Hm, but that's not the point I'm trying to make. Both Brandstatter and Beck contributed to Playmobil in their different ways and so both should have their contribution appropriately recognised financially. By that, I don't mean be paid equally. Maybe Horst Brandstatter is getting too proud and failing to recognise (or maybe preferring to ignore) the contribution of Hans Beck. And when that happens, the artist suffers both ways - they do not receive their appropriate financial reward and the ignoring of their artistic contribution also robs them of their self-esteem. It's not about businessmen not making good designers or good designers not making good businessmen - it's about ethics and fair treatment.
My apologies Gordon, I wasn't commenting directly on your post, but on the Beck-Brandstatter situation generally.
It's true that artists often if not usually get a raw deal on the fruits of their labours, and the money men get the lion's share, but as Ras points out Beck took no risk here, it was all with Brandstatter. Had Playmo failed to take off, as it very nearly did, Beck goes back to designing plastic toy telephones while Brandstatter has a big hole in his financial accounts.
The "appropriate financial reward" is what's in the contract. If Hans had focussed more on the money side of his life when he was designing, he would have got his appropriate reward. He didn't, and then when Playmo was a massive success, thought he should be rewarded in retro. Brandstatter didn't.
An excellent example of an artist getting his "just reward" is Sir John Gielgud. Until he played Obi Wan Kenobi in Star Wars he was just going along nicely as a respected, but not especially financially rewarded actor. For Star Wars, he took a risk and signed a contract for a %age of the royalties instead of a flat fee (these fees albeit usually in their millions) , and if I recall aright, the royalties also encompassed any merchanising royalties and not just box office receipts.
Star Wars grew into a huge multi-billion dollar franchise, and Gielgud' %age (which might have been only a couple of %) made him a multi-millionaire. Since then film companies are much more careful how they draw up their contracts...
If Hans had taken a risk and signed a contract for a %age of the profits (or losses!) from Playmobil sales, or better still taken his idea away and developed it himself, then he would have had the big mansion in Florida with the rotating room, and no doubt have left an estate to support his family in perpetuity.
I can feel sorry for Hans for not realising the massive success his figures would be, but I won't villify Brandstatter for taking the financial risk of developing it and enjoying his rewards.
(moderators, you might think of splitting this discussion to a new thread as we're getting a bit off topic now)
