Nuremberg is not only a city of imperial castles and severe pages of history. For more than 600 years (since the 14th century), it has held the unofficial title of Europe`s "toy capital." It was here in the Middle Ages that dolls were made, later tin figures and tinplate trains, and today the world`s largest International Toy Fair takes place here annually.
The Nuremberg Toy Museum (Spielzeugmuseum), located in the heart of the Old Town, is not just a collection of old dolls and trains. It is one of the most famous institutions of its kind in the world, where more than 87,000 exhibits are stored on an area of 1,400 square meters (including open areas – up to 2,200 square meters). It is visited annually by more than 150,000 guests from different countries.
Here you can trace how games, dreams, and even ideas about good and evil have changed over the centuries. The museum is called a "world in miniature," and this is no exaggeration.
History of the Nuremberg Toy Museum
The creation of the museum is a story of love and obsession. It owes its existence to the couple Lydia and Paul Bayer. In the 1920s, when toys were not seen as objects worthy of collecting, Lydia began collecting dolls, dollhouses, toy kitchens, and shops. Her husband supported this passion.
In 1933, the family moved to Nuremberg – the ideal place to expand the collection, thanks to the powerful toy industry and old shops. When the war began, the Bayers, foreseeing danger, moved the precious collection out of the city. This saved it from the devastating bombings that wiped out half of Nuremberg from the face of the earth in 1945.
Lydia Bayer dreamed of her own museum but did not live to see that day. After her death in 1961, her daughter, an art historian, and her husband opened the "Lydia Bayer Museum" in Würzburg in her honor. However, the city of Nuremberg recognized the historical value of the collection. In 1966, after lengthy negotiations, the collection was purchased by the city, and in 1971, an old patrician building on Karlstraße was renovated to house it.
The opening of the Nuremberg Toy Museum took place on February 5, 1971 – specifically to coincide with the start of the International Toy Fair. By the way, 1971 was also the 500th anniversary of the birth of Albrecht Dürer, Nuremberg`s most famous artist.
Architectural gem: a Renaissance-style house
The Nuremberg Toy Museum is located in the Hallerhaus building at Karlstraße 13-15. This structure was built as early as 1517 for the patrician family of Wilhelm Haller the Elder.
In addition to its historic Renaissance facade, the building is famous for a unique architectural detail – the Dockengalerie. This is a wooden gallery encircling the inner courtyard, decorated with turned balusters. The word "Docken" in old German meant not only these balusters but also armless wooden dolls, which makes this architectural feature symbolic of the toy museum.
In front of the museum entrance, you will be greeted by an unusual fountain, the Gockelreiterbrunnen (Fountain of the "Rider on the Rooster"). This bright ceramic figure on a high pipe, surrounded by iron bars, was created by Nuremberg artist Michael Mathias Prechtl specifically for the museum`s opening. In shape, it resembles a wooden toy and serves as a funny landmark for visitors of all ages.
What to see inside the Nuremberg Toy Museum
The museum occupies four floors, and the exhibits here are divided by materials and eras.
Basement floor (History and Wood). Here you will find the oldest exhibits. You will see what toys looked like in the Middle Ages. The main focus is on wooden toys: rocking horses, building sets, and the famous Nuremberg kitchens (toy miniatures that taught girls how to run a household). You can also find amusing optical toys and mechanisms that were the forerunners of cinema.
First floor (Doll Kingdom). This floor is a dream for those who loved dolls as children. Here you will find real masterpieces – dollhouses. The most valuable exhibit is a luxurious bourgeois house with fully furnished rooms, tiny dishes, and furniture. Such houses were not toys but symbols of family status. Also here is a collection of dolls from all eras – from wax to porcelain and celluloid. Toy grocery stores, shops, and confectioneries, crafted with filigree precision, deserve special attention.
Second floor (World of Metal and Technology). Here begins the realm of technical thought. Here is the world`s largest collection of the famous Lehmann toys. These are wind-up cars, figures of people and animals, set in motion by a tiny clockwork mechanism. It was Nuremberg that became the capital of tinplate toys in the 19th century. You will also see a huge model railway, covering about 30 square meters. Steam locomotives, carriages, signals, and tiny stations move and whistle – it is a mesmerizing sight.
Third floor (Modernity). The journey ends with an acquaintance with the familiar heroes of the 20th and 21st centuries. Here dwell thousands of Lego, Playmobil, Barbie dolls, and old teddy bears. This floor shows how toys became truly mass-produced and multimedia.
What can you do at the Nuremberg Toy Museum?
Unlike many classical museums, you need to come here with a desire to play.
• First, there is a play area. On the first floor, there is an area where young visitors (and their parents) can take a break from the display cases and play with modern wooden building sets or just roll cars around.
• Second, light and shadow (Schattenspiel). In the historic cellars, there is a "Shadow Labyrinth" zone, where lighting is used to create magical fantasy worlds.
• Third, a children`s playground. During the warm season, an open playground operates right in the museum`s inner courtyard.
Important details for the guidebook
Even the most carefree museums in Nuremberg hold reminders of complex history. The museum`s collection is naive only at first glance. The exhibition makes you think about how toys reflect not only joys but also the fears of society.
In the display cases, you can find tin soldiers from the First and Second World Wars, which changed the appearance of armies in the toy world. Some dolls and toys from the early 20th century may seem a bit eerie to the modern viewer, and certain exhibits from the colonial era reflect the racial prejudices of their time. The museum does not hide these facts but openly shows how society changed and learned humanity.
Tip: Upon entering the museum, pay attention to the wall where, in several languages (including English and German), a heartfelt declaration of love for toys is written. There is a phrase there: "Toys are a feeling. Toys are love and memory... Adults also love toys for the memories they hold."
The Nuremberg Toy Museum is not only about childhood but also about art. Look at the porcelain faces of 19th-century dolls, at the filigree painting of toy furniture, at the complex mechanisms of wind-up figures. All of this was created by the hands of craftsmen who invested no less talent into their products than sculptors invested in marble statues. It is just that their material was not clay or stone, but tinplate, wood, and fabric. Toys from Nuremberg were valued on a par with jewelry. Go up to the second floor – and you will understand why.
