about the enterprise

The possibility of surviving as an enterprise in the third generation lies below 20 percent in Germany. 

In 2018 the family business Meier will be 70 years old. This means that Meier.Germany belongs to this little segment of business which is led by the grandchild generation.

The history of the company starts in 1948 in the post-war era with Hermann Meier, a craftsman in the very literal meaning of the word. Up to the year 1970 he managed to manufacture and sell rocking horses with the help of his skills alone, almost without the use of any machines, so that his family could live on it.

The ‘Gäules-Meier’ from ‘upper Zabergäu’ develops into a name that is also known on the Toy Fair in Nuremberg.

Deeply impressed by his farther’s hard work, the son Horst Meier initially turns to another branch of business. He becomes a car mechanic and earns his money in industry. Only a few years later he discovers the opportunities and freedom an enterprise brings about and in 1970 he takes over his father’s company.









The following years are determined by the search for enlargement of the assortment and the development of a second pillar. This search is finally successful when the cooperation Krafft-Meier is created. The teacher of arts Hanns-Peter Krafft learns from Horst Meier techniques of the handicraft and the enterprise learns from Krafft everything about product development and design.

In the following years the company produces - next to the traditional rocking horse in plush and real skin - an ever enlarging range of handicraft objects and high-end design articles as for example Santa Clauses, Easter bunnies, scarecrows, ducks and geese. The sheep turns out to be the absolute star among all objects.

Within 2 years (1980 to 1981) the ‘Gäules-Meier‘ develops into Horst Meier GmbH, West-Germany not only in ‘Schwäbisch’ (Swabian) but also for international business in English.













Cornelia and Stefan Koch - both management assistants -accomplished the change into the 3rd generation in 1998. In the summer of 2000 they had the possibility of opening a new building which contains - next to a living area - the firm’s administration office and a big showroom. In direct neighborhood to the old living-, administration- and production area a new step of development could be taken. For the first time Meier.Germany is able to show and find out how to present and sell its own products.