Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1905-06-07
GERMAN TOYMAKERS.
Vague of Their Annual Exports Goes
Up Into the Millions.


Up Into the Millions.
The toy industry of Germany is the
subject Of an interesting report to the
State Department by Commercial
Agent Harris at Enbenstock. The
manufacture Of toys in Germany il
an industry which gives employment
to fully $4,000 people. The total
value of the annual export amounts to
$13,196,3S6. Mr.. Harris says that the
prosperity of this industry, like
great many other important lines of
manufacture in the German Empire,
is dependent upon the importation of
certain raw materials from abroad.
The wood grown in the forests. Of
Bavaria, Thuringia and Ergebirge is
especially suitable to the industry,
and that one product has had more
to do with it's development and sta
bility than any of the others. The
manufacture of toys in Germany has
become centred chiefly in the cities
of Nuremburg and Sonneberg, which
cities have become famous for the
quantity of their products. They sup
ply fully 80 per cent. of all the toys
exported from the empire.
Commercial Agent Harris says that
the manufacture of toys has become
important as domestic or house in
dustry among the people in the little
principality of Meiningen, and the
small villages near Sonneberg con-
tain many skilled wood carvers and
cabinet makers. In the village Of
Hammern, toy ships, large and small,
are carved by persons who have
never seen sea or navigable river.
The making of doll clothing, confined
chiefly to Sonneberg, is almost en-
tirely the work Of women and girls.
Carnival masks are prepared in Helm
ersdOrf, while animals and fowls are
fitted up with furs and feathers Ia the
little village of Neufang. The toy in
dustry Of Sonneberg consists mainly
of papier mache goods, which are
gradually pushing wax dolls out Of
the market. There are more than
10000 people engaged in making toys
in Sonneberg and in the villages OF
the Thuringian forests. Fully rs per
cent of that number work in their
homes. The main difference between
the industry of Sonneberg and that Of
Nuremberg lies in the fact that the
former consists principally of the
manufacture of handmade toys, sup
ported by highly developed house or
domestic industry, while the latter
manufactures toys with machinery in
factories equipped with all modern APP
planes. The two cities are not
direct competitors, for each has it's
own peculiar specialties, and these af-
ford, says Mr.. Harris, ample oppor-
tunities to observe how manual labor
in the one, in which tradition and in
stinct play an important part, is
pitted against the technique, mechan-
ical skill and trained intelligence of
the other. Another marked differ
ence between the two industries is
that the products of Nuremburg 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 Ger
man trade, generally speaking, calls
for toys of the cheaper sort, and the
department stores in the large cities
buy large quantities Of them for adj
vertising purposes. Agent Harris
says that the future prosperity of this
industry will depend very largely up
on the ability of German statesmen to
secure favorable commercial treaties
with foreign Washington
STAR