Lineol soldiers from Brandenburg

Lineol Aktiengesellschaft was founded in 1906 by Oskar Wilhelm Wiederholz in Brandenburg an der Havel. As early as 1903, he had been developing the necessary composition mass, which, in contrast to the composition mass of its competitor Elastolin, also contains linseed oil and tree resin. Part of the contribution to Lineol success was made by the Berlin artist Albert Caasmann, who had designed the wax figures from 1909 onwards. In 1919 he became the Lineol head modeller under Wiederholz and was also head of figure production until 1952. In the 1930s, LINEOL AG employed 300 to 400 people. In addition to the mass figures, Lineol produced high quality tinplate military toys. The Lineol composition soldiers were available in different scales and sizes (from 17 cm to 4 cm), with the figure size of 7.5 cm prevailing over the years. The Lineol soldiers can easily be distinguished from the figures from Hausser (brand name Elastolin) by a rectangular base. A Brandenburg boy playing with Lineol soldiers, 1930s years.

Advertisement, from: "Brandenburger Anzeiger", 1915

Advertising leaflet, 1934. Design: Walter Garski (1884-1961), artist from Brandenburg