75th Anniversary – Part 1: Founding Exhibitors
We thank Heless, Glocken-Huck and Loquai Holzkunst.
Family businesses are different. They stand for what they do with their name. This represents not only a promise of quality, but also a commitment to values in the context of social and societal responsibility. Entrepreneurial families do not think in quarters, but plan for generations. Their goal is to hand over a well-positioned company to their successors.
Owner-managed companies are the heart of the German economy. 90 percent of all companies in Germany are family-owned. They generate 55 percent of corporate revenues, operate successfully as global players and make Germany internationally competitive. Since the very beginning of Spielwarenmesse, family businesses have also ensured diversity in the toy industry.
What fascinates about family businesses are their origin stories …
The journey through the founding years of Spielwarenmesse begins with a young woman whose boxer dog provided the start-up capital for her company. It leads to Europe’s last bell makers, a traditional company dating back to 1858, and ends with a renowned wooden toy manufacturer who now packs games, puzzles and famous buildings into matchboxes.
Heless GmbH
Tradition, Quality and Women Power
Where we come from
Heless GmbH – the company name derives from the founder’s maiden name – was founded in 1949 in Schwetzingen by Helga Hess (later Moll). With start-up capital of 1,000 Deutschmarks, which the young hobby breeder owed to her beloved boxer dog. Helga Hess was able to sell the first litter of her dog to enthusiasts of this noble breed. With the proceeds, the young founder perfected her expertise from her parents’ rubber goods factory and transformed it into innovations. Her doll bottles became bestsellers – the current models are still part of the Heless range today. Also, high-quality doll accessories and detailed doll clothing.
Who we are
As a company founded and managed by women, Heless combines tradition, quality and innovative spirit, and continues to inspire doll lovers worldwide with competent women power in the third generation. In 2015, Susanna Becker joined the company and in 2018, together with her mother Beate Becker, took over the management. Trendy ideas and the unmistakable design by Susanna Becker sharpen the Heless brand profile today.
The range of doll fashion and accessories is continuously expanded with current trends. The Heless swimwear collections and imaginative doll creations such as the dream dress or the ice princess dress are particularly popular.
The consistent focus on quality and sustainability is reflected in the Fair Trade line, which was launched in 2017 with the dolls Maya and Max.
Beate Becker ... personally
Ms. Becker, what is known about Heless’s first appearance at Spielwarenmesse?
My mother, Helga Moll, recorded this in our family chronicle: At the first Spielwarenmesse, she had a tiny table area in a barrack behind the Wieseler house. That was her stand. It was cold and draughty, heated with sawdust stoves, but all exhibitors were satisfied. At 21, my mother was probably the youngest among them. And her products were well received. She got her first export order to Italy. She received the invoice amount at the fair. Soon, repeat orders came and she was busy, because to save wages, she did as much as possible herself.
The toy industry is a big family. And Spielwarenmesse is like a family reunion. What do you look forward to every year?
Spielwarenmesse is a potpourri of positive moments, experiences and encounters. It’s hard to break it down into individual events. Every year is a homecoming.
And we are proud every year to have been part of Spielwarenmesse since day one. We still have customers who placed orders with us at the first event. One of them is Gutweniger from Bolzano, who is still a customer in the third generation and visits us every year at the fair.
Are any of the first products Heless presented at Spielwarenmesse 75 years ago still available?
We still have doll rattles, bottles and pacifiers in our range. They are still among our bestsellers, just as they were back then. In the 1980s, we introduced role-play toys and in the 1990s accessories for styling heads. Over time, our core range focused on today’s lines: doll clothing and accessories – with annual new products reflecting current trends.
Next Gens: Sustainable and Human to Human
For Susanna Becker, Spielwarenmesse is not just a B2B fair, but an H2H – human to human – fair: “In recent years, it has become clear how important personal contact with customers, suppliers, partners and friends is. In times of AI, anyone can create beautiful product images and videos, but what’s missing is the tactile experience, the emotional perception and grasp of the products. We hope that Spielwarenmesse will remain highly relevant in the future – for both exhibitors and visitors.”
I remember it as if it were yesterday: After every Spielwarenmesse, my mother would come into our children’s room late in the evening and put a cuddly toy in each of our beds. They smelled of smoke, but we children associated them with adventure and an exciting world of the fair.
Beate Becker, Heless GmbH
J. A. Huck GmbH & Co. KG Metallwarenfabrik
Europe’s Last Bell Makers
Where we come from
If you were to line up all the bells, chimes and rollers produced at ‘Glocken-Huck’ since 1858, the chain would circle the earth several times. The Huck metal goods factory, as the last bell and chime manufacturer, is a tribute to the time when Nuremberg was the stronghold of toy manufacturing.
Who we are
Since 1994, Jürgen Huck, the fifth generation of the family, has been in the business. He is steering the family company into the next millennium.
The company, always family-owned, now operates worldwide. Whether on Easter lambs, works of art, jeans or teddy bears: The bells from Nuremberg have become globetrotters. In 2021/2022, they adorned oversized artworks made of thousands of small bells at Expo in Dubai. And when children in Christchurch, New Zealand, shake their toys, bells from Nuremberg ring out.
Jürgen Huck ... personally
Mr. Huck, what is known about Glocken-Huck’s first appearance at Spielwarenmesse?
Unfortunately, there are no more eyewitnesses. But there are family stories about our first appearance. We have had business relations with Margarete Steiff GmbH since 1906. And since there were too few hotels in Nuremberg for the first Spielwarenmesse, employees of Steiff stayed with my grandmother. This was, of course, very beneficial for the business relationship. Then as now, we supply table bells, chimes and bells for toy manufacturers.
The toy industry is a big family. And Spielwarenmesse is like a family reunion. What do you look forward to every year?
It’s always as if we were just together yesterday. We continue our conversations where we left off a year earlier. We’ve known each other for decades or since childhood. On setup day, we already arrange where and when to meet. We like to attend the RedNight or other evening events. And after the fair closes, we meet at the stands until the security staff politely ask us to leave.
Are any of the first products Huck presented at Spielwarenmesse 75 years ago still available?
We still have bells – and nothing has changed about that. My father always said: A chime will still be a chime in 100 years. Thanks to today’s standards and safety regulations, we’re doing well in business. A customer recently said to me: Huck rings and China rattles.
Next Gens: DNA with Resonance
Jürgen Huck has optimized the Huck company DNA and discovered a new facet of sound for himself: the Far Eastern art of singing bowl therapy. The entrepreneur trained as a singing bowl therapist. Since 2005, he has run a well-attended practice on the company premises after hours.
Even as a child, I was fascinated by Steiff animals. Especially the button in the ear. As I got older, I started to stretch my ear and a year later, inspired by the Steiff animals with the button, I had a bell in my ear. To this day, it is my trademark in different colors.
Jürgen Huck, J. A. Huck GmbH & Co. KG Metallwarenfabrik
Loquai Holzkunst GmbH
Passion, Craftsmanship and Native Woods
Where we come from
The history of Loquai Holzkunst GmbH began in 1934 in the Ore Mountains town of Augustusburg. The founder, Rudolf Arwed Loquai, a painter, graphic artist and sculptor, worked for toy manufacturers in the region and eventually shifted his focus to this emerging industry as an independent entrepreneur. After World War II, the Loquai family moved to Pöttmes, where they resumed production in 1959.
Sustainability has always been a priority at Loquai Holzkunst. Mainly fine woods from the region are used.
Who we are
Today, brothers Horst and Arwed Loquai run the company in the third generation. They produce wooden toys in the tradition of the Ore Mountains. The company exports to numerous countries, with Japan being an important market. The current product range includes wooden toys and decorations, wooden trains, wooden houses, miniature play worlds and matchbox dioramas, wooden games and doll furniture. Special features include detailed miniature kits depicting buildings such as the Toy Museum Nuremberg or the Old Synagogue Erfurt.
Horst Loquai ... personally
Mr. Loquai, what is known about Loquai’s first appearance at Spielwarenmesse?
Unfortunately, our father Andreas Loquai passed away in September 2025. He attended the fair as an exhibitor from the very first event without interruption. At the first Spielwarenmesse, Loquai had a one-square-meter table in a barrack. Soon it was ten square meters in the first lightweight hall. Everyone was freezing and stood at the stand in coats and gloves. Later, in the exhibition building, Loquai received a permanent stand. We also provided a loan for its construction.
The toy industry is a big family. And Spielwarenmesse is like a family reunion. What do you look forward to every year?
You really meet everyone here. Customers, suppliers, exhibitors from the past and present who have also become friends, as well as many other companions. Some evenings have become rituals. Meetings at the ToyNight, stand parties, exchanges with other exhibitors and now also the RedNight – it’s all part of it, making the toy industry a big family. Even if a day at the fair is tiring, you look forward to these encounters every day.
Are any of the first products Loquai presented at Spielwarenmesse 75 years ago still available?
Yes, some of our products from that time are still being made today, such as our wooden trains.
Next Gens: Think Big Was Yesterday
Brothers Arwed and Horst Loquai have added a very successful ‘magical touch’ to the core range. With the line It’s Matchic!, Loquai Holzkunst offers puzzle games, famous buildings and kits – all miniature in a matchbox.
Today, in times of flight shame, you shouldn’t really mention it, but in 1977, we once flew with very important customers from Japan, who wanted to see our production, by helicopter for a day from Nuremberg to Pöttmes.
Horst Loquai, Loquai Holzkunst GmbH
About the Author
Sibylle Dorndorf has been writing about the toy industry for almost 30 years, most recently as editor-in-chief of the TOYS magazine family at Göller Verlag, Baden-Baden. Her passion: companies that reinvent themselves, brands that position themselves credibly, people who have something to say and products with a future.
