Museum Steinacher toy box

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Museum Steinacher toy box in the New Castle

The Steinacher Toy Box is a museum in Steinach (Thuringia) that traces, scientifically investigates and presents the history of the wooden toy industry in South Thuringia. The word “toy box” is reminiscent of the original packaging of these toys.

location

The museum is located in Steinacher Castle (Dr.-Max-Volk-Straße 21), together with the German Slate Museum located there.

history

The place Steinach in the district of Sonneberg belonged to the catchment area of ​​the Sonneberg wooden toy production in the eastern Thuringian Forest and in the Thuringian Slate Mountains . As early as the early 16th century, interested Nuremberg merchants initiated the production of simple and robust wooden toys in Sonneberg , which they could sell on their trade trips to the Leipzig trade fair and in Nuremberg .

The wooden goods and toys, mainly made by craftsmen and forest farmers in the Sonneberg hinterland, were brought to Sonneberg by peddlers and added to assortments in the city, refined and sold as merchandise all over the world. In Sonneberg, the toy trade was of paramount importance, and this priority should be secured. In order to prevent competition from new trading companies, the "Sonneberg trading privilege" was issued as early as 1789; it was in effect until 1862 and prohibited all toy manufacturers in the Sonneberg hinterland from establishing their own trading contacts. In the meantime, however , other toy manufacturers who were not tied to the Sonneberg monopoly had also gained a foothold in other regions of Germany - for example in the Ore Mountains ( Seiffen ).

The Sonnebergers were able to maintain their market position because they were able to deepen the already existing division of labor. Specialized craftsmen made the wooden blanks and accessories and chipboard boxes were made in child labor and at home. These toys could be made in high quality, quickly and in large variations according to sample sheets in home work. The oldest Sonneberg sample books were printed in 1830. They soon replaced the "toy boxes" initially preferred by retailers as samples.

A Steinach specialty was the manufacture of wooden boats (OGAS factory Alexander Greiner and Otto Alex Sohn). Other toy manufacturers were the family businesses Christoph Berger, E. & L. Eichhorn, Gehler Milon, Christian Herbart KG, Bernhard Kienel, Georg P. Kienel, Otto Koch & Sohn, Theodor Luthardt, Werner Luthardt-Idel, Otto Rothenberger, Arno Stuhlmann, Reinhold Sieder, Philipp Träger, Georg C. Vogel, Caspar Zitzmann and Emil Zitzmann,

The Steinacher Toy Box Museum was founded in 1936 and initially existed until 1961. The exhibition was then replaced by a DEMUSA Berlin factory show, which collected trade fair samples and foreign trade goods from GDR toy companies.

In 1975 the authorities rejected an application to reopen the Steinacher toy box. A new opening only succeeded after reunification .

Collections

In addition to the numerous samples and collectibles of historical wooden toys, modern toys are also presented. The manufacturing technique of some Steinacher toys was documented by film recordings. There is a close cooperation with the local toy manufacturers, who alternately offer demonstrations as a “living workshop in the museum” but also factory visits.

The German Toy Route connects toy museums in Thuringia and Franconia and at the same time the centers of the traditional toy industry in Germany.

literature

  • Brunhild Meyfarth: Sonneberger toy pattern books of the 19th century . In: South Thuringian Research . Issue 19. Meinigen 1984, p. 19-28, 65-67 .
  • Manfred Bachmann, Karl-Ewald Fritzsch: History of the German toy . Leipzig 1965.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Telephone book of the Reichspost, Thuringia edition, 1941.
  2. ↑ New toy box in Steinacher Castle . In: Landratsamt Sonneberg, Landratsamt Coburg (ed.): From Rennsteig to Main . Tips 99. Sonneberg and Coburg 1999, p. 20 .
  3. ^ Sparkassen-Kulturstiftung Hessen-Thüringen (Ed.): Museums in Thuringia . Frankfurt a. Main 1995, p. 175 .

Web links

Coordinates: 50 ° 25 ′ 57 ″  N , 11 ° 9 ′ 22 ″  E