Handlekurven er tom
The beginning around 1922
During the inflation period around 1922, the master carpenter Alois Eggenweiler went into business for himself. Under the most primitive and today almost unimaginable conditions, he founded a one-man furniture workshop in Urach at the foot of the Swabian Alb, which is now known all over the world by the relevant specialist circles. The first workbench was made at his wife's kitchen table.
It was easy to foresee that the company would soon have to be relocated due to a lack of space. So he moved with his family (wife, daughter and son Adalbert) in 1924 to a larger workshop in Reutlingen, Kanzleistr. 47 um. This is where the unintended path to the manufacture of model components began, because originally only furniture parts were to be manufactured. First of all, the simplest means had to be used at the new location, machines could hardly be bought ready-made, and the financial means were also lacking. But necessity makes inventive and so circular saws and other auxiliary machines were built with a Swabian inventive spirit.
Due to the coincidental neighborhood of a school at the new location in Reutlingen, the foundation stone for the “model making career” was laid parallel to the furniture production. At the request of the teacher, individual strips were sawn to size for building kites. Due to the constantly growing demand for strips, a smaller warehouse with the most requested dimensions was initially set up, and later smaller sets of strips up to complete material packs were put together. A very close relationship with aero-naut has started.
Since model making was mostly only carried out in schools during the Third Reich, the result was ultimately the supra-regional distribution of these product ranges in schools throughout Germany. It was only in the last few years before the outbreak of World War II that a few central model making businesses emerged. The first trading customers included the companies Ikier Leipzig, Brüdern Hanover, Bufe Berlin, Schreyer Hamburg, Hoffmeister Chemnitz, some of which are still customers today.
During the 3rd Reich, the NSFK (National Socialist Fliegerkorps) developed glider models that were manufactured and sold as a kit, including “Kick in the World”, “Standard Glider Models”, “Knirps”, “Pimpf”, “Winkler Junior”, “Baby”, “Oriole”, “Ikarus”, “Strolch”, “Der große Winkler” etc., models that were already very successful in competitions and are still popular today.
Balsa wood was still a foreign word at that time, the kits consisted of cut plywood, pine strips, steel wire, solid pine fuselage blocks, construction plans and the well-known "Flumo" and "diploma papers", weight 25-60 G / m², as well as glassine paper for building kites. Punched or sawn model parts such as ribs etc. were also unimaginable. The first attempts at printing on plywood using the stone printing process could be described as a minor sensation. These were about 5 cm thick stone slabs on which the artwork was etched. Later, Semperit clichés were changed.
Model making at the time of the 2nd World War
When motorized flight began his career at the end of the 1930s, Adalbert Eggenweiler, who had been with the company for a long time, had already taken on the support and further development of “his model making department”. The range has now expanded rapidly. In addition to the in-house production of kits, strips, plywood cuts and fretwork, the company has taken over the sale of the well-known Kratzsch motors, a wide range of construction plans from well-known publishers and the first ship fittings, manufactured by the Bischoff brothers in Dresden.
Bischoff also supplied electric motors and ship steam engines. The first imports of balsa wood have now also been made. Even then, the permanent establishment included visiting trade fairs and exhibitions (including Leipzig) as well as participating in major competitions and flight days.
Here the participants were provided with material by the “AERO-AID SERVICE” provided. In addition to these PR activities, the company also printed and distributed catalogs in the form of price lists with simple b / w illustrations.
When model making was partially banned during the Second World War, the company returned to the production and sale of furniture, but continued to deliver plywood and other model making material to the NSFK and other institutions.
The upswing after 1945
After the Second World War, both divisions, furniture and model making, were continued again in parallel, although initially due to the great demand - a consequence of the effects of the war - more emphasis was placed on furniture production. A large furniture store with 7 floors was built in the center of Reutlingen. With catalog campaigns and its own representatives, home furnishings were delivered far beyond the borders of Baden-Württemberg.
However, modeling was not entirely forgotten. Well-known designers, including Helmut Antusch, joined the company. From 1953 on they exhibited regularly at the Nuremberg Toy Fair. Through the foreign representatives, you are now represented at international toy fairs, and you are also present with product range overviews at major consumer exhibitions at home and abroad.
They were also active in the field of specialist trade training, for 28 years specialist dealers were trained in products and technologies during the UHU course.
Eggenweiler can be described as a pioneer of industrial production with Abachi veneer (Ajous). He was the first model maker to include this material in series production in the early 1950s. The product range was expanded and the program was rounded off by the addition of other important product lines such as Webra model motors, Metz remote control systems and Marx electric motors.
Now, of course, the rooms in the Kanzleistrasse became too narrow, despite the furniture trade that had already been outsourced, and in the mid-1960s it was decided to build another new building in the industrial area of Reutlingen, the current company headquarters on Stuttgarter Strasse, which the company moved into in 1966. The furniture production was now almost stopped, in the own furniture store only high quality and exclusive pieces of furniture from well-known European manufacturers were sold. This freed up the manufacturing plant and the mechanical systems for model making.
In the meantime, they worked with state-of-the-art production facilities and processed almost all types of wood used in model making themselves.
A new company has emerged
By combining model making (aircraft and ships) with AERO (air) and NAUT (water), the company name AERO-NAUT slowly began to be integrated. The name Eggenweiler is hardly known to the younger model makers today, but the older ones still speak of Eggenweiler model making. Although now almost 50 years at the new location, letters from all over the world keep arriving with the address Eggenweiler Kanzleistrasse, but also interesting combinations such as AERO-NAUT Eggenweiler, Kirchheim / Teck.
In 1977 the first color catalog was presented at the Nuremberg Toy Fair.
Own developments in the electronics sector (regulator and charging technology), the design and manufacture of successful models at world championships and other competitions and the supply of model makers with high-tech accessories (e.g. CAMcarbon) characterize the image of the company “aero-naut” model making today. For example, the ancestors - the well-known and very popular actro external rotor technology - of today's current external rotor motors come from the high-tech forge of aero-naut.
As one of the few companies, aero-naut still deals with “real” model making. Despite the increasing demand for finished models at low prices, the 3rd generation also remains true to the motto of the company founder - MODELLBAU is “capitalized”. The traditional company can now look back on 90 successful years - we are now looking forward to the future