Hermann Josef Neuhierl (1927-1985)

Founder of Carrera

Josef Hermann Neuhierl, born on 20 July 1927 in Germany, is the founder of Carrera. Neuhierl started with the model toy company JNF, Josef Neuhierl Furth. The downfall of Carrera came at the end of the seventies after successful years in the sixties and the beginning of the seventies.

Carrera's financial problems

Carrera started to produce too many systems, which impossibly could succeed all. The German Company became almost bankrupt. Neuhierl had to dismiss personnel and had to find investors. In 1984 the Dutchman John de Ruig, a former manager of Mattel, started to re-organize the company. The rescue operation became a failure. De Ruig left the company at the end of 1984 because he had differences of opinion with Josef Hermann Neuhierl.

Kurt Hesse became the new owner of Carrera

Because of a debt of millions Josef Hermann Neuhierl was forced to sell his company. Kurt Hesse became the new owner. Neuhierl, embittered about the tragic end of his professional carrier, committed suicide - together with his eighty-five year old mother - on 6 February 1985.

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