The invention and uses of folk art in Germany: wooden toys from the Erzgebirge mountains

Folklore, April, 2004 by Manuel Schramm

The Home Protection Association did not stand alone in its efforts to turn the Erzgebirge toys into folk art. The technical school for the toy industry in Seiffen began working in the same direction when Alwin Seifert became headmaster in 1914. Whereas under his predecessor, Adlung, design had not been taught as a subject, Seifert dedicated himself to the conservation of "healthy, natural and realistic" forms, and preferred folk art and handicraft to machine-made products (Seifert 1925-6, 106). In 1915, when new works from the technical school, stimulated by Seifert, were exhibited in Dresden, they already gained public attention. Oskar Seyffert praised them for remaining true to Erzgebirge traditions. Headmaster Seifert wished that as many consumers as possible would "hear the heart of home beat in these coloured pieces of indigenously simple folk art" (Seifert 1925-6, 108). As the quotation shows, this reform movement, unlike its predecessors in the nineteenth century, aimed not only at the improvement of products, but also tried to sell a feeling of "home" and, therefore, produced a major marketing innovation. A sample of the technical school's production was also shown at a national toy exhibition in Nuremberg in 1926, the catalogue of which claimed that folk art was still alive in the Erzgebirge toys. This would make a salutary counterweight to industrial production (Brill-Ulsamer 1926, 16-7). Likewise, in 1932, the magazine of the Erzgebirge association, dedicated to promoting tourism in the Erzgebirge mountains, praised toys from the region in general, and those of the technical school in particular. According to the author, these products were more than ordinary toys; that is to say, they were "testimony to the artistic power of the folk soul" (Fischer 1932, 256). Under the direction of Seifert the technical school revived techniques that were either extinct or threatened with extinction, such as making small trees out of curled shavings. These trees had been produced in the Erzgebirge until about 1850 at least, but were then replaced by cheaper green loofah trees. Seifert also tried to revive the production of wooden Christmas lanterns traditionally carried by churchgoers on Christmas Eve. By 1914 only a few of these objects could still be found in Seiffen (Auerbach 1995a, 8). As Alwin Seifert and Oskar Seyffert shared a common approach, it is not surprising that they joined forces to write the script for an advertising film for Erzgebirge toys (1930), which was entitled "Little Hans is Going to the Toy Country". It was financed by the Saxon economic ministry and an employers' association. The content combined the presentation of traditional (and now revived) production techniques, historical toys and picturesque scenery (Grundmann 1932).

Other technical schools also exerted some influence on the Erzgebirge folk art, as the example of Grete Wendt illustrates (Flade 1986). Born in the Erzgebirge, she was educated at the school of applied arts in Dresden between 1907 and 1910. In 1915, together with Grete Kuhn, she opened a manufactory in Grunhainichen (Erzgebirge). To some degree, their style was influenced by the Werkbund movement. [5] Their products became famous as Erzgebirge folk art in the 1920s, although it was a matter of dispute among folklorists whether or not they constituted real folk art. Oskar Seyffert included them in his museum of Saxon folk art in a section called "modern folk art" (1924, 28). Later, however, the famous folklorist Adolf Spamer conceded that while Wendt's wooden angels were indeed attractive and deserving of their world fame, they had nothing to do with folk art (Spamer 1954, 82). In the long run, however, Seyffert's position proved more influential--Wendt and Kuhn's products are still being old as Erzgebirge folk art.