About Modell Eisen Bahner

Modell Eisen Bahner

Modell Eisen Bahner (current spelling ModellEisenBahner) is a monthly German magazine covering railways and model railways, published in Munich by the Verlagshaus GeraNova Bruckmann. It has appeared continuously since 1952, making it one of the oldest railway magazines in the German-speaking world. The title originated in East Berlin as the specialist journal of the GDR's model railway community and, after German reunification, was merged with a West German railway magazine and developed into a modern special-interest title. Each issue combines railway news, model manufacturer announcements, layout presentations and practical tips, with a substantial cover story devoted to a single theme. Together with its sister magazine MIBA, it awards the annual "Das Goldene Gleis" prize to model railway manufacturers.

Overview

Modell Eisen Bahner appears twelve times a year and is aimed at model railway enthusiasts as well as readers interested in real railways. The monthly magazine presents news from railway operations, introduces interesting railway lines, reports on new products from model manufacturers, portrays model railway layouts and offers tips and tricks for the hobby. Railway history and rail transport technology are given their due alongside.

A hallmark of every issue is the large cover story, in which a particular theme — a locomotive class, a railway region, a modelling technique — is treated in depth across many pages. This combination of news service and long-form feature journalism distinguishes the title from pure product-news magazines and has sustained its readership through decades of change in both the hobby and the publishing industry.

The magazine is part of the railway portfolio of the Verlagshaus GeraNova Bruckmann in Munich, one of Germany's leading special-interest publishers, whose titles also include Bergsteiger, Ein Herz für Tiere, dogs and the railway magazines MIBA, eisenbahn magazin and Bahn Extra. The editorial office is based in Munich.

History

The magazine was founded in September 1952 in East Berlin under the title Der Modelleisenbahner, published by the transpress Verlag für Verkehrswesen as the "specialist journal for model railway construction and all friends of the railway" in the GDR. For nearly four decades it served the East German model railway community, documenting both the hobby and the real railways of the socialist state.

From the middle of 1982 the title was shortened to Modelleisenbahner. After reunification, the magazine was published from 1990 by the T & M Verlags-Gesellschaft in Berlin. In 1992 it was merged with the Bahn-Welt of the Munich GeraNova publishing house, a move that quickly brought the title a West German readership and secured its future in the unified market.

The subsequent years saw further changes of ownership. Via the Pietsch und Scholten publishing house (1996–1999), the magazine came to the Verlagsgruppe Bahn, the railway publishing group formed in 2001 from the merger of the MIBA publishing house and the Hermann Merker publishing house (publisher of the Eisenbahn-Journal). From 2006 the magazine was part of the Verlagsgruppe Bahn, with the editorial office located in Fürstenfeldbruck from 2010.

Dr. Karlheinz Haucke was editor-in-chief from 1998 to 2014; since then Stefan Alkofer has been responsible for the magazine. On 1 July 2020, the Verlagsgruppe Bahn was taken over by the Munich Verlagshaus GeraNova Bruckmann, and the editorial office moved to Munich. The current spelling ModellEisenBahner reflects the title's modern branding.

Content and Programming

Each monthly issue opens with railway news: developments in rail transport, newsworthy lines and operations, and reports from the railway world. The model railway section covers new products from manufacturers, with announcements, first looks and assessments of new models across the scales. Layout portraits present outstanding model railways built by readers and clubs, offering inspiration and practical ideas.

The tips-and-tricks pages address the craft of the hobby — scenery construction, digital control, weathering, track planning — in a practical, workshop-oriented style. Railway history and rail technology features provide the prototype background that informs serious modelling, from the development of locomotive classes to the operation of historic lines.

The cover story each month takes a single theme and explores it at length, often combining prototype history with modelling angles: a famous railway line might be presented through its real-world history, its current operations and its realisation as a model layout. This integrated approach — prototype and model in one narrative — is the magazine's editorial signature.

Once a year, Modell Eisen Bahner together with MIBA awards the "Das Goldene Gleis" (The Golden Track) prize to model railway manufacturers, honouring outstanding new products. The award is a recognised institution in the German model railway industry and generates significant attention in the hobby press each year.

Coverage and Audience

Modell Eisen Bahner is distributed throughout Germany and the German-speaking countries, sold at newsstands, in model railway specialist shops and by subscription. Its readership consists of dedicated model railway enthusiasts — a hobby with a strong tradition in Germany — as well as railway-interested readers who follow the prototype coverage.

The German model railway market is one of the largest in the world, with a dense network of manufacturers, clubs and exhibitions, and the magazine serves as a central medium of this community. Its readers are typically experienced hobbyists with substantial spending on models, tools and literature, making the title an important advertising medium for the model railway industry.

The magazine's East German origins give it a particular resonance: for readers who grew up with Der Modelleisenbahner in the GDR, the title carries decades of personal history, while younger readers know it as a modern special-interest magazine. This continuity across the rupture of reunification is unusual in German publishing and forms part of the title's identity. Few German special-interest magazines can claim an unbroken publishing history stretching back to the early 1950s, and fewer still have navigated a change of political and economic systems while retaining their readership.

Ownership

Modell Eisen Bahner is published by the Verlagshaus GeraNova Bruckmann, the Munich-based special-interest publishing house that acquired the Verlagsgruppe Bahn on 1 July 2020. GeraNova Bruckmann is one of Germany's largest publishers of special-interest magazines and books, with a portfolio spanning mountains, animals, railways, classic cars and popular science.

Within the group, the magazine sits alongside the other railway titles — MIBA, eisenbahn magazin, Bahn Extra and the railway book programme — forming one of the most comprehensive railway publishing portfolios in the German-speaking world. Stefan Alkofer is responsible for the magazine as editor-in-chief, a role he also holds for MIBA.

Digital Presence

The magazine's online presence is centred on its official web address, modelleisenbahner.de, which resolves to the title's presentation within the publisher's portal. The site provides information on current issues, subscriptions and the magazine's services, linking the print title to the digital infrastructure of the GeraNova Bruckmann group.

The publisher's railway portals and social media channels carry news, product announcements and community content between issues, serving the model railway community's appetite for timely information. Digital editions of the magazine are available for screen reading. While the monthly print issue remains the title's core product — model railway enthusiasts are traditionally loyal print readers — the digital channels extend its reach and connect it to the wider online hobby community.

The website field in this profile reflects the title's official online address as given in the project inventory; the magazine's web presence is integrated into the publisher's portal. Within GeraNova Bruckmann's railway portfolio, the title benefits from shared digital infrastructure with its sister magazines, ensuring that seven decades of railway journalism remain accessible to new generations of readers.