a large part of his production to the USA and England, especially the more elaborate toys. The penny toys were sold in Germany through wholesalers and large department stores, like Hertie or Karstadt. Starting from 1935, most toys were military toys, like tanks, soldiers on motor bikes, planes and war ships, etc.
The KELLERMANN company bought clockwerk motors, wheels, etc. for their toys from the company Paul Weiss Laufwerk Fabrik, also located in Nürnberg, Germany. Paul Weiss Laufwerk Fabrik existed from 1919 until 1969 and produced parts for tin toys as well as clockwork motors for many manufacturers. The Paul Weiss company logo was a multi-pointed star with P.W. in the star center.
During WWII, many toy Companies were closed by the regime or were expropriated or were forced the produce for warfare. KELLERMANN was forced to produce for warfare starting as of 1942. In 1946, the Company had to be rebuilt, because it was destroyed and plundered. Many dies were stolen. Some molds/dies still existed, which allowed KELERMANN to produce some war time era toys until the mid-1950’s. This happened with the KdF Wagen as well! KELLERMANN did not change into producing plastic toys and as a consequence, the sales went down and the competition against plastic made the Company lose revenue. Staring from the 1970’s the competition from Japan and Asia became really big and in 1978 the Company closed down.
A green colored lithographed tinplate body with black detail lines with solid windows, and a black sunroof that very nicely depicts the VW Sedan of the time. A lever under the base plate rotates the top to transfer the Sedan model into an open Cabriolet with lithographed tinplate seats, dashboard, steering wheel and separate driver painted white. There is a VW emblem on the front hood and also a CKO insignia on the lower front hood. Tinplate chassis painted silver with metal wheels, steering and clockwork motor with keyhole at rear. Silver painted tinplate front and rear bumpers. License plate registration number IA 359 on the rear deck lid. Chassis stamped Foreign Patents, D.R.G.M. D.R.P. Made in U.S.-Zone Germany. Appears that old dies and/or left over “US Zone” chassis stampings were used. Seldom found and perhaps a one off trade show sample from 1951.
There is a red colored lithograph Split Window VW version with the licence plate registration number of K 359. This version is seldom found.
