Erzgebirge History - the "Ore Mountain"
While
the Erzgebirge today evokes images of idyllic landscapes and charming
villages, the region has experienced centuries of upheaval, renewal and
hardship for its increasing number of inhabitants. This region, where most
of our collectibles are manufactured, experienced
unique conditions which allowed centuries-old traditions to remain
intact.
The Erzgebirge is
a mountainous region between Chemnitz (formerly Karl Marx Stadt), Dresden
and the Czech border. In pre-medieval times, large forests covered the
area so densely that in the Merseburg bishop’s chronicles, it was referred
to as Miriquidi, Latin for “dark forest.” The sparsely inhabited
wilderness of the aptly named Erzgebirge, which translates to “ore
mountain,” became populated primarily through its rich mines.
The first settlers, mostly of
sorbian (not serbian) and slavonian origin, are said to have come there
shortly after the 5th century. But wide settlements didn’t appear until
the 12th century when, in 1170, a huge silver rush attracted workers from
central Europe to the hills of Freiberg. The rush formed denser
populations, and in 1188 a city was founded near today’s Zwickau. Another
25 years brought the establishment of the first market—the precursors to
the popular Dresden markets (among others) of today.
After the silver rush dwindled,
tin was discovered in 1436 igniting another rush and creating even more
settlements. In addition, the Catholic counter-reformation in the Bohemian
countryside (to remedy the ills of the Lutheran reformation) brought in a
huge number of evangelical refugees who set roots in the Erzgebirge. Then
in the 17th century, the region fell victim to 30 years of war as savage
hordes of Swedish warriors brutally ransacked the entire region.
By the 19th century, all the
mines produced ever-diminishing yields, triggering new processes,
industrialization and a search for new mining resources like cobalt. It
was during these times that the Saxons earned their reputation for
industriousness and invention. Families needed all their resources to
squeeze a meager living from their new
occupation—woodcrafting, particularly toy- and collectible-making. As the
craftspeople established more efficient methods,
their goods flooded markets in the rest of Europe, Great Britain and the
US. By the time of the Third Reich, most mining activities, except for
uranium, ceased and the people depended heavily on their artisanship for
survival.
Though the once dark forest grew
thinner and thinner as more people settled the land, the area still harks
to an older way of life. Driving through the Erzgebirge, you can still
feel the echoes of ages past. Leaving the busy Autobahn, you find winding
narrow roads lined with trees, which connect the various small towns.
Going through the fir forest, you drive next to streams and climb up to
plateaus with far and wide vistas over green meadows and treetops. The
twists and turns force you to drive slowly, setting you back into another
time as you roll past the many abandoned brick factories. Castles (like
the Augustusburg), impressive mansions, old town squares and grand
churches evidence the wealth during the height of the mining and
ore-processing industries.
Miner parades today still connect the people with their history,
giving them pride and a sense of belonging.
And thanks to the region’s
relative isolation during the World Wars and the communist regime, each
village’s cobblestone streets and traditional architecture remained
unscathed, if somewhat neglected. After the fall of the Berlin Wall,
massive restoration efforts transformed the towns into picturesque tourist
attractions. During the more tumultuous times—particularly post-WWII and
after the Wall’s collapse—the cottage industry of handcrafted products
provided continuity for the people of the Erzgebirge region.
Today, the Erzgebirge is among
the most densely populated areas in the former East German Republic.
The History of
Noah’s Arks
The Socio-economic Conditions
The story of Noah building his
ark is well known, but few know the story behind the making of the
thousands of toy arks that found their way into American and European
homes in the 19th and 20th century. Deeply entwined with the cultural and
socio-economic roots of the mountainous southeastern region of Germany --
what is known as the Erzgebirge in the former kingdom of Saxony -- the
tradition of ark making has survived intact for over a century.
While most of these original
toys have found respected places in museums and private collections (worth
thousands of dollars), they began as the only tenuous lifeline for people
in a true cottage industry where entire families (including very young
children) were recruited to make thousands of toys each week. Folklorist
Karl Ewald Fritzsch (1894 – 1974) recalls his earliest childhood memories
in a family of ark builders:
[I see] myself sitting in a
huge mountain of woodshavings at the end of my father’s workbench,
surrounded by arks stacked in pairs like pillars…Here with ceaseless
work, those arks were made that went into the children’s rooms of the
whole world.
While his father and his
apprentices “quickly and smoothly” planed thin pine boards, his mother
supervised the assembly with tacks and hot bone glue, which bubbled in a
big tile oven nearby. While many tasks required the dexterous hands of
parents, “the gluing and nailing could soon be transferred to the small
seven-year-old hands of the youngest.” The income from such unrelenting
industriousness yielded only enough to cover the week’s worth of bread and
potatoes.
Conditions didn’t improve
through most of the 20th century. Continually at the mercy of wholesalers,
who exported and sold the goods to department stores and catalogues, the
toy makers’ earnings hardly increased even through the soaring inflation
of post-WWI Germany. When the iron curtain fell over the Erzgebirge, the
communist regime tightly controlled the earnings of these skilled workers
leaving them little hope of bettering their hard lives. In 1990, when the
Berlin wall fell and capitalism flooded the former East German republic,
workers had to quickly adapt to “free market” rules. Many longstanding
ark-building families did not survive the transition. The few that exist
today have flourished, replenishing their villages which have blossomed
into attractive tourist destinations.
The Market
Part of the popularity of the
arks was due to the era’s strict observance of the Sabbath. From Victorian
households to the western pioneers, many children were restricted to
biblical games. Eleanor Achland, who grew up in Victorian England,
recalls:
We began our play with the
traditional “animals went in two by two,” and then branched off into
variations of Treasure Island or Swiss Family Robinson, or stories made
up by ourselves, any of these being tolerably sabbatical so long as we
remembered to call the leading characters Mr. And Mrs. Noah, Shem, Ham
and Japheth.
As both girls and boys played
with these toys, they became favorite gifts to give on Christmas. Though
characterized as hallmark Sunday toys for Victorian households and
wealthier families, simpler arks often made their way into the modest
homes of the American west.
A further attraction of the arks
was the plentiful, exotic animals stuffed inside them. Reminiscent of a
Barnum & Bailey’s spectacle, the brightly decorated animals from a wide
variety of species indicate that the carvers and painters drew heavily
from picture books as well as their imagination and observation.
The Craft
While the earliest arks date
back to the 1700s, the making of the animal figurine was revolutionized in
the mid-1800s when craftsmen began using the lathe,
which allowed workers to make these animals quickly with minimal waste.
From the trunk of a pine tree, large rings were carved on a lathe (see
inset). These rings were then cut into 60 pieces like a pie, each slice
becoming an animal figurine. While this innovation greatly simplified the
process, each piece still needed to be individually sanded, primed,
painted, and finished (with shellac or lacquer) by hand—just as it is done
today.
With survival depending on
efficient productivity, other innovations developed. Just as ark builders
found the lathe, ark painters used stencils to make the intricate patterns
and designs on the arks. (Karl Fritzsch’s writings clearly stated that the
work of the ark builder and ark painter were separate. The builder sold
his goods to the painter who would then carry his wares -- in a basket on
his back or on a cart (Smokers
- Merchants & Their Trade) -- to the market where they would be sold
to wholesalers.)
The workmanship of these
original arks and the fond memories that collectors hold of these beloved
toys make them valuable collector’s items. Most found today require
restoration due to the natural contractions of aging wood. One complete
set was recently purchased for over $28,000 in the Northeast. The most
spectacular sets go for $80,000 or more.
Today’s sets carry the same
quality German workmanship -- little has changed over the centuries and
many are still purchased as collector’s items. They are often the crowning
piece (Noah's
Ark) in an Erzgebirge enthusiast’s collection and are one of our most
popular items to date.
