Well, the company background is not so confusing, actually. One part of the story was started in the town of [i]Marktleuthen[/i] by the eldest brother, [i]Heinrich Winterling[/i]. His family disliked the idea and treated him accordingly. Only after he had proven all his critics wrong did his siblings decide that they would follow with their own business, taking over the first factory in [i]Röslau[/i].

The two businesses remained strictly seperated and (with exception of a certain marking type collaboration for marketing purposes) never worked together or shared technology.

[i]Heinrich Winterling[/i] never saw the need for additional production locations, unlike the business of his siblings (as each wanted to play boss at his/her own factory). Hence the factory in [i]Marktleuthen[/i] remained his only production location; his siblings on the other hand operated factories in [i]Kirchenlammitz, Röslau, Schwarzenbach, Windischeschenbach[/i] and [i]Bruchmühlbach[/i].

The whole “Winterling Group” collapsed after a dirty bankruptcy in the year 2000, the factory of [i]Heinrich Winterling[/i] on the other hand decided to cease operations 2010, as one of the few German factories that did not go bankrupt but simply decided that their time was over.

[b]DLLee[/b], shown mark was one of those used by the [i]Gebrüder Winterling[/i] at their factory in the town of [i]Windischeschenbach[/i] and this mark type – merely showing ‘Germany’ as addition – was only used between 1950 and 1955 on certain export items. It’s not “rare” or such, only hard to find as it was not used long enough to leave a larger trail.