Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-11-07
GERMANY'S TOY INDUSTRY.
Value of Annual Exports Goes Up into
the Millions

The toy industry OF Germany is the sub
ject of an interesting report to the State De-
partment by Commercial Agent Harris at
Eibenstock. The manufacture of toys In
Germany is an industry which gives en-
ployment to fully $1,000 people. The total
value of the annual exports amounts to
$13. 196,3S6 Mr.. Harris says that the pros
perity of this industry, like a great many
other important lines of manufacture in
the German empire, is dependent upon the
importatio of certain raw materials from
abroad. The wood grown in the forests of
Bavaria, Thuringia and Ergebirge, is es-
pecially suitable to the industry and that
one product has had more to do with its
development and stability than any of the
others. The manufacture of toys IN Ger
many has become centered chiefly in the
cities of Nuremberg and Sonneberg, which
cities have become famous for the quantity
of their products. They supply fully 80 per
cent of all the toys exported from the en-
pire.
manufacture of toys has become important
as q domestic or house industry among
the people in the little principality of Mein-
ingen and the small villages near Some
berg contain many skilled wood carvers and
cabinet makers. In the village of Ham
mern toy ships large and small, are carved
by persons who have never seen sea or
navigable river. The making of doll cloth
81
most entirely the work of women and girls
Carnival masks are prepared in Heiners-
dorf, while animals and fowls are htted up
with furS and feathers in the little village
of Neufang. The toy industry of Sonneberg
consists mainly of papier-mache goods
which are gradually pushing wax dolls out
of the market. There2are more than 10000
people engaged in making toys in Some
berg and in the villages of the Thuringian
forests Fully seventy-fiye per cent of that
number work in their homes The main diff
ference between the industry of Sonneberg
and that of Nuremberg lies in the fact that
the former consists principally of the manu-
fac1ure of handmade toys, supported by
highly developed house domestic indus
try, while the latter manufactures toys
with machinery in factories equipped with
all modern appliances. The two cities are
not direct competitors, for each has it's own
peculiar specialties and these afford, says
Mr. Harris, ample opportunities to OBJ
serve how manual labor in the one, in
which tradition and instinct play i'm
portant part is pitted against the tech
ligence of the other Another marked diff
ference between the two industries is that
the products of Nuremberg are principally
of metal-tin soldiers, swords, railway trains
fleets, models of machinery and other toys
intended for boys-while Sonneberg uses al
most exclusively wood. porcelain, glass and
paper in the production of toys best
suited to girls. The German trade, gen.
orally speaking, calls for toys of the
cheap sort, and the department stores in
the large cities buy large quantities of them
for advertising purposes. Agent Harris
says that the future prosperity of this in
dustry will depend very largely upon the
orable commercial treaties with foreign
countries.