Factory of dreams

For six years, the collection of Dr. Erika Pohl-Ströher, born in 1919, has been presented and admired in the modern designed museum. It is the biggest private collection of folk art in Germany. After World War II, the scientist, who is currently living in Switzerland, started passionately collecting the toys she grew up with. With hundreds to thousands of different wooden figures, she created a valuable piece of her own childhood. Meanwhile she conjures smiles on children’s faces as well as on adults’ with these unique treasures.

On the second floor, the exhibition is transformed into an interactive playground, bringing back the culture of mining life and traditional craftsmanship by use of videos, audio platforms and quizzes. In this context, different senses are claimed because the museum encourages to touch several work pieces to get a feeling of the wood with the own hands – all covered by the woody smell of freshly planed sawdust. Besides the many exciting stories and insights of these crafts, the unbelievable amount of exhibition pieces is impressive. From boxes of matches filled with tiny dominoes and figures to extended Christmassy landscapes, pyramids and biblical representations to countless strung pairs of animals leading up to Noah’s ark, every single imaginable scenery is presented at least once. The majority of the objects was produced between 1850 and 1950 and originates in the Erzgebirge and Vogtland, but also in several other regions like Bohemia and Nuremberg which are famous for this kind of toys.