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December 2003

Timberland

How residents of the Erzgebirge put their best resource to use

Situated on the border of Saxony with the Czech Republic, on the northwest edge of Bohemia, is the Erzgebirge (Ore Mountains). Once a prosperous silver and tin mining center, the region is now known mainly for its beautiful handcrafted wooden decorations and toys.

It was in the late 16th century that rising costs, inefficient production and competition from America began to erode the local mining industry, forcing the population to find an alternative source of income. For a time bobbin lace making, an art probably imported by French dealers from France or Belgium, was practiced profitably by many local women, but the industry peaked in the mid-19th century, after which advances in engineering allowed lace to be created more cheaply elsewhere. Not surprisingly it was wood, available in abundance from nearby forests, that proved inspirational in the long term. Used for centuries in mine construction and tunnel building, this was a material most locals were accustomed to handling. Indeed miners had been carving and carpentering as a hobby for generations. Creating small wooden figures in their own likeness, complete with mining tools or in traditional costume, was a popular pastime and many objects still produced in the area today, such as the angel of light, come directly from mining traditions and customs in which lamps and illumination played an essential role. Moreover, local craftsmen had been selling wooden spindles, needle holders and buttons at fairs in Leipzig since 1700.

Slowly, from the early 19th century until the 1930s, wood carving established itself as a small but profitable industry in the Erzgebirge. Wooden animals, nativity scenes, spinning pyramids, smokers, nutcrackers, schwibbögen (candle arches), Christmas ornaments and Easter decorations were among the most sought-after products. Cheap and efficient production was facilitated by the invention of ring turning in the early 19th century. By this method a turner cut a ring from a section of tree trunk. The ring was given a profile, say that of a horse and, by then slicing the ring, the turner could produce up to 60 toy horses. Fifty years later the local company S. F. Fischer began making wooden bricks and balls designed by the German educationalist Friedrich Fröbel (1782–1852), further establishing the area’s importance in the toy industry.

World War II and the subsequent years of Socialist rule, when Saxony lay within the confines of the GDR, however, proved onerous for carvers and carpenters. Initially the GDR government stopped the production of all handicrafts and it was not until the mid-1970s that wood carving was officially resumed beyond the confines of the home. Even then almost all the goods were exported and profits went to the government. Available only in the West, the toys and decorations gained popularity in America and West Germany and were much coveted by East Germans, although they were almost impossible to obtain in the GDR. In the 1990s production systems were partly mechanized and efforts were made to improve the colors and quality of the products. Today the wooden artifacts are collected all over the world, especially by the residents of former East Germany, now finally free to indulge their affection for these items.

The work of Erzgebirge artisans is seasonal and is carried out mostly in small companies. Some workshops employ only three or four people, and the most famous brand, Wendt und Kuehn, employs 70. Anyone who wishes to visit the area should stop off in the town of Seiffen, the center of today’s production of wooden handicrafts and home to the Erzgebirgisches Spielzeugmuseum (Erzgebirge Toy Museum), www.spielzeugmuseum-seiffen.de, where thousands of local toys are displayed and their history explained.

Anyone interested in obtaining products from the Erzgebirge here in Munich should pay a visit to Münchner Romantix’s (Pfisterstrasse 6, Tel. [089] 290 40 91), where shoppers on entering the premises are greeted by row upon row of handsome nutcrackers and rustic smokers. Incidentally the rather serious-looking nutcrackers have traditionally been shaped to look like soldiers, foresters, policemen or kings, caricaturing figures of authority, whereas the smokers tend to portray a more homely type, pipe smoking having been a custom of the working man. Münchner Romantix’s is an adult’s toy shop—for those who collect and for those who love beautiful things. Sigrid Dörner, the owner of the shop, has a positively encyclopedic knowledge of her wares and is happy to demonstrate how a smoker works—by inserting a stick of incense in to the hollow interior of the figure and then lighting it. Whether you are searching for an original Christmas or birthday gift, or just a small token of appreciation for a friend, wooden artifacts from the Erzgebirge possess real and lasting charm.

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