Nutcracker Museum

Another enjoyable and successful trip to Germany….

Arriving in Prague, I met Mary Barthel, my long-time travel companion/driver/interpreter. Mary has been most helpful in finding interesting specimens for the museum as she trained as a nutcracker and toy-maker, and now is the sales representative for Christian Ulbricht covering all of the former East Germany. 

We first drove to Lauingen to meet Gunther Ulbricht to learn about the new items being produced.  Kathrin, Gunther’s daughter is a stork lover, and challenged us to climb a 215 step tower to look out over a stork nest with 3 babies.  It was exhilarating to say the least!  Can you see the stork nest in this picture?

Next we visited Chris and Bernard Crais,  the experts on porcelain nutcrackers, and who have provided the museum with many pieces.  Then we spent a day on George’s favorite side tour—down the Rhine from Mainz to Koblenz thru touristy Rudesheim and back on the other to side to visit the old town of Bacharach which has many buildings from the 13th and 14^th century.   It is interesting to see the age-old terraced vineyards along the banks of the Rhine and find the statue of Lorelei which guides the ship captains as they navigate the Rhine.
 

We spent an evening with Helgard Petersen Neuman who looks as young as ever, then drove to  Neuhausen in the Erzgebirge, location of The Erstes Nussknacker Museum Europa.   The Erzgebirge is always beautiful in May with its bright yellow blooming rape fields in contrast to the green landscape.  We visited the workshops of Olaf Kolbe, Richard Glasser, Seiffener Volkunst, Seiffener Nussknackerhaus, and also those of Wendt & Kuhn.  There we watched as the painters put the famous 11 white dots on the little green winged angels.

We attended a huge outdoor flea market in Dresden with vendors from many countries.  One vendor heard us speaking English as we looked at a nutcracker and she said there is a lady in the United States who has a very large collection of nutcrackers.  It was fun to present her with a card from the museum as Mary introduced me. 

The Freiberg press interviewed me, as they were interested in the friendship between the two nutcracker museums, Leavenworth and Neuhausen.

Arlene Wagner, The Nutcracker Lady

Leavenworth Nutcracker Museum
Email: curator@nutcrackermuseum.com