Tin toys in the Aschenbrenner: Karl Bürger has a passion for mechanical toys

Created: 08/12/2022, 09:00

By: Margot Schäfer

Museum director Karin Teufl with collector and lender Karl Bürger.

© Meggy Schaefer

GAP - "Tin toys - Let's move" is the title of the new special exhibition in the Marianne Aschenbrenner Museum.

A continuation of the first exhibits by the Munich collector Karl Bürger, which were shown in 2017.

A world of toys that fits perfectly into the Christmas season and is guaranteed to make the eyes of visitors big and small light up.

"This time I brought 200 of the 1,500 objects I have not shown here to Garmisch-Partenkirchen," reveals the 68-year-old.

As a math student, he and a friend started repairing broken, mechanical tinplate toys to earn a few extra marks.

"We were skilled.

Word got around,” he recalls.

It has long since turned into a passion that has allowed him, with the support of his wife Marianne, to build up one of the highest quality collections in Europe.

His trained eye and the knowledge he had acquired in the meantime helped to locate rare pieces from innovative toy manufacturers at flea markets and later on e-Bay and auctions.

After 1960, as is well known, plastic increasingly replaced tinplate.

Until then, companies like Schuco, Märklin, Günthermann, Lehmann or Stock played an important role in the toy industry and in export.

And yet the fascination of collectors for the tin figures, cars, flying objects and trains that honk, squeak and move remains unbroken.

After all, up to six functions can be activated by winding a spring.

"What an inventive spirit!

Craftsmanship, technology and art come together here, and what a love of detail there is,” enthuses Bürger, pointing to his oldest, amusing exhibit from 1870: a dwarf pulling a barrel with a woman stuck in it.

Meanwhile, construction continues in the special exhibition room.

Boxes are carefully unpacked, the showcases and tables are filled.

“Mr Bürger has now specialized in the figurative field.

His collection is absolutely unique,” ​​says the specialist.

And there is another treat: the collector has shot small spots that show the figures in action, along with their props and vehicles, and run non-stop to the exhibition.

All this not only amazes, but contemporary history is also documented here.

A museum-pedagogical accompanying program offers the opportunity to talk to the lender himself and to have one's own tin toys appraised.

The youngest are on December 17th.

invited to the Christmas workshop and original tin toys can be bought in the museum shop.

From December 7, 2022 to April 16, 2023, the special exhibition can be seen at Loisachstraße 44.

It is open Tuesday to Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Further information: www.museum-aschenbrenner.de