Wooden toymaking in the Ore Mountains

The history of wooden toys manufacture in the Ore Mountains is closely linked with the regional framework. The Ore was for many centuries a landscape that could feed the local population is difficult. Long and hard winter limited the agriculture, also the region was very poorly developed verkehrlich. With the onset of ore mining here formed a new branch of industry, but because of the hard work and the high risk could provide only the young and able-bodied men to work with. Accidents many injuries and fatalities were lost. The miners have gone early in the morning in the dark to work and come home late again in the darkness of the evening work. From this period also today traditional folk custom to put lights in the windows. These lights should show the miners safe way back into homes with their families.

Soon the Ore output went to many places back again and many pits had to be stopped. The timber resources of the region and the technical skills of the inhabitants were here out of necessity out the wooden toy manufacturing arise as an important additional source of income. Whole family were busy especially in the harsh winters it. Child labor in poor lighting and equipment was not an exception but the rule. The children often had to work more than 12 hours per day. In the families formed a strong specialization. For example, was an experienced turners employed with the tire turning, another man carved from the animal figures and another family took over the painting and the manufacture of small boxes. Here, the merit of the individual steps was very low. The production was bought, normally by traveling merchants who mercilessly exploited its position to drive down prices. A majority of these products was brought to the toy markets Nuremberg and redistributed from there. The formation of associations and cooperatives ( such as the KWO ) was thus the result in order to ensure a minimum level of income.

The production is now concentrated more in the toy village Seiffen and the environment, amidst the Ore Mountains designated as " German Christmas Land ". The products to a wide variety developed, but the products are explicitly associated with the Erzgebirge in conjunction and are known as the Erzgebirge folk art. These include many typical Erzgebirge wood products like wings pyramids, smoking men, nutcrackers, wooden figurines ( Christmas angel figures of miners, Tires animals, etc.) and Arches.