In 1946 the PRÄMETA Company (Cologne, Germany) was founded by Dr. von Soiron and his wife. In the beginning they mainly produced hinges and pharmaceutical aids, but also bicycle parts!! The Company cooperated with a company called Postel Spritzguss. Although sold and marketed by PRÄMETA, it is uncertain whether PRÄMETA themselves produced the cars or maybe Postel Spritzguss.
From 1948 on, a set of 5 diecast models was produced. They were the Buick 405, Opel Kapitän, Jaguar XK 120 Coupe, Mercedes 300 Adenauer and to the delight of VW toy collectors, a Split Window Volkswagen Sedan. When looking at the set, the cars were diecast with great details and were highly polished to a chrome like finish or had a bright and shinny paint job, except for the VW model. It was like the ugly duckling of the set. The top of the line cars featured special clockwork motors and mechanical functions so the car could be programmed for different courses. The VW was also different in that most of them have no motors and the rare version did have a clockwerk motor but no special mechanics.
The PRÄMETA Volkswagen was casted in special metal composition and had solid windows. The details and indentations for the body lines are a shallow relief design. There are details of the front hood, windows, doors and rear deck lid with license plate frame. Part of the casting also included headlights, taillights, VW hood emblem and bumpers with guards. The body roof line is a little on the square side and the VW is not rounded compared to the real VW Sedan silhouette. The rear split window design is not accurate as well. The PRÄMETA VW was about 1/37 scale or about 110mm in length.
The chassis was also made out of the same metal composition as the body. The diecast metal chassis was plain with no details or markings. Axles of the chassis molding had diecast wheels that were secured with the axle mushroomed on the ends. There was steering for this PRÄMETA VW and a lever protruded out under the front bumper. Most of the PRÄMETA VWs that were produced were just plain and unpolished that had a pewter metal look to it. The rare painted version sported a dull color of red, green, yellow or blue. The clockwerk version had a simple key wound motor with the keyhole located in the middle of the chassis. This version was equipped with rubber tires mounted on the diecast rims. The motorized PRÄMETA came in 2 versions: version 2A featured the windows in the same colour as the body. Version 2B had silver painted windows and is the rarest version. PRÄMETA made a special casted clockwork key (different from the key of the other Prämeta cars!) that looked like the letter “P” and featured a policeman directing traffic.
The regular PRÄMETA VW came in a plain box and there was a line made on the box with a colored pencil indicating the color of the VW in the box. That way you did not have to open the box to figure out what color was inside. There was a rarer version of the box for the keywound VW that had a color graphic picture showing the VW and PRÄMETA lettering and the special policeman key. These PRÄMETA VWs are not too hard to locate especially looking for them on the online auctions. The plain versions are still pricey and the clockwork motor version is at the next price level and the mint condition color version command the highest prices. Be aware and special attention should be made because these PRÄMETA VWs when mis-handled and dropped are broken easily especially the axles and steering lever.
Just to note: the German Company ECKERT & ZIEGLER cooperated with BASF who wanted to experiment with a newly developed plastic component in the early 1940s. The result was the ECKERT & ZIEGLER KdF Wagen (Split Window Beetle) toy that was produced in a plastic and was a give-away item for the ECKERT & ZIEGLER products. ECKERT & ZIEGLER and PRÄMETA used to be neighbouring Companies located in Cologne, Germany. PRÄMETA used this form after WWII for their diecast VW version released in the late 1940s. The PRÄMETA Split Window VW body is a basic copy of the KdF ECKERT & ZIEGLER VW. Also, there is an English plastic Split Window VW produced by CODEG in the 1940s and sold under the RODNOID name with lines that are very similar to the PRÄMETA Volkswagen.
Good luck and happy collecting.
