BACKGROUND: Germany has long been renown for producing excellent quality toys as far back as the 16TH century with the towns of Nuremberg and Sonnenberg being the major toy manufacturing centers of western Europe of the period. In the early 1800's the Germans began to produce some of the earliest cast-iron and tin plate toys and Nuremberg had over three hundred toy manufacturers with over two hundred of them being involved in producing metal toys. The German fascination with toys continued into the 1900's and beyond and one of the most popular type of toys were the miniature military figures. After Hitler's ascension to power in January 1933 the youthful innocence of military toys became sublimely corrupted to become an effective propaganda tool to stimulate interest in the military. During the Third Reich every imaginable type of military toy was produced to entice the German youths interest in the military and included a wide variety of military style toys including soldiers and sailors. Two of the most popular, and prolific miniature toy figure manufacturer's were the Lineol and Elastolin firms who produced a wide variety of figures. The Elastolin firm, near Stuttgart, owned by brothers, Otto and Max Haußer, had developed toy figures using a wire base and an ersatz sawdust and glue covering. The Elastolin firm produced extensive figures covering all three branches of military service as well as a wide variety of para-military and political figures.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Marching soldier with flag. Figure is 7.5cm tall. Flag is upside down, just needs to be flipped.. Easy fix.