Kathe Kruse

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Käthe Kruse with her daughters Mimerle and Fifi

Käthe Kruse (born September 17, 1883 in Dambrau , district of Falkenberg OS , Silesia as Katharina Johanna Gertrud Simon, † July 19, 1968 in Murnau am Staffelsee ) was a German actress and later one of the world's most famous doll makers . Their dolls are now popular collectibles that are sold at very high prices.

Life

Max and Käthe Kruse

The daughter of the city's chief cashier Robert Rogaske and the seamstress Christiane Simon grew up in simple circumstances. After graduating from high school, she took acting lessons from 1899 and in 1900 was given a two-year engagement at the Lessing Theater in Berlin . In addition, she played quite successfully in other German cities and gave guest appearances in Warsaw and Moscow. In 1902 she met the Berlin sculptor and set designer Max Kruse and had a daughter from him in 1902.

Käthe Kruse with her first daughter

While Max Kruse continued to work in Berlin, she moved with her mother and daughter to Tuscany during her second pregnancy and from there a little later to the life reform community of Monte Verità near Ascona in the Swiss canton of Ticino to paint there. At that time there was correspondence with Kruse between 1904 and 1909, and he occasionally traveled to visit. In 1904, her older daughter wanted a doll, and Katharina Simon asked Max to bring one from Berlin. However, Kruse refused to buy one of the dolls that were commercially available at the time, because he disliked them and considered them "cold and sterile".

Käthe Kruse doll No. 1 from 1918

“I can't get any dolls. I think they're shitty. Make some yourself. "

- Max Kruse

So she started making dolls for her own daughters. After a stopover in Munich, Simon moved back to Berlin to live with Max Kruse, and in 1909 the couple married, who meanwhile had three daughters. In 1910, Käthe Kruse's dolls were first publicly exhibited in Hermann Tietz's Berlin department store . Since these were well received, she should also make the dolls for other interested parties. In the beginning they were plain and simple, later artful and lifelike. After Kruse had perfected her manufacture, she designed and made dolls that were modeled on her own children. The naturalness of the small creatures soon made Käthe Kruse known and famous. In the Berlin press, Kruse's dolls were also referred to as "Columbus's Egg". Dolls were by no means new, but Kruse's design, soft, pliable and lifelike, differed from those previously seen.

Participation in international doll exhibitions brought Käthe Kruse several prizes, such as the “Great Golden Medal” in Florence and first place in Frankfurt and Wroclaw. Two orders from the United States of America , one for 150 pieces from FAO Schwarz in New York, the other a short time later for 500 dolls, required an own workshop with employees. The family moved from Berlin to Bad Kösen in 1912 , where the soon-to-be world-famous dolls were made by hand in the future. This handicraft was still of great importance to her:

“The hand follows the heart. Only the hand can produce what goes back to the heart through the hand. "

- Kathe Kruse

From 1916 Käthe Kruse began manufacturing dollhouse dolls, which also included numerous items of clothing and accessories. Small soldier dolls, 11 cm high and with movable limbs, also stood out. More and more competitors began to manufacture industrial dolls that were based on Käthe Kruse's dolls. In 1925 she won a lawsuit for the copyright of her dolls against the Bing group , which also advertised "Imitation of the Käthe Kruse dolls". This was the first time a toy was granted artistic copyright protection. Another milestone for the company is the "Doll VIII", also known as "The German Child", which was produced from 1928, as it was the first to have real hair. The model is based on her son Friedebald, who was born in 1918.

From 1928, the expanding company also produced mannequins and dolls for infant care classes, with Kruse's daughter Sofie also playing a key role in production. Another highlight of her work was her participation in the Paris World Exhibition in 1937 . Käthe Kruse was disinterested in politics and adapted as far as she thought it was (business) necessary. Among other things, she also made soldier dolls and welcomed Hjalmar Schacht's visit to her stand in the German pavilion at the world exhibition. Nonetheless, she kept in touch by letters with Jewish friends who had emigrated and refused to fire “ half-Jewish ” employees. During the war it became difficult to get the material for making the dolls in Germany. So the international business came to a standstill. In World War II were two of her sons, her husband died in 1942.

Grave of Käthe and Maria Kruse in the cemetery in Zell (Schäftlarn)

After the war, doll production was hardly possible in the Soviet occupation zone . 1952 their company was in a state-owned enterprise converted. Two of Käthe's sons, including the children's book author Max Kruse , founded workshops in Bad Pyrmont and Donauwörth . She herself went to the Federal Republic of Germany in 1954 . The models designed by Käthe Kruse were preserved and were still made by hand. For reasons of age, Kruse was no longer involved in the production. She spent her final years in Munich with her eldest daughter Maria. She died on July 19, 1968 in Murnau and was buried in the cemetery in Zell , a district of Schäftlarn in the Munich district.

Käthe Kruse was a member of the German Association of Artists .

Contemporary production and marketing

The Käthe Kruse logo
Käthe Kruse Villa in Donauwörth
Inner courtyard and Käthe Kruse Museum (left) in Bad Kösen


Just like 100 years ago, the Käthe-Kruse-Manufaktur in Donauwörth still makes classic Käthe-Kruse dolls by hand. These dolls - mostly sought-after collector's items among doll and toy collectors - are produced in various sizes and manufacturing methods. The dolls' bodies are either made of nettle and hand-stuffed with deer and reindeer hair or foamed around an inner wire skeleton and covered with tricot fabric. Depending on the model, the dolls' heads are made of polystyrene, fabric or paper mache and are painted by hand. Classic Käthe Kruse dolls have either painted hair or human hair tied into wigs, in some cases mohair . In addition to the classic Käthe Kruse dolls, the product range has been steadily expanded over the past 20 years. Käthe Kruse's daughter and successor, Hanne Adler-Kruse, began to design and produce soft dolls and toys made of terry and velvet fabrics for babies and toddlers in addition to the classic dolls. In 1990, Hanne Adler-Kruse and husband Heinz Adler handed over the company to Andrea Kathrin Christenson-Klette and Stephen Christenson. They continued the traditional design of the classic Käthe-Kruse dolls and tied in with Hanne Adler-Kruse's idea of ​​baby and children's toy production. In 2013 the company was taken over by Hape Holding AG.

Permanent exhibitions specially dedicated to Käthe Kruse are shown in the museums in Donauwörth ( Käthe Kruse Puppet Museum ) and in Bad Kösen ( Käthe Kruse collection in the Romanesque House ).

Käthe Kruse Doll Museum in Donauwörth

literature

  • Thomas Dahl: Käthe Kruse dolls. Catalog and price guide. Verl. Dolls and Toys, Duisburg 2005, ISBN 3-87463-374-8 (description of the dolls from the first models to the present day with detailed photos, informative text and price table).
  • Gabriele Katz: Käthe Kruse. The biography. Osburg Verlag, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-940731-38-8 .
  • Käthe Kruse, revised. from Sofie Rehbinder-Kruse: Me and my dolls. 5th edition. Herder, Freiburg i. Br. 1986, ISBN 3-451-07934-8 , formerly Käthe Kruse, Das große Puppenspiel , 1951.
  • Max Kruse: The Sunken Time - Pictures of a Childhood in the Käthe Kruse House (1921–1933). BoD, Norderstedt 2000, ISBN 3-89811-469-4 .
  • Max Kruse: The sheltered time - a youth in the Käthe Kruse house (1933–1945). BoD, Norderstedt 2000, ISBN 3-89811-717-0 .
  • Max Kruse: The transformed time - the reconstruction of the Käthe Kruse workshops in Bad Pyrmont (1945–1958). Verl. Dolls and Toys, Duisburg 1996, ISBN 3-87463-237-7 .
  • Käthe Kruse, Ursula Abels: My dear little bear. Verl. Dolls and Toys, Duisburg 1996, ISBN 3-87463-234-2 .
  • Christa Langer: The lucky child. Käthe Kruse and her workshop in Bad Pyrmont. Wohlfarth Gert 1999, ISBN 978-3874631808 .
  • Ina Neumann:  Kruse, Käthe, née Simon. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 13, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1982, ISBN 3-428-00194-X , p. 150 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Sabine Reinelt: Käthe Kruse, life and work. 2nd Edition. Art publ. Weingarten, Weingarten 1988, ISBN 978-3-8170-1001-1 .
  • Sabine Reinelt: Käthe Kruse - at the height of her work. Publishers. Dolls and toys, Duisburg 2000, ISBN 3-87463-266-0 .
  • Siegfried Wagner (ed.): Käthe Kruse and her dolls. Naumburg (Saale) 2014. (= booklet accompanying the Käthe Kruse exhibition in the Romanesque House of Bad Kösen ).

TV portraits

Web links

Commons : Käthe Kruse  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Doll list - Alte Käthe Kruse dolls note the price differences between the 30s and 90s
  2. ↑ Searching for traces in the artists' colony ; Article of April 3, 2010 in Augsburger Allgemeine
  3. ↑ kuenstlerbund.de: Full members of the Deutscher Künstlerbund since it was founded in 1903 / Kruse, Käthe ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 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. (accessed on September 28, 2015) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.kuenstlerbund.de
  4. ↑ Press release Käthe Kruse GmbH ( Memento of the original from February 22, 2014 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. . http://www.kaethe-kruse.de . Retrieved February 26, 2014 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.kaethe-kruse.de
personal data
SURNAME Kruse, Kathe
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Simon, Catherine
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Doll maker
DATE OF BIRTH 17th September 1883
PLACE OF BIRTH Wroclaw
DATE OF DEATH July 19, 1968
Place of death Murnau am Staffelsee