Otto Duve

In 1975 Walldorf Miniaturen launched their range of German model cars in the Modellers’ World magazine, and Otto Duve became known to many retailers and collectors in England. His story begins in Düsseldorf in 1933. Otto was born on January 30, 1933, the day Hitler took his first step to the Reichstag. He travelled to various regions of Germany as a child between 6 and 8 years, even as far as the Polish border. In 1942, he was evacuated to Thüringen. At the end of the war, in 1945, he saw US troops entering the town. He knew that Russian troops would be coming next.

His first introduction to the model world was building a big sailing model within the ‘Hitler Youth’.. xx He recalls friends of his parents visiting to show off their new 1936 Opel Olympia launched shortly after the Berlin Olympic Games, hence its name.

Subject ID: 82941

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In 1975 Walldorf Miniaturen launched their range of German model cars in the Modellers’ World magazine, and Otto Duve became known to many retailers and collectors in England. His story begins in Düsseldorf in 1933. Otto was born on January 30, 1933, the day Hitler took his first step to the Reichstag. He travelled to various regions of Germany as a child between 6 and 8 years, even as far as the Polish border. In 1942, he was evacuated to Thüringen. At the end of the war, in 1945, he saw US troops entering the town. He knew that Russian troops would be coming next.

His first introduction to the model world was building a big sailing model within the ‘Hitler Youth’.. xx He recalls friends of his parents visiting to show off their new 1936 Opel Olympia launched shortly after the Berlin Olympic Games, hence its name.

From his time in 1940 in Düsseldorf Otto remembers that a dentist friend of his father had a 1938 Horch in his garage, but without its wheels, which had been taken by the military authorities. Much later Otto returned to Düsseldorf and driving along that street, nothing except the nameplates had altered. It was then that he decided that the Horch was part of his life and was to be made! Other significant memories include the owner of a fruit shop in the main station in Hamburg in the 1950s who bought a Mercedes Cabriolet 170S in olive green. Many local people knew this car in the bombed city, as being the signal to better times, and to working towards a better future.

At that time Otto was an apprentice in a sweetshop and his boss had a DKW Meisterklasse, in which he learnt to drive. Later on he sold the DKW and bought a Mercedes 170 V and these were also memories of models he had to make. His father had begun his own business in restaurants and with the business came an old Ford Eifel 1937, which Otto also had to make.

At school aged 10 Otto recalls his father being at war, and moving to Thüringen in the centre of Germany. Here he lived near a car repair workshop, and in the yard there were old cars that had not been taken away by the “Wehrmacht”. These included an old Wanderer, two different Horchs, DKWs, and also an old Adler Triumph Junior. Alongside were Hanomags, and a wonderful Maybach SW38. Otto was allowed to play there, and as most of those cars were without tyres, having been confiscated by the Wehrmacht, he was able to play driving these cars and making engine sounds. He imagined he was really driving along a highway.

About 40 years later, in 1974 Otto had left an automobile workshop, which a friend and he ran in the city of Frankfurt. Here, car owners could repair their cars on a DIY basis, assisted by mechanics who could provide hints and help. Owners would pay by the hour, including the use of various machines, such as drills, tools and all the tools necessary for working on cars.

He and his business partner had different views on the business, and so their 12 year partnership came to an end. Otto was expecting a fee for being “bought out” of this business, but sadly nothing ever materialised.

During his time at the workshop, Otto had met a young man, aged about 16, named Bernd Schultz, who came to the workshop as he too was very interested, like Otto was in motor cars, and so Otto gave him some work to do in the office, such as booking customers in and out. Otto later learnt that Bernd was a model car collector.

Later, Bernd Schultz asked Otto if he would be interested in supporting him financially in his new business. Otto was invited to his home and there saw his collection of model cars. He had established an international ‘network’ by writing to other collectors worldwide.

Estimates were discussed, and the pair then went by car to England, visiting various swapmeets around London, Birmingham, Poole, Bournemouth and others. Here they discovered old Dinky Toys, Spot-On and also many white metal models. Whilst they knew little about these, the diecasts were ideal for selling through their international ‘network’. They bought as many models as they could carry.

At that time they got to know Mike and Sue Richardson in Eton Wick, John Day, Dave Gilbert and Barry Lester in Poole, and also a company in Worcester. Otto remembers one trip when they spent more than 12.000 DM, which was far beyond their limit set. On their return home, they made a list of the models they had bought, calculated their prices and sent the lists to their customers. They started a little model shop in Walldorf, naming it Model International Duve & Schultz GmbH (the equivalent of Ltd. in the UK)

The response was tremendous, and encouraged them to return to Heathrow by plane and buy more stock. The model shop had to be stocked with more and more items in the model field, as found at the annual Toy Fair in Nuremberg, where they went every year to visit.

So before long they had a stock worth more than 400.000 DM. Unfortunately, at this exciting time, Otto’s settlement from his previous business never came. They had to try to find new areas to develop, such as external manufacturers for whom they could be agents in Germany. But this did not materialise. So they decided to investigate making their own range like John Day, Mikansue and Auto Replicas by Barry Lester.

But how to do this? They knew nothing about mouldings, patterns, or centrifugal casting. So, when visiting England next they met with Barry Lester, who was willing to do the moulding and casting. All paperwork and boxes they designed themselves in Germany and when the first shipment arrived, they began boxing and packing.

Once they knew the way forward, they looked for model makers or sculptors. That turned out to be not so difficult. At that time they had already started organizing their twice yearly swapmeet in Walldorf, which attracted many people interested in building for them. Of those who they saw, 85 % of the trial models offered were usable. They established some guidelines, and the price was to be agreed in advance.

On one occasion, one builder who made a model for them misunderstood the process, and used thin tin plates, formed them into the shape of the proposed car and then glued them together. There was no interior, and the wheels and base plate were all either glued or welded to the model. It looked good, but for their purpose it was absolutely unusable; but he was so proud of it.

At that time, their white metal kits were not very good quality. Due to the centrifugal casting process, the metal was always spun to the edges, resulting in the outer parts being thicker than those inside. The moulds were made from heat resistant silicone, and were soft, unlike steel moulds, which were more expensive. Another drawback was that by using metal heated to about 400 degrees centigrade, the moulds were worn out after about 50 or 100 pieces. The range of models they wanted to make was from Otto’s memories of the backyard area of that workshop.

The Tempo three-wheeler was the first, as Otto was able to find old drawings of the “VIDAL” company who made it. Whilst some of the German cars Otto recalled in his childhood were never made, a BMW 327 in both open and closed versions joined the Tempo. In addition to the main Walldorf kit line in 1:43 scale, they also created an Economy line, named after the “Economy class” in most airlines. This line was introduced because the prices for their kits seemed to be too high for widespread sales. The Economy line kits had only a few parts such as body, baseplate, wheels and some chromed parts, and inset panels for the vac-form windows.

Models in the Walldorf Economy line included a Toyota Celica 1600 GT, specially made for their Swiss agent, 1953 Mercedes Benz 180, 1958 Opel Rekord, BMW Isetta, Goggomobil Coupé, Mercedes 190 SL, Borgward Isabella Coupé, 1950s Opel Record four door sedan, and a late Mercedes 220SE Sedan. The planned Opel Diplomat V8-Coupé, DKW-3=6, and the Lloyd 600 were never made.

They spent a lot of time producing and selling these models until the end of the 1970s, when Bernd Schultz decided to leave the company. Otto wanted to continue on his own, and started with a diecast model of the Opel Manta in 1:43 scale, as he was able to buy the moulds from the former owner, with whom Bernd and Otto had some contacts from the Nürenberg Fair.

Otto also considered making models in 1:87 scale, due to the cheaper price for the moulds. However, at that time, moulds for one model in 1:87 were around 100.000 DM. Therefore, at least 100,000 pieces would have to be produced and sold for 1 DM to regain the mould costs. It was a risky route, but when Bernd left, Otto was lucky in finding a very clever young man, who was familiar with business matters and at the same time a collector of 1:43 models. He was well known to Otto, and was duly engaged as his right hand man.

His name was Mr. Ruland but after 1978 when the company moved to St.Georgen, in the Black Forest area, they had to separate. Through his connections with Paul Gunter Lang of Danhausen in Aachen, Otto was able to arrange for him to obtain a job with Danhausen, where he still is to this day.

During his years in the toy field he became familiar with computers, acquiring his first in 1978. He became interested in programming them and when in 1992 the Microsoft programming tool, Visual Basic came on the market, he began programming with Windows. Otto has sold many models on eBay but this has recently reduced. Otto finally retired from his model car business in 1997.

Otto Duve was also well known in the German model car collecting scene for instigating in 1973 the first model car swapmeet in Germany, held twice a year at Mörfelden-Walldorf near Frankfurt, which continues to this day.

He passed away on September 4, 2020 at the age of 87.

Subject ID: 82941

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