Wooden toy production in the Ore Mountains
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The history of wooden toy production in the Ore Mountains is closely linked to the regional framework. The Erzgebirge many centuries was a landscape that could hardly feed the local population. Long and hard winters restricted agriculture, and the region was also very poorly served by traffic. With the onset of ore mining , a new branch of the economy was formed here, but due to the hard work and high risk, it could only provide work for young and strong men. Many injuries and fatalities resulted from accidents. The miners went to work early in the morning in the dark and did not come home from work until late in the evening. The folk custom of putting lights in the windows, which has been handed down to this day, also dates from this time. These lights were supposed to show the miners the safe route back to their homes to join their families.
Ore mining largely came to a standstill in the 17th century, especially after the Thirty Years' War . The abundance of wood in the region and the skilled craftsmanship of the inhabitants resulted in wooden toy manufacturing as an important source of secondary income. Whole family were busy with it, especially in the harsh winters. Child labor in poor lighting and equipment was not the exception, it was the rule. Often the children had to work more than 12 hours a day. A strong specialization developed in the families. For example, an experienced lathe operator was busy turning tires , another man carved the animal figures out of them and another family took on the painting and the manufacture of small boxes. The earnings for the individual work steps were very low. Production was usually bought up by traveling traders who mercilessly exploited their position to push prices down. A large part of these products were brought to the toy markets in Nuremberg and sold from there. The formation of associations and cooperatives (such as the Dregeno ) was the result in order to secure a minimum of income.
Production is still concentrated in the toy village Seiffen and the surrounding area, in the middle of the Ore Mountains known as the "German Christmas Land". A great variety of products has developed, but the products are clearly associated with the Ore Mountains and are known under the term of the Ore Mountains Folk Art . This includes many typical Erzgebirge wood products such as wing pyramids , smokers , nutcrackers , wooden figures ( Christmas angels , miners' figures , tire animals , etc.) and candle arches .
See also
literature
- Manfred Bachmann : Wooden toys from the Ore Mountains . VEB Verlag der Kunst, Dresden, 1984
- Walter Neumann: Seiffen miniature toys . Saxon State Office for Folk Culture, Schneeberg (Ore Mountains), printing and publishing company Marienberg mbH, 1999, Weiss-Grün 16 series. ISBN 3-931770-19-2
- Bernhard Westenberger: The wooden toy industry in the Saxon Ore Mountains with special consideration of the house industry. Leipzig 1911 ( digitized version )