Hello everyone,

There has been a lot of discussion in the Marklin community about Hermann Goring (the commander of the Luftwaffe in WWII) and his model railways. These past few months I have compiled a significant amount of research to add to the discussion and the article can be found on my website:

http://marklinstop.com/2...rings-miniature-railway/

This article should especially be interesting for collectors of O and I Gauge Marklin. My interest in the topic was reignited when a visitor to my website sent me this photo, supposedly one of Goring's trains with an interesting provenance:



The story states that the train was given by Goring to a Nazi commander who then, when captured, gave it to an American soldier who eventually brought it back home to the states.

Enjoy!

Paul

Hi Paul,

How about a presentation at EuroWest next July on what additional information you learn about this item.

Rob
ETE So Cal

Excellent Pierre! Well said and remember all "NEVER FORGET"! Peter

History is history and cannot be changed, but we can study it and learn from it.

Goring was a first class looter.

He loved all sorts of fine things: Art, sculpture, food, brandy, drugs, etc. The guy had his own band of 'professional' looters scouring Europe for all things not nailed down.

Not surprised that he liked Marklin. Some of the finest things that Germany produces, world class all the way.

Warning Political:
We all know the sad history of Germany in the early-mid part of the 20th Century, and the Dark things that were done. They got pounded in WWII, while at the same time, stopping Stalin and the Reds from overrunning all of Europe. But, in the last 50 years, Germany has to apologize for NOTHING; they have been the world leader in positive treatment of refugees and in aid to other nations.

Maybe we should separate a model train received by an american soldier from general WW2 real trains, ok?

The video should go as an entry in the "prototype" section...

>I don't agree. How can you keep politics out of this subject?<

Nothing mentioned in the original post about any of that,...

This about MRR trains,....egad!

Back around,I'll say those are Trix 3-rail DC trains,....

Dr D

Never discuss Politics or Religion,Isn't that what they say? and reading these posts you can see why.
Still I think one can discuss Marklin during WW2 without getting to bogged down in Personalities,after all it is still the history of Marklin,good or bad.

Hello everyone,

Thank you all for your comments. I am happy to hear the article was enriching and interesting for some and perhaps irrelevant for others. Like others, I don't want to talk about the problems of society or argue about historical occurrences, believe me I did enough of that by reading through thousands of pages of WWII history and Goring's biographies to research for this article. I thought the article would be an interesting read for train enthusiasts regardless of their opinions of Goring, the war, society today, etc. There is a time and a place to look at history for moral / societal value, but it is not here. We are here to discuss trains and the history behind them. Thank you to all who understand this.

Indeed Goring also collected and operated Trix trains but not as much as he did with Marklin. He also only smaller scale Trix trains (similar to 00 scale). I decided to leave this out of the article because my knowledge is very limited of Trix and I wanted to be sure my reporting is accurate.

From the book Goering's Reich, by Knopf and Martens we also have this excerpt:

"...to which was added the 240 square meters play cellar, in which was a second enormous model railway layout. This exceeded the first layout in the attic of the restaurant wing in its technical finesse by far. On the new railway track, which resembled a miniature landscape with mountains, roads and houses, 40 electrical switches and signal lamps could be served by two transformers. A soldier, who was an apprentice electrical engineer in maintenance work, remembers; "At the beginning of December 1944 it several times at the morning call up [of the guard awake company] a technician was looked for. Thus a comrade and I became the Repair the Toy Railway Commando. A older civilian domestic led us into the cellar of the library wing side entrance. After a short explanation by him we were left with approximately ten to twelve days with our work alone. The model railway, really a master achievement, was built by the company Siemens & Halske. The layout was on a surface of approximately five by nine meters, had six track rings of different track widths, which could be operated at the same time. The energy supply was in this area and consisted of a 30kW-380Volt motor coupled to a continuou current generator for 12 volts. In the center of the layout was a large, arc-shaped command bridge with seating position as well as a panel with controllers, switches and keyboard. Underneath many small houses, stations there was a multiplicity of remote controlled switches, signals, level passages and turntables. Around on shelves on the walls masterful models stood in 1:20 scale of steam and electric locomotives, a fast car with two 2cm quad guns as well as a model of a 8,8-Flak."

Best regards,

Paul

When looking up 37955 in Märklins database I find: "Set with 2 Steam Locomotives with Tenders. BR 003 + BR 03.10 DB"

To my knowledge Deutsche Bundesbahn was created in 1949. So I think you have got something wrong here. You've either got the article number wrong or the manufacturer. (I believe Liliput made a Führersonderzug, but I may recall this wrong).

I must say we have come along way since than, no knifes or forks on airoplanes or any other suspicious object. and it isn't funny.
Please don't mention his favoured food
We always will have extreme groups and you have to look no further than your own back yard and people you've mentioned are living amongst us today, all it needs a sympathetic government to act upon and keep the world press out of it, like it never happened, hence the involvement of supplying funds and arms to opposition parties to oust a regime of bad taste and cruelty to obtain a better world for the advanced countries and their believers.

Wake up you purists, your shots are more lethal than the rest of the world can imagine, the only difference is every four years you can can vote for a change of directions, which way the shots are fired.

In Faulty Tower, John Cleese said: don't mention the war.

Paul,
I like to thank you for sharing your report and having had a glimps into our past history of toy owners.

An interesting point to note, Siemens & Halske was a major supplier of interlocking equipment of the real railways for a long time before that, not only in Germany, but also in Holland, and probably others too. It must have been a very impressive setup to see, regardless ot the owner.

I find it interesting that Siemens & Halske built the layout... The most innovative electric company in the European business in those days...
Also shows that Herr G was not so much into model train layout construction, but rather a collector and operator. Presumably for show-off purposes...

<offtopic>
Herr G also lived in Sweden and worked as an airline pilot in the 20's. Here he met his big love Carin von Kantzow after whom the Carinhall estate is named. She died in 1931. Herr G was also imprisoned in Sweden in the 20's due to the attempted coup in Germany in 1923 led by AH. Herr G was an early member of the party, joined 1922. He was also in mental care in Sweden due to drug addiction. He had good contacts in Sweden, and was even awarded a medal in Sweden by the Swedish "NRA", the hunting society, months before the hell broke loose... Let's just say that Sweden was "neutral" during the war, but swayed with where the wind blew... Very German-friendly in the late 30's but when the war broke out, some doubts arose... This did not stop Swedish mining companies supplying iron ore to the German war effort, and the LKAB company has its own dark moment in history... The famous iron ore trains from Kiruna to Narvik ran also at that time...
</offtopic>

Well said, GG1 Fan.

My interest in Marklin started, as with many others, when my father was serving with American, British and West German forces to prevent communism from engulfing western Europe. At that time the European Union was nascent. I get a kick out of travelling to Europe now and seeing the fruits of the NATO and European partnerships in bringing a better future to many people in the former Warsaw Pact countries. For me Marklin is a link to that incredibly successful partnership, one of the few times the West has really got things right.

Guess what. Weighing in at 350 pounds this SOG been fat as Piggy

Well ... uh ... I'm fully with GG-1 but for the sake of peace I'll keep my mouth welded shut, now

Let's remember the Beatles - "All you need is "

AFAIK and I heard it from a very heavy collector who is in a position to know, all Goering's toy train collection was destroyed in an air raid during the war. I would be interested in understanding the provenance of any train purporting to be from Goering's collection.

Marklin did make a set of cars that were leader cars in the early 50s; set #43229. This was a MHI offering. The corresponding Lok is #37102. The cars are DB repaints of Goering's personal cars, I believe. Later used by Konrad Adenauer.

FWIW you can see Goering's personal railcar at the DB museum in Koblenz. Goebbels too.

Dz dz ... what pity. Sir Winnie was the best. From London, with love

My Sopwith Camels add to the stream ... may be a bit outdated but do compensate by good spirit ...

Enough already. This Maerklin and Trix "afficianado" received much of his collection as gifts from companies to thank him for his influence in getting them access to various contracts with the Nazi Government. His main train set was a gift from Siemens. This is not something that should be comemmorated or otherwise celebrated. It can simply be acknowledged in passing and leave it at that.

There should be no tribute to Herr Meyer*.

Regards

Mike C

*It has been reported that Herr Reichsmarshall stated that if a British bomb ever fell on Berlin, he would change his name to "Meyer".

I think the piece is well written and presented.

All the best,
Matt

Glad to see this topic come back to life and it's certainly interesting timing. I'm in contact with some members of a historical branch of the German government in Berlin and they have recently looked into some of the items they have in their archives and from what I've heard they've found "trains and buildings" from a group of items that were confiscated (?) from Goring's collection. It will be interesting to hear what they report back and I'll be sure to keep everyone updated.

Best regards,

Paul

I did read that Göring did collected trains.
But it was not only Märklin,he did get Trix too and some of other German trains toy.
I wonder if Adolf Hitler did also played with Görings trains model...