Johann Wanner (entrepreneur)

Johann Wanner's shop window

Johann Richard Wanner (born January 11, 1939 in Basel ; legal resident in Basel and Oberhof ) is a Swiss entrepreneur and the world's largest manufacturer and dealer of handmade Christmas decorations . The sole proprietorship Johann Wanner Christmas House is based in Basel.

Life

Christmas tree decorations from Johann Wanner

Johann Wanner was born in Basel as the first of six children to a bookbinder and a housewife. After completing his commercial training, he traveled to the Orient for several years . In the mid-1960s, he opened an antique shop in Basel, first in the suburb of St. Johann , then in the old town on Spalenberg.

Encouraged by customers, he began to collect traditional mouth-blown and hand-painted glass jewelry and the associated plaster molds, some directly from traditional glassblowing workshops in Thuringia , northern Poland , Bohemia and the Czech Republic . Soon he had Christmas tree decorations made again in the original forms and thus contributed significantly to the preservation of the endangered handicraft of making tree decorations.

The offer was well received by customers and Wanner developed into the global market leader in the field of hand-blown and hand-painted Christmas decorations. In addition to glass jewelry, he also sells angels made of wood, porcelain , wrapping paper, bells, advent calendars , tinsel , fairy lights and more. To date, not in the range Wanner but has nativity figures , for the claims to be "God-believing Christian" would like the Christ child does not degrade the decorative items.

Companies

Wanner's approximately 500 m² shop ("Christmas House") is not only stocked with festive decorations before Christmas, but is also operated with this theme all year round. In addition to retailing, Wanner now also develops new fashion trends for Christmas decorations every year. In the decoration industry, he is considered to be the world's most important trendsetter in the market segment of hand-blown Christmas decorations. For companies and private individuals, he also decorates rooms for festive days and offers advice to companies. He also runs the “Christmas coffee” and the “Christmas parlors” in Basel .

His customers included the Monegasque Princely House of Grimaldi , the Spencer House in London (Lady Diana Spencer was a regular customer), the von Hohenzollern family and other European aristocratic houses, the Swiss artist Jean Tinguely and the American musician Michael Jackson . In 1998 Wanner decorated the Christmas tree of the Vatican in St. Peter's Square in Rome with 753 large silver and gold balls. He has also supplied jewelry for the National Christmas Tree of the White House in Washington on behalf of Hillary Clinton .

Media coverage

The "Johann Wanner Christmas House" has been resonating in the media around the world for many years in the run-up to Christmas.

See also

• Bronner's Christmas Wonderland , the world's largest Christmas shop

literature

• Evelyn Scherfenberg, Johann Wanner: Johann Wanner's Christmas World. Tradition - the art of decoration - Christmas tree magic . Munich: BLV, 1996, ISBN 978-3405150235 .
• Johann Wanner: Johann Wanner's wonderful Christmas world. Tradition and decoration of the Christmas tree. Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder, 2010, ISBN 978-3-451-30365-4 .
• Johann Wanner: The most beautiful tree of all. The best tips for decorating the Christmas tree. Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder, 2010, ISBN 978-3-451-30362-3 .
• Johann Wanner: Johann Wanner's best Christmas recipes. Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder, 2010, ISBN 978-3-451-30371-5 .
• Johann Wanner (Ed.): From Christmas trees and winter dreams. The most beautiful stories and poems. Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder, 2010, ISBN 978-3-451-31624-1 .

Web links

• Website by Johann Wanner, Basel

References and comments

1. ↑ Johann Wanner Christmas House  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in the commercial register of the Canton of Basel-Stadt  
2. ↑ The first evidence of so-called winter or Christmas May days is mostly from the Alemannic region at the beginning of the 16th century, in connection with logging rights; the decoration of the Christmas tree for "general joy" at festivals of the town's craft and guilds was documented in Basel as early as 1597 by journeymen of the tailoring trade. Source: "Christmas tree" in Meyer's Lexicon .
3. ↑ Source: Markus Kocher: "Father Christmas" in many languages. Johann Wanner has even received an order from First Lady Hillary (interview with Johann Wanner). Basler Zeitung , December 21, 2006, page 18.
4. ↑ Commentary on this by Johann Wanner: “opulent, American-Georgian. A single silver dream ”. Source: Markus Kocher: "Father Christmas" in many languages. Johann Wanner has even received an order from First Lady Hillary (interview with Johann Wanner). Basler Zeitung , December 21, 2006, page 18.
5. ↑ Petra Kistler: Wanners Wunderwelt ( Memento of the original from February 1, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Badische Zeitung , December 3, 2002.  
6. ↑ Anita Lehmeier: From Bears, Trees and Biedermann ( Memento of the original from May 17, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Basler Zeitung , December 10, 1988.  
7. ↑ Father Christmas comes from Basel - Lady Diana was a regular customer ( memento of the original from January 9, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , GlaubeAktuell, December 6, 2008. 
8. ↑ Creating Haute Couture Christmas trees , swissinfo, December 21, 2005.
9. ↑ Martin Arnold: Mystical shimmer through the branches: Johann Wanner from Basel decorates the Christmas trees of celebrities. In: Berliner Zeitung . December 21, 2004, accessed June 15, 2015 . 
10. ↑ Wanner Christmas Workshop Switzerland  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Deutsche Welle , December 9, 2007 ( podcast in English).  
11. ↑ Johann Wanner  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Konsum.tv, December 27, 2007.  
12. ↑ Haute Couture on the Christmas tree  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , regio3, December 8, 2008.  
13. ↑ Elke Polomski: What is the Christmas tree wearing this year? ( Memento of the original from October 29, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Interview with Johann Wanner, brigitte.de , November 23, 2007.  
14. ↑ Hans-Jürgen Amtage: The Christmas tree decoration expert  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Mindener Tagblatt.  
15. ↑ Annegret Ruoff: "Kitsch is my life". Not only at Christmas time: at Johann Wanner the balls shine all year round . kirchenbote aargau, No. 21, December 15, 2006, p. 3., PDF