The Germanisches Nationalmuseum has received an impressive addition to its toy collection: Alfred R. Sulzer's unique and high-quality Swiss pewter figure collection with over 145,000 pieces. Selected highlights from the collection are presented in the Microworlds exhibition.
The figures on display were mainly produced as children's toys between 1750 and the end of the First World War. The most important production sites were Nuremberg and Fürth. Around 40 million pieces from this center found their way onto the national and international market around 1900.
The exhibition is divided into twelve sections: From production and distribution, to scenes of everyday life (with many exquisite pieces, such as the Arc de Triomphe made of pewter)
to media events and aspects of cultural history. The toys show how contemporary history was prepared for children's worlds and provide exciting insights into the contradictory and rapidly changing worlds of the 19th century on the way to the globalized modern age.