The Art And History Of Toys

The train ride was not overly exciting today. Most of the view was small towns with a few of
their own industrial plants or small villages without any industry--i.e. houses and a church.
Once at Nuremberg I faced a walk along the old city wall to the next U-bahn station (German
underground/metro) and across the bridge would be the hostel. The directions were fairly
accurate except there was construction on the street I was to turn down. I checked the next
road back to see if I could cut through, but I couldn't. I walked back around and sure enough
the construction didn't start until halfway down the street. The hostel was very quiet. I
think I might have been the only one there this morning besides the two people "working"; by
working I mean napping in the back room until the bell rings. I ended up being on the 4th
floor which was deserted. This meant I had the 8 bed room all to myself. Awesome! Hopefully
good sleeping tonight.
[Human Rights monument]
After a salad and yogurt lunch I plodded out to view some churches and a museum. First up on
the list was the toy museum or, in German, Sp... My Grampa used to work for the Marx Toy
Company as one of his jobs so I was eager to check out all the memorabilia inside. I have
been thinking about him quite a bit during my travels in Germany. To be honest, I'm really a
mutt when it comes to cultural/genetic heritage. The largest portion, however, is German on
my Dad's side. Hence my very German last name which, has been duly recognized as such when I
go to check in at the hostels here in the S of Germany. From what I have calculated with my
parents, I am about the 5th or 6th generation here in the US. Philip came over through Ellis
Island on a boat in 1850 from somewhere in Germany and settled in central PA. Oh how wonderful! Somehow while I was in the museum for 2 hours it started to rain.

Naturally I've been pondering family roots and what it is that makes people who they are.
What makes German people German (or insert any nationality)? What does it mean to be a
certain nationality? What claims are people making? Given German history in the 1900s, which
is really not so very long ago, I've always struggled internally with knowing that I was of
German heritage. If I say I am German, am I not claiming at least a partial relationship with
the terrors of the World Wars? How do I reconcile these pieces of myself? I hadn't given
much thought to my heritage until I took a week long trip to Ireland in the Summer of 2008.
Just over a year earlier I had made a randomly selected recipe for colcanon (potatoes, bacon,
cabbage, butter) and when I tasted it---some part of my being was awakened and I deeply
resonated with the fact that I was part Irish. Part of this journey was to explore my German
roots more and find out something more about what it means for me to be part German.

In a roundabout way, the toy museum was critical to this discovery path. Oh how wonderful the
museum was! Four floors of toys, history, memories and stories awaited me. It was as much
fanciful and playful for me as it was historical and informative. Sadly no pictures were
allowed, so you will have to imagine the toys in all their splendor. Apparently toy making is
deeply rooted in German culture. Back before trade and decent roads allowed for the exchange
of goods, local families would make their own toys. The most abundant resource at the time
for Germany was wood. When I was growing up wood toys were mostly blocks and abstract shapes. Here there were cases of carved wooden toys that mooed and could be milked or that could be dressed up for tea parties. My favorite display from the first floor was the ring cut toys. To speed up production, a ring of wood had the basic outline of an animal carved into it. Using a saw, the ring was then sliced into individual animals. One ring could produce 80 rough cut 1.5"x 1" cows!! They would then be sanded and painted to finish off the design. Makes it much easier to imagine how Noah's ark and farm toys could be created for the high demand of children.

One floor up was a series of rooms with dolls, building, tin and train toys. Did you know
there was a doll made of balsa wood that not only floated in water, but could mechanically
swim?? Adults who liked to build things produced metal strips with holes in them that could be built into all kinds of creations using nuts and bolts. These toys were touted to encourage young engineers from their early years. Tin was not just for soldiers. Cars, clowns, towns, monkeys climbing ropes can all be made from this malleable pressed metal. By far, the train room was the best. Some were about 1.5" wide and others were 6-8" wide! Where would anyone keep such monstrosities?? One was about the size of my lower leg--and that was just one box car. Another floor up displayed household toys. Kitchen sets that were not only child life-size, but used paraffin heating sources to cook food. Laundry sets, doll houses and altar sets. Yep you read it right. Kids could at one point play church with a full altar set. Some religious groups saw this as disrespectful, but most saw potential for it to spark an interest in young boys for further ministry training and work. For the girls, household toys were crucial in teaching them skills to mimic later in life. This floor also had outdoor toys with riding horses, pedal cars, jacks, marbles, and baby doll carriages.

The last floor covered toys in the post WWII era to today. The different decades were grouped
and labeled, but now that I've sent the map home to the US in a box I can't share with you
what the titles were. By this time the museum was closing so I had to leave quickly. On the
way back to the hostel I stopped at the organic grocery store I found on the way to the
museum. I found some Austrian chocolate along with other tasty foods that would comprise my
dinner.